Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax got solidly behind Newt Gingrich in Iowa, from essentially endorsing him to buying airtime in the state for a half-hour informercial for him to insisting his fourth-place finish was a wonderful thing.
For New Hampshire, Newsmax has become less aggressive in its support for Gingrich and more focused on bashing front-runner Mitt Romney.
Opportunities for Newsmax to buy airtime for its Gingrich informercial are limited because essentially all of the available TV airtime in the state was spoken for well before the votes in Iowa were counted.
A Jan. 8 article by Tim Collie features an "exclusive interview" with Joe McQuaid, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, which endorsed Gingrich. McQuaid not only touted the paper's Gingrich endorsement but argued that Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry "soon may have to muster their forces and unite behind one conservative to challenge GOP frontrunner and moderate Mitt Romney."
A Jan. 8 column by Newsmax editor Christopher Ruddy criticized Romney for lacking vision while touting Gingrich being a "visionary":
Newt Gingrich is not so much charismatic as he is a visionary. In fact, he’s a born visionary; his head is a virtual popcorn maker of ideas. This vision stuff — Gingrich talks incessantly about American exceptionalism — excites people.
When he visited Staten Island, N.Y., to accept the endorsement of its former Congressman Vito Fossella, Gingrich electrified the crowd of nearly 800 that turned out for the appearance, according to a local newspaper. This is in a New York City borough.
Ruddy didn't mention that Fossella -- whom Newsmax has tried to rehabitate -- left office in disgrace after a DUI arrest led to the revelation that Fossella had a mistress in Washington and fathered a child with her, making an endorsement from him less than wonderful.
Newsmax also had a weird nexus of its preferred candidates in a Jan. 6 article nothing that former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum had signed on as chairman of Gingrich's campaign in Florida. Newsmax endorsed McCollum, and Ruddy raised money for him, in the 2010 Republican primary for Florida governor. McCollum lost, after which Newsmax flip-flopped and endorsed his victorious rival, Rick Scott.
