Gingrich: ‘CNN is less biased than Fox’
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich accused Fox News of being more biased than CNN on April 11, 2012, stating that the news channel had supported rival candidate Mitt Romney all along.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich lambasted Fox News during a private meeting on Wednesday, according to Real Clear Politics.
During a meeting with 18 Delaware Tea Party leaders, Gingrich said, "I think Fox has been for Romney all the way through."
He said, "In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact," according to Real Clear Politics.
Gingrich, who was a contributor for Fox until he began his presidential run, accused Rupert Murdoch, the powerful chairman and CEO of News Corp., of being behind the favoritism.
"I assume it’s because Murdoch at some point [who] said, ‘I want Romney,’ and so ‘fair and balanced’ became ‘Romney.' And there’s no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches Fox," he said, according to Real Clear Politics.
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The Huffington Post noted that Gingrich's comments were similar to Rick Santorum, who only recently suspended his presidential campaign and was also a Fox News contributor in the past. Santorum was much more direct and told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, "[Romney] has Fox News shilling for him every day — no offense, Brian, but I see it."
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However, The Atlantic Wire noted that Fox News was one of the "few safe harbors" for Gingrich and one of the most important endorsements for his campaign was during Fox News' programming.
According to Media Matters' data on air time and appearances, Gingrich was the undisputed winner on Fox News with more than 12 hours and 85 appearances between June 2011 and January 2012.
Even so, Gingrich said, "They know I don’t care about their opinions. I don’t go to their cocktail parties. I don’t go to their Christmas parties. The only press events I go to are interesting dinners when the wife insists on it, so we’re going to go to the White House Correspondents' dinner because she wants to. And we’re actually going to go to CNN’s table, not Fox."
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