Ruddy, Chris newsmax

poster boy for misinfo since the newsletter days?!

see Newsmax

scaife is partner/funder, exlipse drudge, limbaugh?!

FOB?!

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Judd Legum and Noel Sims @ Popular Info: Meta will train its AI on far-right media outlet

This week, Newsmax — a far-right news organization with a strong allegiance to President Trump and a history of pushing wild conspiracy theories — announced it had struck a deal with Meta. Under the agreement, Meta will “draw upon Newsmax’s significant current reporting as well as archived content across its platforms to support AI queries across Meta’s apps and devices.” Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said the company was “pleased to work with Meta to help ensure users have access to timely, high-quality journalism through AI technologies.”

RWW 7 26

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NOTE TOM SNYDER ON LOCAL MEDIA

an 11 25

Two powerful groups of media executives very friendly to President Donald Trump are currently embroiled in a fight that puts FCC chair Brendan Carr in an awkward position, reports Politico's John Hendel.

"The nation’s largest TV station owners want Carr’s Federal Communications Commission to loosen the rules that limit how many stations a single company can operate, a goal that many conservatives have been pressing for years," Hendel writes.

These owners, however, have a "formidable opponent in Trump confidant Chris Ruddy, the majority owner of Newsmax Media, who wants to keep the rules in place and now appears to be making headway with the president," he explains.

Trump took to Truth Social Sunday to demonstrate that headway, Hendel notes.

"NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS,” Trump wrote, "echoing Ruddy’s argument that removing the ownership cap would hurt conservatives," Hendel explains.

“If anything, make them SMALLER!” Trump added.

Carr, Hendel writes, "has shown a knack for disruptive, MAGA-pleasing culture-war moves, like his public upbraiding of comedian Jimmy Kimmel and accusing '60 Minutes' of being unfriendly to conservatives," but now he's conflicted.

"Carr has signaled he may want to change the 21-year-old limit on TV station ownership, which was intended to prevent any one broadcaster from too much power over what Americans see on television," Hendel explains. "Loosening the ownership rule would allow right-leaning companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group to expand."

Large TV station owners are hitting a growth limit, Hendel writes, so "a larger cap would give more power to station owners — seen by many conservatives as an ideological counterweight to the mainstream national networks that control TV programming."

Newsmax's Ruddy, however, is standing in the way, Hendel says.

"Ruddy is trying to block any change, arguing that the cap — which limits a broadcaster’s reach to 39 percent of U.S. households — preserves the right market balance between TV broadcasters and cable outlets, and allows a greater mix of voices," he writes.

“It’s not going to work,” Ruddy tells Politico. "The president doesn’t want this, and so I have no doubt that he will not support the FCC going to extraordinary but potentially illegal lengths.”

Joining Ruddy is Charles Herring, president of the pro-Trump One America News Network (OANN) cable channel, who, Hendel writes, "shares a marketplace wariness of TV station owners gobbling up too much power."

“Independent [and] diverse voices will disappear,” wrote Herring in an X post.

Under Trump, this has turned "into a political tug-of-war and an influence battle between big names on the right," Hendel says.

Former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer recently wrote an op-ed in right-wing outlet The Daily Caller in which he argued that Carr should lift the cap.

“Conservatives who believe in free enterprise should not be vocally encouraging Big Brother to continue barring broadcast TV companies like Sinclair and Nexstar from competing in the free market,” argued Spicer, a contributor to Nexstar’s cable network NewsNation.

Nexstar, Hendel notes, is "trying to usher through a $6.2 billion deal to buy rival station owner Tegna, a merger that would only be possible if Carr relaxes the cap. The new company would operate 265 TV stations, reaching more than half the country."

Ruddy, however, says "that the FCC is working to go against the interests of the president and his supporters — and really against most consumers.”

“We have a history of big companies going in and giving conservative think tanks money to do reports and stand on issues,” Ruddy adds “And it’s not working.”

Through all this, Trump "is being pulled in both directions on an issue he cares a great deal about: what’s on television," he writes.

“If this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge,’ I would not be happy,” Trump wrote.

"That will likely give broadcasters and their conservative allies room to try to counter Ruddy’s narrative — and some are already casting the issue accordingly," Hendel explains.

On Monday, Nexstar said that "Americans want more access to local news and a variety of voices without the filter of the coastal elites."

For now, the person truly stuck in the middle is Carr.

"Carr’s path to lifting the cap is uncertain, and his own staff say they’re likely to end up in court over the issue. Detractors don’t even believe the agency has the authority to unleash this consolidation at all, saying it’s a matter for Congress," Hendel says.

"We haven’t made a final decision there yet,” Carr told Politico on Nov. 18. “I continue to be very open minded.”

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mma 2 23 even wsj...

If you’ve been paying attention to this asinine saga at all – and let’s hope for your sanity that’s not the case – you know that Newsmax, with its prior contract with DirecTV having run out, is suddenly demanding a massive pay-out from DirecTV. Newsmax is still providing the channel for free to the likes of YouTube, Roku, and more. Given that the contract had expired and a new agreement could not be reached, DirecTV pulled Newsmax from the air. It began airing The First, another right-wing cable network.

Despite all the indications that the end of the contract was a content-neutral decision by a company under siege from rising cord cutting among its customer base (not to mention having lost the NFL Sunday Ticket), Republican politicians have joined in with right-wing pundits to call this censorship. There have been talks of congressional hearings. Presidential candidates have weighed in. It’s one of the silliest big right-wing media stories since Breitbart broke the news of Obama giving a hug to one of his law school professors.

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy played the hits in an interview with Mike Huckabee. If you don’t want to watch – and again, I do not recommend it – it starts with Huckabee endorsing a congressional investigation into DirecTV and Ruddy in turn saying that Mike Huckabee’s daughter – current Arkansas governor and former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – will be president in the future [vid]

the interview carries on with Ruddy saying that he was just asking for $1 per subscriber per year. That would be on the upper range of subscriber fees overall (above the likes of CNBC, FX, and Nickelodeon according to 2020 data) and would result in a higher bill for consumers, all of whom could right now access Newsmax content at no cost elsewhere.

Notably, DirecTV is not standing idly by. The company pushed back in a letter to Republican senators who have echoed Newsmax’s disingenuous “censorship” angle. The letter reads in part:

• When DIRECTV’s prior agreement with Newsmax was set to expire, Newsmax advised us that it would extend our right to distribute the channel only if we agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars in new licensing fees – a cost we would have to pass along to all of our customers. We did not agree. No other major pay TV operator in the market currently pays per subscriber fees to carry the channel.

• Newsmax seeks to change the model by which it commercializes its channel. To date, Newsmax has been an advertising-supported channel. To maximize ad sales it distributes the channel free of charge to the approximately 75 million US households that have a pay TV service as well as to the approximately 55 million US households that don’t and instead view the channel on Newsmax’s website or through services like Roku and Amazon Fire. Under its proposed new model, Newsmax plans to make its channel available exclusively in pay TV, to the detriment of the 55 million households that don’t have a pay TV service, and to start charging pay TV operators a per subscriber fee to distribute the channel.

• Newsmax insisted on its terms – as is its right to do – and we insisted on ours. Lacking continued authorization to distribute Newsmax, DIRECTV was forced to remove the channel from our lineup.

• Although not currently available on DIRECTV, Newsmax continues to be available on most other major pay TV operators and is also available free of charge (including to DIRECTV’s customers) on Newsmax’s website and on platforms like Roku and Amazon Fire.

• Newsmax’s claims that DIRECTV is biased against conservative voices is untrue. Importantly, DIRECTV recently launched The First, a conservative news and commentary channel featuring Bill O’Reilly, Jesse Kelly, Liz Wheeler, and Dana Loesch, among others.

• DIRECTV carries five channels that most people would consider to be predominately news: Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, The First and NewsNation. By most people’s measure, two lean conservative (Fox News and The First), two lean liberal (CNN and MSNBC) and one is a new channel that is advertising that it is news focused and in the center (NewsNation). Fox News is by far the leader in terms of audience and household penetration. Newsmax, when we distributed it, was a distant fourth among news channels to Fox, MSNBC and CNN.

• The amounts DIRECTV pays for conservative channels, in the aggregate, is roughly similar to what we pay for liberal channels, in the aggregate.

The company makes clear that its decision was made from a content-neutral perspective. (It is darkly hilarious that the only structural discrimination that right-wing figures can see is a far-right election-denying media company run by a friend of Donald Trump not getting a massive handout from another private company, but that’s a story for another time.)

Newsmax has repeatedly whined that Fox News was being silent about the matter. Now, even the opinion page of the Murdoch-owned WSJ is taking pot shots at Republican politicians falling for the charade:

We take no side in this business dispute, and it’s bewildering why many Republicans are getting involved. Forty-two House Republicans last month wrote a letter to DirecTV executives and its joint owners, AT&T and TPG, threatening to investigate the TV provider for colluding with the government to suppress conservative voices.

Sens. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee and Tom Cotton piled on this month with a letter suggesting DirecTV may have dropped Newsmax because of “pressure from administration officials or Democrats in Congress” and “may be the latest example of big business suppressing politically disfavored speech at the behest of liberal Democrats.”

Their evidence? A letter from Democratic Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney to AT&T CEO John Stankey last February calling for the company to combat misinformation spread by conservative news networks. A letter from two Democratic Congress Members, which was also sent to other TV providers, doesn’t add up to a vast leftwing conspiracy. The Fox News channel, where these pages have a news program, is also a Democratic target.

DirecTV notes that it helped launch Newsmax in 2014 and recently launched the new conservative channel called “The First,” which will increase diversity and competition among conservative voices. Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy doesn’t want that. Instead, he is trying to bring political and government pressure to bear on DirecTV to force the satellite operator to carry the channel on Newsmax’s terms.

(First, a footnote about cable providers and Fox News: Fox News Channel has one of the highest carriage fees in the business, way out of line for what cable providers pay other networks. It’s so high thatFox News would remain profitable even with no advertising.)

It’s unclear where this story will go from here. There’s nothing that goes viral on the right like victimhood, and they simply cannot start examining those claims too closely given how many of them are snake oil. In the meantime, there’s no evidence that either consumers or DirecTV itself are the least bit intimidated by any of this. After all, it’s just another grift.

j6 ch 2

...2.2 The Plan Emerges

More than a month before the Presidential election, the media reported that the Trump Campaign was already developing a fallback plan that would focus on overturning certain election results at the State level. An article published on September 23, 2020, in The Atlantic explained, “[a]ccording to sources in the Republican Party at the State and national levels, the Trump Campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground States where Republicans hold the legislative majority.” 15 Ominously, the same reporting predicted, almost exactly, what would later come to pass: “With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask State legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly.” 16

Numerous senior Trump Campaign advisors—including Campaign Manager William Stepien, Deputy Campaign Manager and Senior Counsel Justin Clark, and President Trump’s lead attorney Rudolph Giuliani—all told the Select Committee that there was, indeed, a State-focused “strategy” or “track” to challenge the outcome of the election, which included pressing State legislators to challenge results in key States and to appoint new electoral college electors.17

“You know, in the days after election day, later in that first week, bleeding into the second, as our numbers and data looked bleaker, internally we knew that,” Stepien told the Select Committee.18 “As the AP [Associated Press] called the race, I think some surrounding the President were looking for different avenues to pursue.” That’s when Stepien remembered the concept first coming up.19

Those around President Trump were pushing this idea, and pushing it hard.

Just two days after the election, President Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., forwarded to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a suggestion that “State Assemblies can step in and vote to put forward the electoral slate[,] Republicans control Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, etc. we get Trump electors” and so “we either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January . . .” 20 Chief of Staff Meadows responded: “Working on this for pa, ga and nc already.” 21

Within one week after the election, Meadows had also sent or received several other similar messages:

“The state legislature can take over the electoral process”—Mark Meadows’s text to Georgia State Senator Marty Harbin.22

“Agreed”—Mark Meadows’s text to a different sender, who suggested that the Trump Administration “should get that out there” if they were “seriously considering the state legislature strategy.” 23

“I will tell him”—Mark Meadows’s text to a sender who suggested President Trump “[s]tart building momentum for the state legislatures.” 24

“I love it”—Mark Meadows’s text to Representative Andy Biggs, who relayed what he acknowledged as a “highly controversial” idea to have “Republican legislature’s (sic)” “appoint a look doors (sic) [electors].” 25

“. . . Why can’t the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors… I wonder if POTUS knows this . . .”—former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to Mark Meadows.26

Another White House official exploring such a plan less than a week after the election wasVince Haley, Deputy Assistant to the President for Policy, Strategy and Speechwriting. He suggested:

“. . . Imagine if every red state legislature slated zero electors. It would reveal that we are a red country. To do this we would have to jack this to the nth degree as a battle of tribes . . . .” 27

Haley pushed this strategy in several texts and emails, including to Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel Johnny McEntee,28 an individual Haley characterized as “a very trusted lieutenant” for President Trump, “a direct conveyor to Boss with ideas,” and “[a]t his side almost all the time.” 29

For Haley, however, purported election fraud was a way to justify President Trump-friendly legislatures changing the outcome of the election, but there were other reasons for doing so, too. Election fraud was “only one rationale for slating Trump electors,” Haley told McEntee, and “[w]e should baldly assert” that State legislators “have the constitutional right to substitute their judgment for a certified majority of their constituents” if that prevents socialism.30

Haley added, “[i]ndependent of the fraud—or really along with that argument—Harrisburg [Pennsylvania], Madison [Wisconsin], and Lansing [Michigan] do not have to sit idly by and submit themselves to rule by Beijing and Paris,” proposing that radio hosts “rally the grassroots to apply pressure to the weak kneed legislators in those states . . .” 31

McEntee replied “Yes!” and then: “Let’s find the contact info for all these people now.” 32 Hours later, Haley sent him names and—in most cases—cell phone numbers for top GOP legislators in six States, suggesting “. . . for POTUS to invite them down for a WH meeting . . .” 33 The President would later call several named in that message, including Rusty Bowers and Karen Fann in Arizona; Lee Chatfield and Mike Shirkey in Michigan; and Jake Corman in Pennsylvania.34

Others weighed in with the President about a State-focused plan, too. Some were already looking ahead to January 6th.

On November 8th, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich met President Trump at the White House.35 Two days later, he sent a follow-up note to the President’s executive assistant titled “please give to POTUS[,] newt.” 36 It suggested that “[t]he only way Trump loses is rigged system” and added that President Trump could encourage “GOP legislatures elect not to send in electors,” forcing a House vote by State delegations on January 6th that Gingrich expected President Trump would win.37 Meadows replied: “Thanks Speaker.” 38

Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddyhad President Trump’s ear and reportedly spoke with him by phone at least four times before December.39 He forwarded a memo to other close advisors of the President recommending that the Trump team persuade one or more Republican-led chambers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even Minnesota to “pick a separate competitive State slate of Electors,” which the memo predicted might turn January 6th into “a cat-fight in Congress wherein VP Pence is Presiding.” 40

Attorney and conservative activist Cleta Mitchell was recruited by Mark Meadowsimmediately after the election to assist the Trump Campaign’s legal work.41 By November 5th, she emailed Dr. John Eastman of Chapman University,42 who would later play an outsized role pushing a theory about what Vice President Pence could or couldn’t do during the January 6th joint session of Congress that is detailed in Chapter 5 of this Report. In her email, Mitchell asked Eastman to write a memo justifying an idea that State legislators “reclaim” the power to pick electors and asked, rhetorically, “Am I crazy?” 43 Dr. Eastman wrote the memo, entitled “The Constitutional Authority of State Legislatures to Choose Electors,” and sent it along for sharing “widely.” 44

see greg kelly who calls his show opinion to justify open support of trump but also deflects need to be true?

https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmax-ceo-defends-conspiracy-theories-peddled-network-were-not-saying-our-hosts-are

an1120

‘Do you feel embarrassed?’ Journalist Mehdi Hasan grills Newsmax CEO on why he airs claim COVID is a ‘scam

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/pro-trump-newsmax-ceo-admits-to-spreading-false-information-about-the-election-because-its-great-for-ratings/

alexh

Furious because Fox News' decision desk called Arizona for former Vice President Joe Biden on Election Night, President Donald Trump has been angrily railing against the right-wing cable news outlet and encouraging his supporters to watch Newsmax TV or One America News instead — and Newsmax TV has been enjoying a post-election ratings surge by going out of its way to be more Trumpian than Fox News or Fox Business. The New Yorker's Isaac Chotiner discussed, among other things, Newsmax's post-election success during an interview with Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy. And Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake is noting that Ruddy, during the interview, basically admitted that Newsmax has been promoting Trump's bogus voter fraud claims without even investigating them.

During the interview, Ruddy indicated to Chotiner that he didn't necessarily believe all of Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud. But the Newsmax CEO acknowledged that promoting them has been great for ratings.

Ruddy told Chotiner, "At the end of the day, it's great for news. The news cycle is red-hot, and Newsmax is getting one million people per minute, according to Nielsen, tuning into Newsmax TV. I think it's good."

Chotiner told Ruddy, "Look, you're a smart guy. You were defending things that you might not a hundred percent believe. But the attention this is getting Newsmax, and what it's doing for the news business, is maybe where I should be focusing my questions, rather than the intricacies of the vote count." And the Newsmax CEO responded, "Well, I would never do something that I thought was wrong or untrue. I didn't create the news cycle, Isaac. Donald Trump did. He created this whole thing. He could have accepted the (election) results, but I'm saying, 'Look at the amazing stuff that's done for the news business.' People are more interested."

Blake, in response to that interview, voiced some blistering criticism of Ruddy:

Yeesh. At end of this @IChotiner interview, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy basically admits that credulously broadcasting… https://t.co/9Psf3wqD3X

— Aaron Blake (@Aaron Blake)1606225084.0

@IChotiner I mean, this is basically: Q: Shouldn't you actually investigate stuff first? A: Sure, but we can also… https://t.co/paG7qk0PqA

— Aaron Blake (@Aaron Blake)1606225205.0

During the interview with Chotiner, Ruddy compared Trump's refusal to accept the election results to Bush v. Gore — which, after the 2000 presidential election, found the campaigns of then-Vice President Al Gore and then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in a bitter fight over who won Florida (Gore eventually conceded). And Chotiner explained why the Trump/Gore comparison is nonsense, telling Ruddy, "Well, (Trump is) not saying, 'We want a recount.' He's tweeting that he won and that there's massive voter fraud, and both of these things are false."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Will Newsmax mogul Chris Ruddy run for U.S. Senate? Maybe. Maybe not.

'You never say never," said Chris Ruddy, a 46-year-old media entrepreneur, when asked if he'd run for U.S. Senate.

In giving his answer, the founder of the wildly successful conservative Newsmax was channelling his best Jeb Bush, who refused to all but rule out a presidential bid on Sean Hannity's FOX show a few days back. Remember: Bush said appearing on Dancing with the Stars was not unlikely, either. And neither Bush nor Ruddy are ready to tango with voters.

"I'd say it's unlikely," Ruddy said of a run. Conservative attack dog Roger Stone (who favors another millionaire, Nick Loeb) reported on Twitter that Ruddy, though, is still considering the bid. True. Ruddy wouldn't rule out a run for some public office, either this year or in the future.

Here's a big reason why: Tony Fabrizio might be in Ruddy's corner. Fabrizio, mastermind behind Gov. Rick Scott's improbable 2010 victory, was spotted dining with Ruddy at Macaluso's in South Beach on Friday. It's the same Italian restaurant where Fabrizio had a sit-down with Scottand his family before he decided to make the plunge.

Unlike Scott, Ruddy wouldn't come to the race with the baggage of bad press clips. In fact, Ruddy used to produce them about President Bill Clinton and the like when he wrote for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. He's also probably not as wealthy as Scott, but Ruddy likely has millions. And it could cost about $25 million for him to win a Senate seat. He'd have to best Republican frontrunners Adam Hasner and George LeMieux and then take on incumbent Bill Nelson, a Democrat.

Like Scott, Ruddy's a political newcomer. So he doesn't have a record like Hasner's vote to raise taxes in 2009 or LeMieux's "I'm a Charlie Crist Republican" legacy.

But Ruddy also has a growing media empireto run. Newsmax has become one of the most influential publications in conservative circles. It even considered buying Newsweek. Ruddy was backing Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos for Senate before he withdrew from the race earlier this month.

Ruddy and Loeb aren't the only newcomers whispered about in Republican circles. Peter Schiff, a financial guru who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Connecticut last year, was rumored to be considering a bid as well. His spokesman and brother, Andrew Schiff, threw cold water on the idea. Schiff was one of the first voices on cable to predict with chilling accuracy the recession click here to watch him make Art Laffer look clueless on the economy /maxresdefault.jpg)).

Schiff has a home in Boca Raton. Loeb has a home in Delray Beach. Hasner is from Delray, too. And Ruddy lives in West Palm Beach. What's in the water in Palm Beach County?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/business/media/newsmax-a-compass-for-conservative-politics.html?_r=0

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Without the soupy South Florida humidity and the fastidiously clipped lawn, the Newsmax headquarters here would be a lot like one of those diners in New Hampshire and Iowa where autographed pictures of politicians cover the walls.

But in those pictures, instead of a short-order cook, the smiling proprietor standing next to Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and Haley Barbour is Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of the small but influential media company that has established itself as a potent force in conservative politics.

Newsmax, the magazine and Web site that Mr. Ruddy founded more than a decade ago, is the right-wing populist’s Time or Newsweek. With a paid circulation of 230,000, the magazine reaches more homes than The Weekly Standard or National Review, two of the higher brow pillars of American conservatism, by offering what Mr. Ruddy says is “news that Americans in the heartland would like to see.”

He and his editors mix cover pieces with articles like “The Jesus Question: Will He Ever Return” and “Heartland Warrior: Michele Bachmann’s Passionate Stand for American Values” alongside items about Ann Coulter’s decision to turn down “Dancing With the Stars.”

Among news sites that draw large conservative audiences, onlyFoxNews.com has more visitors, according to Nielsen, and Newsmax’s e-mail alerts go out daily to 3.2 million people.

“I think we’re part of the conversation,” Mr. Ruddy, 46, said in an interview, dropping the names of conservative stalwarts who have paid their respects to Newsmax. “That’s why Boehner — I met with him when he was down here.”

And: “Trump realized this,” Mr. Ruddy insisted. “He realized the power of Newsmax. We sort of gave him legitimacy.”

Continue reading the main story

And: “Rush has mentioned Newsmax many times through the years. Many, many times over the years.”

Republicans have good reason to want to reach Newsmax’s audience. According to an outside survey of magazine readers, 55 percent of Newsmax readers have made political donations. The average donation amount was $2,930.

“Every major Republican committee has advertised at one point or another using our e-mails or Web sites,” he said as Fox News played at a low volume on a large flat-screen television a few feet away. “We’re really the 800-pound gorilla if you want to reach Republican donors in the country. We’ve got the list.”

Mr. Ruddy’s path to Republican power player is an unlikely one. He does not declare a party on his Florida voter registration. He has sharply criticized George W. Bush’s execution of the war in Iraq and praised Bill Clinton’s presidency, despite having helped sow some of the conspiracy theories around the suicide of Vince Foster, a former Clinton aide, with his 1997 book “The Strange Death of Vince Foster” (Simon & Schuster/Free Press).

Mr. Clinton and Mr. Ruddy have since had a rapprochement, and Newsmax even put the former president on the cover in 2007 with the headline “He’s Back!”

An autographed copy hangs on the wall in Mr. Ruddy’s office with a note from Mr. Clinton that reads, “I hope this doesn’t destroy your circulation.”

“Chris is a masterful networker,” said Cable Neuhaus, Newsmax’s creative director. “He never stops talking to people on the phone or sending them notes. And over time that has paid dividends. He just keeps networking.”

Phot

Newsmax’s success — it brought in $52 million in revenue last year, up from $34 million the year before — in large part lies in the way Mr. Ruddy has leveraged his politically plugged-in, over-50 audience. Want to reach potential donors directly in their in-boxes? For around $30,000, political campaigns can rent Newsmax’s list, giving them in effect a direct conduit to a large swath of the Republican base. Newsmax will then send “special messages” from sponsors like Mrs. Bachmann and Rand Paul that allow recipients to donate directly to a candidate’s campaign committee.

“You click on it if you’re a fan of hers, and then you donate,” Mr. Ruddy said in his office in West Palm Beach. “We are the No. 1 leader in this field for candidates and committees.”

Want to move copies of your political memoir? Newsmax will do that directly through its Web site, as it has for Ms. Palin. Copies of “Going Rogue” and “America by Heart” have been offered free with new Newsmax subscriptions. People on the Newsmax list also frequently receive sales pitches from makers of weight loss supplements, retirement planning specialists and companies that cater to people of faith, like one recently called Medi-Share, a health care cooperative that bills itself “for Christians who want their health care dollars to help fellow believers.”

And every major Republican presidential hopeful has granted an interview to Newsmax — almost all of them making the pilgrimage to West Palm Beach to meet with Mr. Ruddy and pose for the obligatory photo. At a news planning meeting recently, editors gathered in a conference room and talked about a recent interview one of their reporters, David A. Patten, had conducted with Mrs. Bachmann. The conversation shifted to another rising Republican presidential hopeful, Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor.

“He wants to visit Newsmax,” the editorial director, Steve Coz, interjected. “They’re definitely coming through.”

Dick Armey, one of the many leading conservatives who writes an occasional column for Newsmax, said his articles always drew notice.

“That’s the audience that I want to talk to,” he said. “I run into it all the time around the country: ‘Oh, I saw your piece in Newsmax.’ ”

It wasn’t always this way.

“Five years ago we would have been privileged to have a South Florida mayoral candidate drive by the building and nod,” Mr. Neuhaus said.

After graduating from the London School of Economics, Mr. Ruddy briefly taught high school in the Bronx and served as an official in the United Federation of Teachers, the union routinely demonized by conservative politicians and commentators.

He edited The New York Guardian, a conservative alternative monthly, before being hired by The New York Post in 1993 as an investigative reporter, where he pursued the Vince Foster case. He wanted to pursue the Foster story further; his editors felt differently. So he left The Post. The conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife hired him for the right-wing Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in 1995.

He branched out on his own to start Newsmax in 1998 after seeing how the Internet, particularly the Drudge Report, had helped drive the story of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. A friend, Bernadette Casey, daughter of a former Reagan associate, William J. Casey,helped provide $25,000 in seed money.

The staff is now 140 people, large enough to have overtaken several floors in their West Palm Beach office complex. Newsmax’s online offerings have expanded into Web video and separate Web sites for financial news and health tips.

Its circulation is growing, a rarity among magazines. Mr. Ruddy credits that partly to the gifts it offers with subscriptions, like an emergency world band radio and a Reagan-themed deck of cards featuring quotes from the former president. The jokers have quotes from Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.

“We’re a business,” he said unapologetically, “not an ideology.”

Christopher Ruddy and NewsMax

Christopher Ruddy came to prominence through his reporting work on the death of Vince Foster and other alleged Clinton administration scandals for the New York Post and the Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In 1997, Mr. Ruddy authored the book "The Strange Death of Vincent Foster." Also in 1997, Ruddy and Pat Matrisciana, producer of the anti-Clinton videotape "The Clinton Chronicles," worked together on a videotape titled "The 60 Minutes Deception," a counterattack on the TV show and its correspondent Mike Wallace for debunking Ruddy's views on Foster's death. Accuracy in Media help to pay for the video's production costs. Matrisciana and Ruddy held a joint bank account that at one point contained roughly $3 million, according to Joe Conason and Gene Lyons in their book "The Hunting of the President." Not long after the "60 Minutes" video was released, Ruddy started a newsletter called Vortex, later followed by the creation of NewsMax. Vortex later grew into NewsMax magazine.

NewsMax, headquartered in West Palm Beach, Fla., but incorporated in Nevada, operates under the parent company NewsMax Media Inc. The business model of NewsMax is based on "an integrated approach between online and offline publishing and direct sales." NewsMax's corporate shell was formerly known as Sequoia Digital Corp. NewsMax calls itself a "major news portal," as well as "one of America’s leading sources of balanced news coverage." It claims its print magazine has a paid readership of 240,000, but it told the Securities and Exchange Commission in a prospectus for a proposed public stock offering filed in March 2002 that the paid circulation was 59,395. (A November 2005 article reported that audited circulation was 102,695.) Ruddy said at the end of 2000 total investment in the company was "less than $10 million," and the company became profitable in November 2000, though the SEC filing details that NewsMax has lost nearly $11 million from its founding in 1998 through the end of 2001 and had yet to turn a profit. NewsMax withdrew the proposed IPO in 2003. Ruddy is the largest shareholder of NewsMax Media; Richard Mellon Scaife is the third-largest shareholder.

NewsMax Media, which Ruddy called "a mix between an online content site and a direct marketer," which has approximately 50 employees, raised $15 million from unnamed private investors in 2003; that same year, it expected to reach $8 million in sales revenue and was part of a group that purchased the West Palm Beach building where its headquarters are located for $8.55 million. in 2002, NewsMax forged a book-publishing joint venture agreement with the Prima Forum (now Crown Forum) imprint of Random House.

NewsMax also operates a financial news website, MoneyNews.com, and a companion subscription-only financial newsletter, the Financial Intelligence Report.

Ruddy, according to his NewsMax biography, is a media fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from St. John's University in New York and a master's degree in public policy from the London School of Economics.

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/primer.html

wiki

Christopher Ruddy is the CEO of Newsmax Media which publishes Newsmax.com and broadcasts the Newsmax TV network. In April 2010, media-industry magazine Folio named Ruddy to its "FOLIO 40", an "annual list of magazine industry influencers and innovators".^[1] A prominent conservative, he was an early donor to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.^[2]

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Background

Ruddy grew up on Long Island, New York, where his father was a decorated police officer in Nassau County.^[3] He graduated fromChaminade High School in Mineola, New York before graduatingsumma cum laude with a degree in history from St. John's University, New York in 1987.^[4][5] He earned a master's degree in public policy from the London School of Economics^[4] and also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[6] He worked briefly as a bilingual high school social studies teacher in the Bronx, New York.^[7] Ruddy holds an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from St. John's University.^[8]

Early in his career, Ruddy was editor-in-chief of a conservative monthly periodical known as the New York Guardian.^[9] While with the Guardian, Ruddy gained notice for debunking a story in the PBS documentaryLiberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II that an all-black army unit had liberated the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.^[10]

Ruddy called the documentary an example of "how the media can manipulate facts and narratives to create a revised history both believable and untrue similar to the events of 9/11".^[11] PBS subsequently withdrew its support for the documentary, following an independent investigation by the American Jewish Committee.[citation ^needed]^

Ruddy then moved to the New York Post, which he joined as an investigative reporter late in the summer of 1993. After initially writing about abuse of Social Security disability benefits, he focused on the Whitewater scandal involving then President Bill Clinton.^[12]

In 1995 he joined the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as a national correspondent covering the Clinton White House and other stories.^[13]

Since 1996, Ruddy has been Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.[citation ^needed]^ Ruddy serves on the Board of Directors of the Financial Publishers Association,^[14] an industry trade group representing the nation's financial media.

He is a member of the International Council, chaired by Dr. Henry Kissinger, at the CSIS, a bipartisan Washington, DC think-tank focused on national security and foreign affairs.^[15] Ruddy also served as a representative on the U.S. delegation headed by Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham to the NATO 44th Munich Security Conference.^[16]

From 2009 to 2013, Ruddy served on the board of directors of the American Swiss Foundation, a non-profit organization that fosters relations between the two countries. In 2015, Ruddy was elected to the Zweig Fund and the Zweig Total Return Funds, two New York Stock Exchange-traded closed-end funds managed by Virtus.^[17]

In January 2010, Britain's Daily Telegraph ranked Ruddy as one of the "100 Most Influential Conservatives" in the U.S. The paper said: "Chris Ruddy is an increasingly powerful and influential player in the conservative media and beyond." ^[18]^

Ruddy has been both a "Patron"^[19] and a "Sustaining Donor"^[20] to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Newsmax

Main article: Newsmax Media

According to a recent profile in Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsmax generates over $100 million revenue annually.^[21] CNN reported that Newsmax was the third most-viewed political website in the nation, behind itself and Politico.^[22]

Newsmax launched a full-fledged television news channel, Newsmax TV. The channel launched on Directv and Dish, and soon added Verizon Fios, giving the new network a reach of over 42 million cable/satellite homes. Ruddy told Bloomberg Businessweek his goal was to offer the nation “a kindler, more gentler” version of Fox News, and said his plan was to target the nation’s baby boomers with more practical information on health, finance and lifestyle issues.^[21]

Newsmax Media started in 1998 when, impressed with the way news of the Clinton impeachment circulated on the Internet, Ruddy decided to start an Internet news company.^[23] With financial support from investors, Ruddy founded Newsmax Media.^[24] The NewsMax.com website launched on September 16, 1998, with Ruddy serving as columnist and editor-in-chief. In addition to the web site, the company publishes a monthly magazine, also called Newsmax. After starting Newsmax, Ruddy was featured in a January 1999 Newsweek cover story as one of twenty "Stars of the New News."^[25]

In addition to its popular news portal, Newsmax.com, the company publishes Newsmax magazine and a host of health and financial newsletters. A March 2009 profile of Ruddy and Newsmax on Forbes.com described his media company as the "great right hope" of the Republican Party and said after just a decade of operations it had become a "media powerhouse". Political analyst Dick Morris told Forbes that Newsmax had become the "most influential Republican-leaning media outlet" in the nation.^[26]

A 2011 New York Times story on Newsmax detailed the company’s growing influence, especially Republican politics and noted that almost all of the party’s presidential candidates had made a “pilgrimage” to the company’s south Florida headquarters for a meeting with Ruddy.^[13]

Dow Jones Marketwatch.com's media critic Jon Friedman noted that Ruddy had become a "bigger internet star than Rush Limbaugh" and that his web site ratings had surpassed that of the Drudgereport. Friedman suggested that Ruddy's success was due to a more balanced approach to news coverage and the GOP's worldview.^[27]

Folio magazine in its Folio 40 ranking identified Ruddy as a "C-Level Visionary" and notes that under his leadership Newsmax has flourished during the economic downturn "where success is really measured these days," continuing the Newsmax brand "ascendancy" both digitally and in print.^[28]

In July 2010, Newsmax made an unsuccessful bid for Newsweek. Though the newsweekly was purchased by another group, Ruddy said that if he had purchased the newsweekly he would not have changed its editorial direction, focusing instead on its business model. He claimed that within 18 months he would have brought the publication to profitability.^[29]

Journalism

Ruddy is one of (and perhaps the most prominent among) several individuals who have discussed (e.g. Morton, Robert and Ruddy, Christopher (November 22, 1997). *C-Span:Book Discussion On* (video). Maison Blanche Restaurant Washington, DC.) questions regarding the death of White House counsel Vince Foster, work which was described by Former FBI Director William S. Sessions as "serious and compelling".^[30]

New York Post editor Eric Breindel recommended Ruddy for a job at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review owned byRichard Mellon Scaife.^[31] In November 1994, Ruddy was hired to investigate the story full-time by the Tribune-Review.^[32] In between Ruddy's departure from the Post and joining the Tribune-Review, he put out a report through the Western Journalism Center criticizing the Fiske investigation as inadequate. With the help of Scaife, the Center took out full-page ads in major newspapers to promote the report (Scaife gave $330,000 to the Center in 1994–95 before ending his support).^[33][34]

Ruddy claimed that Park Police had staged the scene of Foster's death as described in their reports.^[35] One of the officers named by Ruddy sued him along with the Western Journalism Center, seeking $2 million in damages for libel.^[36] The suit was dismissed because Ruddy had said nothing libelous "of and concerning the officer".^[37]

Ruddy later built on his work on the Foster case for his book The Strange Death of Vincent Foster. In reviewing the book, Richard Brookhiser of the National Review called it "the St. Mark version of the gospel of the Foster cover-up: a plain narrative of the perceived failings of the official investigation, with minimal speculation."^[38]Shortly after the book came out, Fiske's successor as independent counsel, Kenneth Starr, released his report from the third investigation into Foster's death. Starr also concluded that Foster had committed suicide.

Ruddy ended his investigative reporting after founding Newsmax, but continues to writes an occasional blog while he shapes overall editorial policy. He told Jeremy Peters of the New York Times that his outlets provide “news that Americans in the heartland would like to see.”^[13]

Politics and Bill Clinton

Ruddy describes himself as a libertarian conservative and “Reaganite,” though he is not registered as a Republican.^[13]

Throughout his career, Ruddy has often staked out positions at variance with the Republican party. For example, Ruddy broke with the Bush Administration on the Iraq War, and was one of the first conservatives to do so. "I came out very strongly against the war in Iraq when it wasn't in vogue, back in 2004," Ruddy told The Palm Beach Post. "I lost some subscribers. But we are close to spending a trillion dollars on the war and there is no exit strategy," he added. "Lots of Republicans and conservatives are not that gung-ho on the war anymore and I think we broke the ice."

The paper noted that Ruddy, disenchanted by the war and runaway federal spending under Bush, re-evaluated the Clinton years and offered a kinder view of the administration he once criticized.[citation ^needed]^ Compared with his reporting during Bill Clinton's presidency, Ruddy eventually took a more subdued view to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He said she had moderated and no longer generated the same animosity among conservatives. Ruddy told The New York Times he and Scaife had changed their views: "Both of us have had a rethinking. Clinton wasn't such a bad president. In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways, and Dick feels that way today."^[39] This got some attention in conservative circles where Ruddy and Scaife were criticized for their newfound liking of the former president. David Horowitz defended Ruddy in response, suggesting the comment referred to Clinton's domestic policies and arguing that Ruddy had not considered those objectionable even during the Clinton administration itself.^[40]

In the fall of 2007, Ruddy published a positive interview with former President Clinton on Newsmax.com, followed by a positive cover story in Newsmax magazine. The New York Times noted with reference to the event that politics had made "strange bedfellows".^[41]

Newsweek reported Ruddy praised Clinton for his Foundation's global work, and explained that the interview, as well as a private lunch he and Scaife had had with Clinton (which Ruddy says was orchestrated by Ed Koch), were due to the shared view of himself and Scaife that Clinton was doing important work representing the U.S. globally while America was the target of criticism. He also said that he and Scaife had never suggested Clinton was involved in Foster's death, nor had they spread allegations about Bill Clinton's sex scandals, although their work may have encouraged others.^[42] Ruddy and Scaife again met Clinton for lunch at his office in September 2008. "We had a great time with him," Ruddy said of the meeting. He added, "We consider Bill Clinton a friend and he considers us friends." ^[43]^Forbes^ indicated the relationship between Ruddy and Clinton has continued and described them as "lunch chums."^[26]

During a 2010 campaign swing through Florida, President Clinton departed from his schedule to make a visit to Newsmax's offices in West Palm Beach. After a private meeting with Ruddy, Clinton toured Newsmax's offices and met with its staff.^[44]

A May 2009 New York Times Sunday magazine profile on the former president, "The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton," offered more details of the relationship between Ruddy and Clinton. The Arkansas Times said details about the friendship between Ruddy and Clinton in the New York Times profile was the "most amazing revelation" of their profile of the former president. Ruddy told the Times though he remained a "Reagan conservative", he had re-evaluated the Clinton presidency and suggested he had earned high marks as president for success in ending welfare, keeping government in check, and supporting free trade. Ruddy also noted that theClinton Foundation was doing remarkable work globally.^[45]

In July 2012, Ruddy was a member of the official delegation that accompanied President Clinton on his five-nation tour of Africa, reviewing Clinton Foundation initiatives in the area of health care, HIV/AIDS programs, education and poverty alleviation.^[46]

During the delegation’s visit to Maputo, Mozambique, Ruddy blogged for the Clinton Foundation website,“The Clinton Foundation demonstrates that public-private partnerships and strategic engagement of private citizens, community members, and local governments can achieve great results in health care. And as I saw firsthand today in Mozambique, this work is innovative in its scope and in its purpose – which is to ensure governments can own and maintain their own health care systems without further reliance on aid. I applaud the Clinton Foundation for bringing together groups and individuals from all sides of the political spectrum to build a world that’s more equal, more sustainable, and that benefits us all.”^[46]

Publications

Books

Vincent Foster: The Ruddy Investigation (United Publishing Company, 1996)
The Strange Death of Vincent Foster: An Investigation (Free Press, Simon & Schuster,1997. ISBN 0-684-83837-0.)
Bitter Legacy: NewsMax Reveals the Untold Story of the Clinton-Gore Years (NewsMax Media, 2002. ISBN 0-9716807-3-6.)
Catastrophe: Clinton's Role in America's Worst Disaster (NewsMax Media, 2002. ISBN 0-9716807-5-2.)

Other

"A special report on the Fiske investigation of the death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr." (Western Journalism Center, 1997.)
"Internet Vortex", an online newsletter (published from 1998 to 2000)

References

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:{Jump up:(style="-webkit-user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Horowitz, David. A Misplaced Attack and An Apology to Frontpage Readers, FrontPage Magazine, February 26, 2007.
:{Jump up:(style="-webkit-user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Healy, Patrick."Clinton gives interview to former foe", thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com, November 1, 2007.
:{Jump up:(style="-webkit-user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ ""So Happy Together" Bill archenemy Richard Mellon Scaife now has 'admiration' for him. Huh?", Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, November 19, 2007.
:{Jump up:(style="-webkit-user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Lantigua, John.Web site thrives as conservative voice in West Palm, Palm Beach Post, October 6, 2008, p. 1.
:{Jump up:(style="-webkit-user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Lambiet, Jose. "Bill Clinton's Surprise Visit to Conservative Newsmax", Page 2 Live, The Palm Beach Post, August 16, 2010.
:{Jump up:(style="-webkit-user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Baker, Peter."The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton", nytimes.com, May 26, 2009.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="-webkit-user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b Ruddy, Christopher.“Public-Private Partnership Advance Health Care in Mozambique”, Clinton Foundation, July 16, 2012.

External links

http://www.chrisruddy.com www.ChrisRuddy.com.
Corporate information for Newsmax Media, Inc., from the Florida Department of State.
Newsmax, A Compass for Conservative Politics from the New York Times.
Chris Ruddy, A Great Right Hope at Forbes.com.
Ruddy's political donations at Newsmeat.com.
L. Brent Bozell III (1997-10-02). "Ruddy Blackout Shows a Book Bias". Weekly Syndicated Column.Creators Syndicate. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
Thomas Sowell (1997-09-18). "Book Review of Christopher Ruddy's "The Strange Death of Vincent Foster:{":(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Nationally Syndicated Column. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
Chris Ruddy: Conservatives' Great Online Ally by MarketWatch.com
The New York Times Report: Christopher Ruddy and Bill Clinton Relationship
Appearances on C-SPAN

Authority control

Categories:

mma 8/16

Conservative Newsmax Media is reportedly set to launch its own 24-hour cable news channel in June. According to a Bloomberg Businessweekprofile of Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, "NewsmaxTV" will position itself as a "kinder, gentler" version of Fox News.

Ruddy tells Bloomberg that the channel's goal "is to be a little more boomer-oriented, more information-based rather than being vituperative and polarizing." That Ruddy sees an opening for a conservative outlet that is less aggressively partisan than Fox is a good indication of how far to the right that channel has veered during the Obama administration. It's also somewhat surprising, given Ruddy's personal history.

# Newsmax On Its Promotion Of Trump's Candidacy: "Media Matters Is Right"

:{Blog:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: ››› April 19, 2011 7:13 PM EDT ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

We've recently documented the close relationship between Donald Trump and the right-wing website Newsmax, which has been promoting Trump's potential presidential candidacy. Now, U.S. News & World Report's Paul Bedard has spoken with Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, and Ruddy has confirmed that "Trump realizes the great potential of Newsmax and has been using it very adroitly" and that Newsmax is "happy" he's doing so.

Ruddy also responded to our description of Newsmax as an "early and enthusiastic promoter of Trump's presidential ambitions." Bedard wrote: "Ruddy has no problem with that description. 'Media Matters is right,' he says."

From Bedard's post on the Washington Whispers blog:

So is there a Trump-Newsmax conspiracy? "Yes," cheers Ruddy. "Trump realizes the great potential of Newsmax and has been using it very adroitly. We're well aware he's using it, happy he's using it" says Ruddy from the Newsmax HQ in Florida.

"He's been really responsive to our news team here," says Ruddy, who calls Trump a "friend."

Recently, the potential 2012 GOP primary candidate dropped by Newsmax's West Palm Beach HQ and even chose it as the place to reveal his American birth certificate, part of his effort to call into question President Obama's birthplace. Ruddy doesn't back the birther movement and says he told Trump that he believes Obama was born in Hawaii.

Media Matters last week put a spotlight on the news site's coverage of Trump, calling it an "early and enthusiastic promoter of Trump's presidential ambitions."

Ruddy has no problem with that description. "Media Matters is right," he says.

# Newsmax Donates To Politicians, Then Gives Them Soft-Focus Coverage

:{Research:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: ››› March 9, 2011 7:33 PM EST ››› TERRY KREPEL

For at least the third time in the past year, right-wing website Newsmax has provided positive coverage to a Florida politician whose campaign or political committee has received money from Newsmax or its CEO, Christopher Ruddy. This financial support has not been disclosed in campaign endorsements or other articles about these politicians at Newsmax.

# Another undisclosed conflict of interest means:{ Fox's Dick Morris problem:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: continues

:{Blog:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: ››› August 27, 2010 4:20 PM EDT ››› TERRY KREPEL

In June, Media Matters noted that Dick Morris was leading a fundraiser for Bill McCollum, who was in a Republican primary race for Florida governor (while falsely claiming that he rarely endorsed candidates).

Afterward, Morris appeared on Fox News twice -- on August 9 and August 23 -- to tout McCollum and attack his opponent, Rick Scott (who ultimately defeated McCollum in the August 24 primary). In neither appearance did Morris disclose that he had taken part in a fundraiser for McCollum.

As the invitation to the June 23 fundraiser shows – obtained by Media Matters from Morris' mailing list -- Morris was no passive participant. He is listed as one of two hosts for it, and he also starred in a "VIP Reception" area where, for a $300 donation, donors had the opportunity for a "VIP Photo Op With Dick Morris."

# Why did CNN's John King agree to be interviewed by fringe right-wing Newsmax?

:{Blog:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: ››› July 13, 2010 7:26 PM EDT ››› KARL FRISCH

Was it the opportunity to snag a glowing profile from a right-wing outlet?

Could it have been the chance to reach Lou Dobbs' coveted demographic of aging anti-immigrant conspiracy theorists?

It remains unclear why CNN's John King would agree to be interviewed by Newsmax -- a publication of the right-wing fringe owned by Christopher Ruddy and Richard Mellon Scaife.

Perhaps he was given some sort of clue as to how glowing the profile would end up? There isn't really a harsh word in the piece… they cover his dashingly good looks, his affection for Ailes-Hannity-O'Reilly, his purported fairness to both sides, that he worked at the AP once upon a time when it was still fair, and all of the big politicos appearing on his show. The profile's author, Ronald Kessler, even explains to his readers what it means for King to "keep kosher" since his conversion to Judaism.

The only thing that makes sense is the idea that King agreed to the interview because he knew in advance that it would be a puff-piece. Then again, maybe he didn't know Newsmax's history of right-wing incendiary misinformation. For example, back in September the publication ran a column (eventually taken down) stating that a military coup "to resolve the 'Obama problem'" was not "unrealistic." There's a lot more where that came from.

Check out the interview's gems after the break.

# Newsmax using fear to boost attendance at "summit" featuring O'Reilly

:{Research:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: ››› June 17, 2010 12:18 PM EDT ››› CHRISTINE SCHWEN

In the run-up to right-wing website Newsmax's June 17 Economic Crisis Summit -- featuring Bill O'Reilly - CEO and Editor in Chief Christopher Ruddy used fear of inflation and skyrocketing gas prices to entice people to attend the event. Previous Newsmax "summit[s]" have similarly stoked fears to drive sales of Newsmax's financial-services products.

# The money behind Ruddy (and maybe *Newsweek*): Richard Mellon Scaife

:{Blog:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: ››› June 2, 2010 3:15 PM EDT ››› TERRY KREPEL

Earlier today, Karl Frisch highlighted the interest of Newsmax's Christopher Ruddy in buying Newsweek. While Newsmax makes rich Republicans its target demographic -- according to Talkers magazine, 20 percent of its readership claims a net worth of $1 million or more -- it likely doesn't throw off enough money for Ruddy to purchase Newsweek without help.

Enter Richard Mellon Scaife.

Scaife, that longtime right-wing sugar daddy, has been Ruddy's benefactor for well over a decade, since Ruddy brought his Clinton conspiracy-mongering to the Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. When Ruddy started Newsmax in 1997, Scaife was among the original investors, and by 2002 he was the third-largest shareholder. Today, all the other shareholders have been bought out, and Scaife and Ruddy are the sole owners of Newsmax, with Ruddy holding a majority stake.

Ruddy and Scaife purchasing Newsweek is not as far-fetched as it sounds, actually. Newsmax already publishes a monthly magazine that, despite an unmistakable rightward tilt, is professionally designed. A Ruddy-operated Newsweek would likely look much as it does now -- but would definitely have a lot more right-wing content, with an additional focus (like its current magazine has) on two other areas of Newsmax interest,money and health. It may also give a bigger platform for longtime Ruddy buddy (and failed prognosticator) Dick Morris, who has a history of helping Ruddy shill for Newsmax' financial products.

If, say, George Soros had expressed interest in buying Newsweek, Fox News wouldn't be able to report on anything else for days. But two right-wing political activists looking into obtaining the number-two weekly newsmagazine is raising barely a ripple.

UPDATE: Newsmax has confirmed that it has made a bid for Newsweek, adding that if it succeeds in obtaining the magazine, "Newsweek would continue in its mission to objectively report the news and provide analysis from a wide spectrum of perspectives."

# Newsmax publisher eyeing *Newsweek* purchase

:{Blog:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: ››› June 2, 2010 11:19 AM EDT ››› KARL FRISCH

Right-wingers love to claim that troubles in the print-media world can be chalked up to news consumers rejecting "liberal media bias." As Media Matters' Terry Krepel noted a few weeks ago, the decision by Washington Post Co. to sell Newsweek was no different:

At NewsBusters, the Media Research Center's Brent Baker claimed that Newsweek"repeatedly showcased their favorite candidate, Barack Obama, on the cover" and asked, "Might such obvious blatant liberal advocacy, which anyone could see in the grocery store checkout line, help explain its decline in fortunes -- in credibility followed by finances?"

He was joined by fellow MRC employee Clay Waters, who complained that a New York Times article on the sale failed to mention "Newsweek's purposeful shift toward liberal opinion over news-gathering."

At Fox News on May 8, contributor Liz Trotta highlighted John Podhoretz's claim thatNewsweek is "a liberal journal of opinion masquerading as a news publication," added that "even The Washington Post" called it left-leaning, and posited that Newsweek's strategy of "shoving liberal opinion down [people's] throats" failed because it "colossally ... misjudged what the American public and the American readership is. It's not a bunch of lefties from New York."

Of course, this is the same right-wing media establishment that ignored the also-up-for-sale conservativeWashington Times' lack of profits.

Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Newsmax publisher Christopher Ruddy is interested in purchasing the faltering news weekly (emphasis added):

OpenGate Capital, the investment firm that owns TV Guide, plans to formally declare its interest in acquiring Newsweek before Wednesday's deadline for nonbinding bids, according to managing partner Andrew Nikou. Christopher Ruddy, publisher of the conservative monthly magazine Newsmax, said he also plans to bid.

A right-wing "news" outlet is now interested in picking up a magazine that media conservatives claim failed because of "liberal bias." It would be funny if it weren't so delusional.

So, who exactly is Christopher Ruddy? For starters, Ruddy was a bit too nutty even for Rupert Murdoch's New York Post. As the New York Times reported in 1997:

...Chris Ruddy, a ferociously dogged reporter who says he lost a job at The New York Post partly because he would not let go of the Vince Foster story. Ruddy now works for The Tribune-Review, a right-wing Pittsburgh paper, and his stories are reprinted in newspaper advertisements around the country, paid for by the Western Journalism Center in Sacramento, Calif. Richard M. Scaife, an angel of the far right, owns The Tribune-Review and contributes money to the center.

The "Vince Foster story" to which the Times refers would be the crazy right-wing conspiracy theory that Foster didn't commit suicide and was instead killed.

As for Newsmax, it's a rabidly conservative "news" outlet that traffics in just the sort of right-wing Obama conspiracy theories and misinformation that Ruddy cut his teeth on during the Clinton years.

- :{_Right-wing media analysts vs. real media analysts on *Newsweek*'s woes:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:_
- Murdoch not interested in buying *Newsweek*
- The right-wing mocks "liberal" *Newsweek's* lack of profits, ignores *WashTimes'* monumental losses
- Newsweek Sale Not A Surprise, Just Business
- Washington Post Company To Sell Newsweek
# Newsmax's Ruddy: "[N]o evidence" Obama wasn't born in U.S., but "there's some legitimate issues involving the birth certificate"....