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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

2012 When Will ABC Air its Interview with Newt Gingrich's Ex-Wife?

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 4:33 PM

Slog tipper Joe notifies us of this Drudge Report story, written in Drudge's inimitable broken-newswire prose style:

NEWT EX-WIFE UNLOADS ON CAMERA; NETWORK DEBATES 'ETHICS' OF AIRING BEFORE SC PRIMARY

**Exclusive**
Wed Jan 18 2012 18:47:14 ET

Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband's career with a single interview. Earlier this week, she sat before ABCNEWS cameras, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

She spoke to ABCNEWS reporter Brian Ross for two hours. Her explosive revelations are set to rock the campaign. But now a "civil war" has erupted inside of the network, an insider claims, on exactly when the confession will air!

ABCNEWS suits determined it would be "unethical" to run the Marianne Gingrich interview so close to the South Carolina Primary, a curious decision, one insider argued, since the network has aggressively been reporting on other candidates.

A decision was tentatively made to air the interview next Monday, after all votes have been counted.

If this is true, it's a strange decision by ABC. Gingrich is on the rise in South Carolina, and a news outlet sitting on something like this—perhaps to pre-empt charges of being part of the dreaded Liberal Media Machine?—seems more manipulative than releasing it just before the primary.

Comments (14) RSS

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I'd head to see anybody trash Gingrich before he's done trashing Romney.

Posted by eclexia on January 18, 2012 at 4:44 PM

"Hate to see". I'm all twisted fingers since the Mormon masturbation story.

Posted by eclexia on January 18, 2012 at 4:47 PM

@1 - Agreed

ABC's decision probably has less to do with ethics than it has to do with ratings. I'll bet they're gambling that Gingrich will do well in SC. On the heels of a Gingrich victory and renewed national attention, the interview would bust through the roof. Before all that, not so much.

Posted by bbilly on January 18, 2012 at 5:04 PM

I'm with ABC on this one. It would be unethical to inform their viewers before they voted. They should be allowed to vote in a FAIR AND BALANCED state of ignorance, and then the media can do it's primary job of letting them know what specific kind of monster they just put into office.

Posted by Ruke on January 18, 2012 at 5:07 PM

@4 maybe. but i find it baffling that anyone could look at him or listen to him for more than 25 seconds and not reach the conclusion that he's a degenerate buffoon. just look at him.

Posted by reverend dr dj riz on January 18, 2012 at 5:19 PM

@3:
You're very close to it, but I don't think it has to do with just the ratings potential on that interview, per se.

If Gingrich tanks completely before SC, Romney wins, becomes de factco nominee, and all the drama & interest is sucked out of the next six months of primaries.

If Romney gets a run for his money in SC it'll keep this contest alive until the "proportionally delegated" states kick in -- and end up making for better teevee (and hence ratings & ad revenue) between now and the convention.

In that light, not shooting Newt in the foot right now is a calculated investment in the profitability of ABCnews over the first two quarters of 2012.

Posted by Timrrr on January 18, 2012 at 5:22 PM

If she really wants to end his campaign before the SC primary, can't she just talk to one of the 1,000,000,000 other news organizations?

Posted by Catastrophe on January 18, 2012 at 5:24 PM