Newt Gingrich Is Being Propped Up By Corporate Media

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 1:03 PM on June 6, 2009.

Looking over the list of guests for tomorrow's Sunday morning shows, we see that CBS's "Face the Nation" will feature two guests: David Axelrod from the White House and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

It comes just two weeks after Gingrich was a featured guest on NBC's "Meet the Press." He was the featured guest on "Fox News Sunday" just two weeks before that.

This isn't quite as annoying as having Liz Cheney live on the cable networks, but it's getting there.

Atrios asked a couple of weeks ago, "[Y]ou know, disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has precisely zero power but his every pronouncement is treated as Incredibly Important News. Any journalists want to explain why?"

That need not be a rhetorical question.

I suspect "Face the Nation" wants to hear from Gingrich about the Sotomayor nomination, since Gingrich led the way in smearing the judge, and then kinda-sorta-but-not-really backpedaled this week on the use of the word "racist."

But here's a little secret: whether Gingrich respects or loathes Sotomayor is of no consequence. He doesn't have a vote in the Senate, and more importantly, he doesn't have any real influence in the Senate, either.

In our reality, Gingrich was forced from office in disgrace more than a decade ago. His limited power comes by way of the media, which keeps putting him on national television.

Eric Boehlert's recent take on this -- before Newt had an op-ed published in the Washington Post and before his "Meet the Press" appearance had even been announced -- still rings true:

[A]s often happens when I read breaking, this-is-what-Newt-said dispatches, I couldn't help thinking, "Who cares what Newt Gingrich thinks?" And I don't mean that in the partisan sense. I mean it in the journalistic sense: How do Gingrich's daily pronouncements about the fundamental dishonesty of Democrats (Newt's favorite phrase) translate into news? Why does the press, 10 years after Gingrich was forced out of office, still treat his every partisan utterance as a newsworthy occurrence? In other words, why does the press still treat him like he's speaker of the House? It's unprecedented."

I'm still waiting to see the media frenzy surrounding the latest pronouncements from Jim Wright and Tom Foley. Remind me, when was the last time either of them were invited onto a Sunday morning show?

Tagged as: media, newt gingrich

Steve Benen is "blogger in chief" of the popular Washington Monthly online blog, Political Animal. His background includes publishing The Carpetbagger Report, and writing for a variety of publications, including Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He has also appeared on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Air America Radio's "Sam Seder Show," and XM Radio's "POTUS '08."