NewsMax
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Version 1
NewsMax.com is an American news website with an unabashedly right-wing bias in its selection and presentation of news. The website's parent company, NewsMax Media, also publishes a monthly magazine, NewsMax which claims 300,000 subscribers.
On the weekend of October 30-31, NewsMax sponsored the movie "Stolen Honor" as a paid advertisment on some PAX network affiliates. The anti-Kerry movie "Stolen Honor" had been scheduled to air on the 62 Sinclair Broadcast Group outlets in late October 2004, but was withdrawn by Sinclair due to possible financial and legal repercussions on the company.
Newsmax Media is a privately held company. According to MediaMatters, the right-wing financier Richard Mellon Scaife owns 7.2% of the company.
NewsMax.com filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in February of 2002, but withdrew the IPO in June 2003, citing the dried-up capital markets as a reason.
"Right now, anybody who follows the market can see the IPO market is not back," said Ruddy, president of News Max.com. "We'll come back in a year or so."
Noble Financial underwrote the offering.
The parent company Newsmax Media is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Company information
NewsMax was founded in September 1998 by Christopher Ruddy.
- Christophe W. Ruddy - President
- Brian Todd - Chief Operating Officer
- Ken Williams - Vice President
- Rob Lonic - Chief Financial Officer
The company has 20 employees.
Columnists for the monthly publication NewsMax include Reed Irvine, Bill O'Reilly, Ed Koch, and Dick Morris. The company generates sales from politically oriented paraphernalia supporting right-wing causes.
References
- The Palm Beach Post, June 13, 2003, NEWSMAX.COM Pulls back its IPO, Susan T. Port.
Version 2
NewsMax.com is a conservative news website that was founded in September 1998 by journalist Christopher Ruddy, who is its current CEO and editor-in-chief. It is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Background
Christopher Ruddy gained publicity for his asociation with the Arkansas Project, which was described by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., founding editor of the American Spectator as an attempt at investigative reporting. [1]. Ruddy received funding for a conspiracy book surrounding the Presidency of Bill Clinton from Joseph Farah (founder of WorldNetDaily, and co-founder of the Western Journalism Center.[2]. The group supplied Ruddy with funding for expenses, Freedom of Information Act requests, legal support, and publicity during his pursuit of a conspiracy theory concerning Foster's suicide. [3] Ruddy's ties to the Spectator and the project created unease among conservatives. The Washington Post quoted John Corry describing Ruddy as "'a very heavy breather' whose book contained 'very few direct quotes, but a great many insinuations'"[4]
Ruddy and Richard Mellon Scaife (who funded the Arkansas Project) remained connected through their promotion of conservative and conspiratorial ideas. Before starting NewsMax, Ruddy was a free-lance reporter for the Scaife-owned Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.[5] Eventually, Scaife became an investor and the third-largest stockholder in NewsMax. [6] Conservative James Dale Davidson is also an investor.
NewsMax promotes a right-wing viewpoint, and attacks what it calls liberal thinking as media bias [7].
Criticism of NewsMax has focused on its distribution of false information. NewsMax has been accused of being a hub for conspiracy theories about Democrats, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, currently one of the two U.S. senators from New York.
NewsMax's founders include Kevin Timpy, Bruce Lonic, Lord William Rees-Mogg, James Dale Davidson, Admiral Thomas Moorer, Arnaud de Borchgrave, and Michael Ruff. [8] It's Board members include former Secretary of State General Alexander Haig, Jeff Cunningham, former publisher of Forbes magazine, Alvin Hirsch, a financial consultant, and Robert Lohman, a former executive of IBM Corporation. [9]
Misinformation
On December 19, 2000, NewsMax falsely claimed: "Hillary and Bill Clinton are putting their Chappaqua, N.Y., home for sale because their neighbors have them under 24-hour video surveillance," citing anonymous sources "at some of America's most notorious supermarket tabloids."[10] In fact, the Clintons have not sold that house.[11]
On May 26, 2001, NewsMax falsely claimed that U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton refused to meet with Gold Star Mothers, a group whose members are mothers who have lost children while serving in the military. Template:Ref
On June 5, 2005, in a subscription-only email, NewsMax correspondent John LeBoutillier falsely claimed A book by Ed Klein would reveal opposition by Daniel Moynihan to Hilary Clinton's candidacy to represent New York in the United States Senate. Template:Ref Template:Ref
On October 17, 2005, NewsMax falsely claimed that it never stated that a concert by the rock band U2 in Philadelphia was to be a benefit for the re-election campaign of Sen. Rick Santorum. In fact, NewsMax did claim that the concert was "in support of Santorum's re-election" when Santorum's campaign had merely bought seats at the concert for its supporters. NewsMax withdrew the original, erroneous article without issuing a correction.[12]
John McCain
On November 29, 2005 NewsMax was the source of a rumor that John McCain himself validated the use of torture. This accusation was then picked up and repeated by Rush Limbaugh.Template:Ref NewsMax specifically claimed:
- "Sen. John McCain is leading the charge against so-called “torture” techniques allegedly used by U.S. interrogators, insisting that practices like sleep deprivation and withholding medical attention are not only brutal – they simply don’t work to persuade terrorist suspects to give accurate information."
- "Nearly forty years ago, however – when McCain was held captive in a North Vietnamese prison camp – some of the same techniques were used on him. And – as McCain has publicly admitted at least twice – the torture worked!"
The article contradicts itself by demonstrating that torture does not provide intelligence:
- "For the next four days, I was beaten every two to three hours by different guards . . . Finally, I reached the lowest point of my 5 1/2 years in North Vietnam. I was at the point of suicide, because I saw that I was reaching the end of my rope."
- "McCain was taken to an interrogation room and ordered to sign a document confessing to war crimes. "I signed it," he recalled. "It was in their language, and spoke about black crimes, and other generalities." Template:Ref
Plame-CIA Leak
On October 29, 2005 Newsmax published an article which claimed that "Patrick Fitzgerald Retreats From Plame 'Covert' Claim." The article commented that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald:
- "declined to bring any charges to that effect, casting even more doubt on the claim that her (Valerie Wilson) CIA job was a closely guarded secret."Template:Ref
Yet, in the October 28, 2005 Federal indictment of Scooter Libby, page 3, section f stated:
- "At all relevant times from January 1, 2002 through July 2003, Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community."Template:Ref
Moreover, the indictment page 2, section b stated:
- "LIBBY was obligated by applicable laws and regulations, including Title 18, United States Code, Section 793, and Executive Order 12958 (as modified by Executive Order 13292)"Template:Ref
And Title 18, Section 793 is the Espionage Act.
References
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2008 update
NewsMax declares war on oil dependence.
SIX YEAR TO FUCKING LATE!!! [13]
