Fox News has suspended contributors Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum until they decide whether to run for president. Anchor Bret Baier announced on air late Wednesday morning that the network “has suspended its contributor arrangements” with Gingrich and Santorum for the next 60 days.
Both, Baier said, “have signaled possible runs for the presidency” and it “is Fox policy” for them to be suspended.
With the suspensions, the network has taken its first big step to address mounting concerns that it could run afoul of campaign finance laws and journalistic ethics by continuing to keep on its payroll people who are maneuvering to run for president. But the suspensions of two contributors also leads to questions about three others on the Fox payroll – Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and John Bolton – who are also weighing White House bids.
Conflicting reports have come this week from Gingrich’s camp about whether he’ll be announcing a presidential exploratory committee or taking another clear step in the direction of the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The former speaker of the House’s office has not responded to POLITICO’s request for comment.
“We can’t have Speaker Gingrich on our payroll while he is in the midst of an exploratory committee to see if he’s going to run for office,” Fox News’s executive vice president of legal and business affairs Diane Brandi told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a clear conflict.”
Santorum, Brandi added, has indicated that he plans to attend Republican presidential debates, “so that leads us to believe he is seriously considering running.”
In a statement Wednesday, Santorum said he has “appreciated the opportunity to work” with his colleagues at Fox News and is still deciding whether he’ll run for president. “I share in their commitment to ensure news organizations provide balanced coverage of the issues of the day,” he said. “I intend to use the months ahead to continue my evaluation of a potential presidential run, and I will make an announcement on my final decision sometime in the coming months.”
The suspensions will be lifted on May 1 if Gingrich and Santorum notify the network by then that they are not planning to run. If they do not announce one way or the other by the the deadline, their contracts will be terminated, Baier said.
“This is the announcement that’s being made today,” Baier said, but “it does not preclude other announcements that may be made in the future” about other Fox employees who are flirting with White House runs.
“As soon as each of them shows some serious intention to form an exploratory committee, we would take the same action,” Brandi said of Palin, Bolton and Huckabee.
Huckabee hosts the weekend show “Huckabee” on the network and is considering running for president. He generally appears only on Fox News properties but has – for the last week and a half – appeared on other networks to promote his book, “A Simple Government.”
“Huckabee is on a book tour, so I think his present intention is to sell books,” Brandi said, explaining why he was not included in the suspenions.
Palin is also considering a run for president. She hasn’t so far been suspended because “she hasn’t yet shown a serious intention to form an exploratory committee,” Brandi said.
Bolton, formerly the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, appears frequently on the network to discuss international affairs and has been reported to be thinking about a campaign. His staff declined to comment.
Media Matters, the liberal advocacy group, estimated that Fox gave Gingrich, Santorum, Palin, Huckabee and Bolton a total of more than 85 hours of airtime in 2010. All of that, the group said, was worth $54.7 million in free advertising.
Fox’s decision is likely motivated by a desire to avoid breaking Federal Elections Commission guidelines – and a potentially hefty fine – requiring the network to break financial ties with a candidate running for federal office. FEC spokesman Christian Hilland told CNN on Tuesday that there is no clear rule forbidding a presidential candidate from being employed by a television or radio outlet. But, he cautioned, “there are some issues that a candidate should be mindful of so that air time isn’t considered a prohibited contribution to her or his own campaign.”
In September, Fox News told POLITICO that candidates would have to sever ties with the network before declaring that they’re running.
The employment of potential presidential candidates at the network – and Fox’s exclusivity policy restricting where its contributors can appear on air – has also posed problems for other media outlets trying to get airtime with the newsmakers, particularly Palin. Steve Scully, political editor for C-SPAN, complained last year that he was unable to book Palin after Fox declined to give permission.
“All contributors are exclusive” to the network, Fox News said in a statement to POLITICO in September. “On occasion, they will make appearances on other networks – when they have books to promote – and in those cases their contributor agreements are suspended during that period. Fox News has made rare exceptions for various contributors in terms of appearances on other networks, but instances are few and far between.”
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So sad. Now they can’t campaign for President on Fox’s dime. If they want air time, they’ll have to buy it like anybody else.