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On the occasion of its 13th anniversary and dramatic success in the television ratings, Fox News is coming under serious scrutiny. But there is no reason why this scrutiny should come exclusively from those on the left who are jealous of the cable channel's success. Conservatives should not hesitate to offer their own critique of the popular news network.

Since Fox News has come to symbolize in the public mind the conservative viewpoint, conservatives should examine which personalities and issues are being presented regularly on the cable channel. Inevitably, such an analysis will focus on former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who seems to appear every few days on "The O'Reilly Factor," "Hannity," or "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."

However, Gingrich's position as a Fox News regular may be in jeopardy because of his abandonment of the conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, in a special election race in New York. One of the White House criticisms of Fox News is that it is an arm of the Republican Party. The regular use of Gingrich, a knee-jerk Republican who defers to party bosses, tends to support that thesis.

Since many people tune into Fox News to ascertain the conservative point of view, the regular use of Gingrich will become disconcerting and problematic to many members of its viewing audience. In a major break with some of his on-air colleagues, independent conservative and Fox News host Glenn Beck openly has questioned Gingrich's embrace of the official Republican candidate, liberal Dede Scozzafava, in the race. Beck noted her ties to ACORN and interviewed her conservative opponent, Hoffman. The interview ran under the headline, "Principles or Party?" and is now featured on Hoffman's website.

While he supports the official Republican nominee in the New York race, out of deference to party leaders, Gingrich irritates conservatives and Republicans alike by giving credence to causes embraced by far-left liberals in the Democratic Party. He filmed a climate change ad with radical House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and currently conducts joint appearances with racial agitator Al Sharpton, a figure in the Democratic Party, on educational matters. The Gingrich-Sharpton tour was actually announced by the Obama White House and is being sponsored by the federal Department of Education.

The latter has prompted Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, to call upon Gingrich to end his relationship with Sharpton. A study issued by the NLPC notes that "Sharpton has promoted fake hate crimes against blacks, and has inspired racial antagonism against whites and Jews. Indeed, this long-established pattern of behavior continues to the present."

A video from a leading conservative news site, Newsmax.com, shows Flaherty denouncing Gingrich for associating with the activist. "Newt has made a bad decision and we believe he should end his relationship with Sharpton," Flaherty said.

Even before he decided to back a liberal Republican over a conservative in the Congressional special election race in New York's 23rd district, Gingrich had been under fire for abandoning the conservative cause. He co-authored an Al Gore-style book on environmental issues, A Contract With the Earth, before he decided that this approach was unpopular and that we had to exploit more of our own natural resources and "Drill baby drill." Suddenly, Gingrich's calls for "Green conservatism" were dropped.

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