Ailes Lashes Out: Newt Won't Return to Fox

Lashing back at criticism from Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich that Fox News is biased against him, Roger Ailes, president of the network, said Thursday that the former Fox commentator was not going to be welcomed back to the network after the presidential race.

Ailes accused Gingrich of “trying to get a job at CNN because he knows he isn’t going to get to come back to Fox News,” during a talk with students at University of North Carolina, according to The Durham Herald-Sun.

In a meeting with 18 Delaware tea party leaders Wednesday Gingrich ripped Fox, alleging it supported front-runner Mitt Romney, RealClearPolitics reported.

“I think Fox has been for Romney all the way through,” Gingrich said in the meeting. “In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than Fox this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of Fox, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of Fox. That’s just a fact.”

Gingrich had harsh words for News Corp. (Fox’s owner) CEO Rupert Murdoch. “I assume it’s because Murdoch at some point said, ‘I want Romney,’ and so ‘fair and balanced’ became ‘Romney,’ ” Gingrich said.

Gingrich has not been a contributor to Fox since last spring.