Newt Slams NBC Silencing Audience And Reacts To Palin’s ‘Panties In Wad’ Comment

"The media doesn't control free speech. People ought to be allowed to applaud if they want to."



Yahoo

Hey Brian Williams,
The American people will NOT
Sit down & shut up !!!

Newt Gingrich got a standing ovation at last week's CNN-hosted debate in South Carolina. NBC, which hosted last night's Republican debate in Tampa, Florida, would not stand for it.

Brian Williams began the debate broadcast by warning the crowd of 500 at the Univ. of South Florida not to applaud during the debate itself.

"I wish in retrospect I'd protested when Brian Williams took them out of it because I think it's wrong," Gingrich told "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday. "And I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media, which is what they've done in every debate.

"We will serve notice on future debates, we're not going to allow that to happen," Gingrich added. "That's wrong. Media doesn't control free speech. People ought to be allowed to applaud if they want to. It's almost silly."

A spokeswoman for NBC did not immediately return a request for comment. It's worth noting that NBC made the same request of the audience at previous GOP debates, but Monday's warning resulted in a debate setting that was in stark contrast to the rowdy affair in Charleston.

The former House Speaker was applauded in South Carolina for lashing out at John King, that debate's moderator, who asked a question about the "open marriage" allegations brought against him by his second wife.

On Monday, the audience barely registered a golf clap.

"If clapping ban proves anything tonight, it's that Gingrich feeds off the crowd," The Ticket's Holly Bailey wrote on Twitter. "No applause means he's very subdued."

But he'll get another chance to fire up a crowd on Thursday, when CNN hosts yet another debate, at the University of North in Florida.

"As we have done in the past, CNN will ask the audience to be respectful of the candidates," a spokeswoman for CNN told Yahoo News. "We have always said that if audience reaction such as shouting or booing interferes with the debate or with the candidates' answers, we will ask the audience to refrain."

It's also worth noting that the eventual Republican nominee will debate President Obama in front of completely silent audiences, per the Commission on Presidential Debates.

UPDATE: Andrea Saul, press secretary for Mitt Romney's campaign, sent an email to reporters on Tuesday linking to a New York Times story on Gingrich's comments with the subject line, "A picture is worth 1,000 words." Attached to Saul's email: a 1995 Daily News cover with a cartoon of Gingrich under the headline, "CRY BABY."