Newsmax TV Has Correspondents Reporting from Ukraine; Company CEO Supports Biden’s Efforts
By Howard Polskin, February 25, 2022
Newsmax TV has gone to war.
Since early February, the conservative news organization has had two television correspondents stationed in Ukraine tracking the escalating tensions and full-scale invasion. Australian Sarah Williamson joined Newsmax only in December and was quickly assigned to the European war zone. Luckily, she had experience because she covered the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for Israel’s i24 News for four years. Veteran war correspondent Chuck Holton, who is essentially the Richard Engel of Newsmax, bolsters Newsmax’s reporting from the beleaguered European country. Holton is described by Newsmax’s chief content officer Elliot Jacobson as the company’s conflict zone correspondent. Most recently, he was reporting from Panama about migrants moving north toward the U.S. border.
Both of them are stationed in the Kyiv area (exact whereabouts are not disclosed for security reasons). They each contribute roughly a dozen reports a day from the capital, its outskirts, the eastern front and even down south to Crimea. Each correspondent works with a small production crew which includes a producer and translator.
While Newsmax’s commitment to boots on the ground in a foreign conflict in no way compares with CNN’s reporting live from Bagdad at the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991, which galvanized the world and cemented its reputation as a premier global news brand, it nonetheless represents a major step forward for an upstart news brand that occasionally punches above its weight.
“We’re getting some unique perspectives,” says Jacobson of their work. “We’re talking to people on the ground. We have interviewed Ukrainian officials. We’re not just reporting without any interaction with the locals.”
Newsmax remains undecided how long it will keep Williamson and Holton in Ukraine. “Their safety is paramount,” says Jacobson. “We monitor it carefully.”
Chris Ruddy, Newsmax CEO, issued this statement when contacted by TheRighting about his company’s coverage: “Newsmax believes Russia has made a major transgression and this should be condemned strongly by all people. I think we are seeing for conservatives a clarity moment where Fox News’ main host is stating categorically he is siding with Putin and Russia in support of the invasion. Newsmax supports President Biden‘s efforts to stop this invasion, if anything we think he is not being strong enough. We believe there is a bipartisan consensus in opposition to this dangerous aggression.”
In addition to foreign correspondents Alex Salvi in Rome, and Daniel Cohen in Jerusalem, Newsmax also has bureaus with reporting from London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo and Tapei.