The Network That Newt Built

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

Newt Gingrich seemed as affable and camera-confident as Pat Sajak or any seasoned TV personality last week when he introduced a colorized version of his beloved Boys Town on the TNT network, intoning that the message was, "You have to love people enough to want to change them, not just feel their pain." But Gingrich was smooth for a reason: he's no amateur when it comes to cable TV. The new Speaker already has his own program each week, The Progress Report, a political talk show on National Empowerment Television, the 24-hour cable network devoted to promulgating conservative opinion. On The Progress Report, Gingrich provides pointed commentary as his co-host Heather Higgins questions politicians and corporate chieftains.

Launched last year by right-winger Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, NET currently reaches 10 million homes and, is working on an agreement with cable giant Tele-Communications that would put the network into 12 million more. NET vice chairman Burton Pines attributes the network's growth to Gingrich's electoral success. "It is making Washington the hottest story in maybe a half-century," contends Pines. "And as public fascination with Washington increases, even if it's morbid interest, there will be greater interest in our programming."

To pay for its operations, as well as its new $10 million Washington studio, NET relies partly on conservative sponsors like the Coors Brewing Co. and advertisers who run the gamut from Magnavox to a firm that sells Rush Limbaugh commemorative beer steins. In addition, most organizations sponsor their own shows. The weekly Gingrich hour, which costs $125,000 a year, is paid for by his nonprofit Progress & Freedom Foundation.

NET has developed a full slate of programming, most of it reflecting Newtonian opinion. Crime & Punishment examines issues like the drug war and the death penalty, while Putting Families First focuses on such matters as pornography and premarital sexual abstinence. Arianna Huffington, the author and wife of Michael, the failed senatorial candidate from California, hosts Critical Mass, another talk show focusing on social issues. And NET even serves up its own Oprah in the form of Judie Brown, whose show Celebrate Life is described by the network as sharing with viewers the "inspiring stories of people who have overcome tremendous obstacles in their lives."

Aside from Newt's hour, the network's most talked-about show is Youngbloods, a political round table featuring six men and women in their 20s. The show is set in a mock dorm lounge complete with loud furniture and a lava lamp. The slouching panelists, two moderate liberals among them, fervidly debate everything from the balanced-budget amendment to the death of patriotism. Discussions can be just as entertainingly fiery. When asked how he would handle the Bosnia crisis if he were President, Youngblood Tom Fitton rejoined: "We bomb the Serbs into oblivion until they start acting like a civilized community instead of the Nazi genocidal maniacs they've acted like before."

Viewer call-ins feature significantly on Youngbloods and on almost all NET's programming. From mid-November to mid-December, NET fielded 56,000 on-air viewer phone calls, up 18,000 from the month before. These days, few call The Progress Report without profusely congratulating its host. "What a thrill, what a thrill to speak to Newt Gingrich," said one caller. "I salute you, ) sir." Fear not that Network Newt will be lost in a 500-channel universe.

With reporting by Tresa Chambers/New York