Newt Gingrich, whose list of favorite activities has long included bashing the media, directed his criticism last night at Fox News:

"I think Fox has been for Romney all the way through," Gingrich said during the private meeting at Wesley College to which RealClearPolitics was granted access. "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's contract as a Fox News contributor was terminated last spring, as he was gearing up for his White House run.

The former House Speaker's blunt remarks about Fox came in response to a question from one of the Delaware Tea Party leaders about the manner in which his campaign has been treated by conservative media outlets.

Gingrich did not pull his punches in accusing Rupert Murdoch -- the chairman and CEO of the News Corporation, Fox News' parent company -- of pushing for Romney behind the scenes.

"I assume it's because Murdoch at some point said, 'I want Romney,' and so 'fair and balanced' became 'Romney,'" Gingrich said. "And there's no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches Fox."