Jon Huntsman criticized what he called the 'media elite' of the right. | REUTERS Huntsman: Tune out 'pontificators'

Jon Huntsman on Monday joined a chorus of center-right critics who are questioning the GOP’s reliance on the conservative media establishment, saying the party needed to move beyond “pontificators …who are making millions.”

“If we used all that energy spent on the president’s birth certificate or tax reform or on Afghanistan, we’d be in a much difference place today,” the former Utah governor said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We do have, you know, some pontifcators in our party, we have a media elite in a sense on the right, they’re making millions and millions of dollars talking about all the incendiary aspects of public policy. We need solutions as opposed to people in search of a larger audience. I don’t know how you go about incentivizing solutions, but that is where the party needs to go.”


In the wake of an election where conservatives routinely accused independent pollsters of skewing their results and right-wing pundits missed election predictions by broad margins, some Republicans are questioning their party’s reliance on Fox News and other conservative outlets.

And Huntsman, whose own bid for the GOP nomination as a moderate ended not long after the New Hampshire primary, said the party should have embraced comprehensive immigration reform long ago.

“If during the Bush administration we had been successful with immigration reform, Mitt Romney would be president today,” Huntsman said.