Rep. Ron Paul may not agree with Newt Gingrich on much these days but they see eye-to-eye on least one thing — it's the news media's fault.

Paul defended his fiery new anti-Gingrich ad as a much-needed corrective to what he viewed as the news media's obsession with allegations of sexual misbehavior by Herman Cain and an alleged corresponding lack of attention to the contradictions of Gingrich's policy record.

Gingrich, too, has made news media criticism a part of nearly every one of his debate performances. So he and Paul clearly have some bones to pick with journalists. But that's about where their agreement ends.

On Thursday, standing in the produce section of a New Hampshire grocery store, Paul told reporters:

"I think that he's getting a free ride. And I've worked with him for a long time. And I think the points I made on the various issues, he's a flip-flopper, so he can hardly be the alternative to Mitt Romney.

"What I find is a shame is look at the amount of energy the media put into talking about sex. And how much energy does the media put into exposing what a Newt Gingrich believes and what he's done? "So I feel like it should have been the media's job to do a little bit of that because they spent all this money and energy, I mean 90 percent of the news has been on Herman Cain. Not that doesn't deserve some reporting and people don't deserve to know about that. "But I think the emphasis is way out of whack and that's why we put out ad on the Internet."

One irony of Paul's complaint: his ad is filled with video or text produced by news outlets that have examined Gingrich's post-speakership activities.

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