Christopher Ruddy is an American journalist who is the CEO and majority owner of Newsmax Media.
Profile Summary
| Full Name | Christopher Ruddy |
| Gender | Male |
| Date of Birth | January 28, 1965 |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | American Journalist and CEO of Newsmax Media |
| Net Worth | $100 million |
Early Life and Education of Christopher Ruddy
Ruddy grew up on Long Island in Williston Park, New York, where his father was a police officer in Nassau County. He graduated from Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York before graduating summa cum laude with a degree in history from St. John’s University, New York in 1987. He earned a master’s degree in public policy from the London School of Economics and also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as an undergrad. He worked briefly as a bilingual high school social studies teacher in the Bronx, New York. Ruddy holds an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from St. John’s University.
Christopher Ruddy’s Career Path
Early in his career, Ruddy was editor in chief of a conservative monthly periodical known as the New York Guardian. While with the NY Guardian, Ruddy gained notice for debunking a story in the PBS documentary Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II that an all-black army unit had liberated the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.
Ruddy called the documentary an example of “how the media can manipulate facts and narratives to create a revised history both believable and untrue similar to the events of 9/11.”
Ruddy then moved to the New York Post, which he joined as an investigative reporter late in the summer of 1993. After initially writing about abuse of Social Security disability benefits, he focused on the Whitewater scandal involving then-president Bill Clinton.
In 1995 he joined the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as a national correspondent covering the Clinton White House and other topics.
Ruddy has studied as a Media Fellow with the Hoover Institution. Ruddy serves on the board of directors of the Financial Publishers Association (FIPA), an industry trade group whose goal is “to share knowledge of best business practices to help our members’ publications grow and prosper, while empowering readers with unbiased, independent information”.
He is a member of the International Council, chaired by Henry Kissinger, at the CSIS, a bipartisan Washington, D.C., think tank focused on national security and foreign affairs. Ruddy also served as a representative on the U.S. delegation headed by Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham to the NATO 44th Munich Security Conference.
From 2009 to 2013, Ruddy served on the board of directors of the American Swiss Foundation, a nonprofit organization that fosters relations between the two countries. In 2015 he was elected to the board of directors of the Zweig Fund and the Zweig Total Return Funds, two New York Stock Exchange-traded closed-end funds managed by Virtus.
In January 2010, Britain’s Daily Telegraph ranked Ruddy as one of the “100 Most Influential Conservatives” in the U.S. The paper said: “Chris Ruddy is an increasingly powerful and influential player in the conservative media and beyond.” Ruddy has been both a “Patron” and a “Sustaining Donor” to the Wikimedia Foundation. He is an alumnus of the American Swiss Foundation.
Christopher Ruddy’s Net Worth
Ruddy has an estimated net worth of $100 million dollars. He is an American journalist who is the majority owner of Newsmax media. Therefore, there is no doubt that he receives good wages. However, he manages to have an annual salary that stands at around $147,516.
Conclusion
Ruddy describes himself as a libertarian conservative and “Reaganite,” though he is not registered as a Republican. Throughout his career, Ruddy has often staked out positions at variance with the Republican Party. For example, Ruddy broke with the Bush Administration on the Iraq War and was one of the first conservatives to do so. “I came out very strongly against the war in Iraq when it wasn’t in vogue, back in 2004,” Ruddy told The Palm Beach Post. “I lost some subscribers. But we are close to spending a trillion dollars on the war and there is no exit strategy,” he added. “Lots of Republicans and conservatives are not that gung-ho on the war anymore and I think we broke the ice.”
