Kim Hume Says Goodbye

Fox News Washington Bureau Chief Kim Hume (who's married to Brit) spent her last day at Fox News Channel yesterday and she shared with us some of her parting thoughts. "I have had the most extraordinary career and I have loved every minute of it. I have worked hard and I have sort of earned the place that I now stand in and I feel so lucky to be able to choose that now is the time for me to go. Nobody ever does that. We get so tempted by the power of a position or even the money or just the idea that we have some effect on something. I think that Washington, in particular, you get these people on these treadmills and they can't even imagine a different life and I'm so lucky that I had that moment...from my perspective it was such a courgaeous thing to do and I feel so good about it and everything that I've ever done in my career has been justified by this job and it's been the best job that I've ever had and I feel so lucky to be able to say, 'i'm finished.' It's such a rare thing and I feel real blessed...I have no idea what I'm going to do next... "I wanted to finish this well. We have a successful network and a successful bureau and I've been successful and Brit's been successful and I wanted to go out on that note. I don't want to strive anymore, I've already done that." Much more when you click below, including Kim's tale of how and why she finally let her hair down (literally) today for the first time since 9/11. "Since 9/11, as a personal statement, I have worn mny hair up in a bunn and I said that I wouldn't take it down until they captured Osama bin Laden... But I took it down during Fox's going away party for me. I did it because people who like me will find it funny and people who really hate me will be really annoyed by it." "Mostly I want to give myself a chance to figure out who I am. I've been doingtelevision journalism for 30 years. I've never taken a break. I'd like to rest a little bit and find out what I'm like without this identify of being a tv person." Hume plans on playing lots of golf, doing some cooking and enjoying her personal driving range at her country house. "I love to take care of my husband, which is something that he'll appreciate: having more of that wifely attention . I've had all of our work life together I always try to make him dinnerr but sometimes it's pretty quick. I'm looking forward to paying more attention to that side of my life." "The frustrating side of Fox News is that we're competing with less than everybody else has...There is such good spirit here. We're fighters. Even when we're on top we have this underdog spirit because we're doing it with such fewer resources...Limits brings out creativity. It brings out the best in people." "The downside and good side [to working at Fox News] are the same: It's a team with a fighting spirit. It makes it really easy to leave when people are already in that mode." "There were a couple of things that changed Fox. One was the whole Monica Lewinsky thing and that was because we had a Washington story that was so in our faces. There wasn't time to think. You just go. We did a lot with that story and we were able to compete with much bigger organizations on that story and we did a really good job because we built a staff of real reporters. They weren't just reading the Washington Post and doing a tv piece based on what the Washington Post reported...that was a satisfying moment..."that really honed uas an organization." "The recount was the best example of one of my theories in life: it's not good enough to just have knee jerk reactions, you have to think things through. The recount story was a great story for Fox because we didn't just react. We reported that story and we got to report it. It was changing every five minutes and it was a great story for 24 hour television. Everybody cared about the outcome, it was serious, it was important and we were doing what was needed to be done and to get whatever information and context out to people watching. A lot of poeple tuned in to see us on that story because we were just better."

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Kim Hume Says Goodbye

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