The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik profiles Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier who will be FNC’s main political anchor for the mid-terms, taking over for longtime DC journalist/anchor Brit Hume.
“I dreamed of taking over for Brit Hume — I really did,” says Baier. “And when I thought about what I really wanted to do with my career it was to cover politics at a time when people were really interested in politics. And this is that time. The TV business is often like a ladder where you’re always thinking about the next rung. I’m not anymore. I’m thinking about the next show. I feel incredibly blessed to be where I am at this point in my life.”
Zurawick points to Baier’s ratings lead for his nightly newscast — nearly doubling the combined average of his CNN and MSNBC competition.
So far this year, “Special Report” has an average nightly audience of 2,107,000 in viewers — compared with 604,000 for “The Ed Show” on MSNBC and 545,000 for Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room” on CNN.
Baier joined FNC in 1998 in the nascent days of Roger Ailes’ network. And while much has changed, the attitude hasn’t.
“You know the Fox Atlanta bureau that I joined in 1998 — that started in my apartment in Atlanta with a fax machine and a cell phone. That was the bureau. And I still have that sense of us being that start-up that is still trying to make it all come together. And I have to say I really like that.”