Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum was featured in The Hollywood Reporter’s Money and Politics issue, speaking about her highly-rated interview with Judge Brett Kavanaugh interview, before diving into perceptions about her network, her career path, the current state of Fox News and political discourse in general.
THR’s Marisa Guthrie writes:
It was an early Monday morning, Sept. 24, and Martha MacCallum had just climbed into the back seat of a black sedan idling in her driveway. As the driver pulled out to begin the 40-minute trip from suburban New Jersey to the Fox News offices in Manhattan, an email landed in MacCallum’s inbox. The White House communications office was offering her the only interview with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who for 10 days had been buffeted by accusations of sexual assault. She would need to come to Washington that day, with the exact time and location for the interview still being worked out.
Advertisement“We went straight there,” recalls MacCallum, who spent the 3½-hour drive crafting questions on her iPhone notes app. “It’s the kind of thing you would like to have more time for, but on the other hand, sometimes I think it’s better when you don’t,” she says. “And it was pretty clear to me what needed to be asked.”
THR asked for MacCallum’s response to critics referring to Fox News as “State TV,” and she responded by saying, “We have a lot of different voices…anyone who treats it as a monolithic voice is clearly not watching.”
On her move from mornings to evenings, post O-Reilly and Ailes:
MacCallum’s ascension came in the wake of misconduct allegations that brought down O’Reilly and network founder Roger Ailes. But, she says, Fox News is in a “better place,” after a leadership change that included the promotion of Suzanne Scott to CEO. “At the time, people were quick to point fingers and say, ‘How could you not know?'” MacCallum recalls. “And now I’ve watched the sisterhood at these different networks go through similar things, where they also felt shocked and defensive about the people who were being accused. [Now] they know what we went through.”
MacCallum also spoke about how the heated political climate has had a significant impact on her personal relationships.
“In my family there is so much division,” she says. “In my friend group, absolutely. It’s gotten to the point where we really just can’t talk about it,” she says. “I usually am pretty good at playing the arbiter but it’s so hot, these issues are so hot for people. It’s not like when we were growing up where people had friends of all different stripes and everybody could argue politics and then move on to dessert. It’s much trickier than that now.”