Break some news!
The Washington bureau is critical to the newsgathering operations of Fox News, given its heavy focus on political topics. From its confines have worked big names such as Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, Howard Kurtz, James Rosen, Shannon Bream and now-former host Greta Van Susteren, who recently left the network under hazy circumstances.
In an interview with Politico‘s Playbook, Baier, host of “Special Report,” said, “Rupert’s a true news guy at heart and he is really pushing us to break stories, to push the envelope, he’s investing in news.” Good sign right there: The network under Ailes — though it occasionally landed exclusives — appeared more concerned with belaboring long-existing controversies (Benghazi!) than in pushing reportorial resources toward big exclusives on the next one. Murdoch’s passions have always been with newspapering and scooping. Along those lines, the Erik Wemple Blog is reminded of this passage in Michael Wolff’s biography of Murdoch:
As it turned out, Murdoch was researching a tip that some senior “operative” of Hillary Clinton had a stake in an online porn company. Didn’t “pan out,” as Wolff reports. Hey, that’s called journalism!
As he chats with Fox News’s Washingtonians, Murdoch will be accompanied by the co-presidents of Fox News, Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine, as well as by Jay Wallace, executive vice president of news and editorial. To make Murdoch’s emphasis on breaking news a reality, this group has something that few executives can call upon: annual profits in the range of $1.5 billion. Plundering that money to score more exclusives shouldn’t hurt Fox News’s industry-best ratings.
Updated to fix the inexplicable omission of Chris Wallace from the list of Washington bureau people.
