Special Report with Brit Hume
Encyclopedia
Special Report with Bret Baier (formerly Special Report with Brit Hume) is an American television news
and political commentary program appearing on Fox News Channel
, currently hosted by Bret Baier
. It airs live each Monday through Friday at 6:00pm ET. The show focuses on both reporting and analysis of the day's events, with a primary focus on national political news. The show has been a part of the Fox News program lineup since 1996 and is the number one cable news broadcast in its time slot.
Brit Hume
hosted the show from its debut in 1996 until his retirement in December 2008. He has since appeared on the program as a panelist commentator.
for the network. Hume hosted the program through December 23, 2008, when he hosted his final show before officially stepping down as anchor. The last fifteen minutes of Hume's final program served as a tribute to Hume, including kind words from former President George H.W. Bush, then-President George W. Bush
, then-Vice President
Dick Cheney
, and then-ABC News
anchor Charles Gibson
, as well as several Fox News reporters, and allowed him some final thoughts. Hume announced Bret Baier, who substituted for Hume on Fridays beginning in fall 2007, would become the full-time host after the holidays, while Hume moved to a new role as senior political analyst for the network. Chris Wallace and Shannon Bream
are occasional substitute anchors.
On June 15, 2009, the show launched in high definition
with new music and graphics.
From its inception, Special Report has broadcast live from the network's Capitol Hill studio in Washington. However, on some occasions, such as the night of a significant election, the program will broadcast from the network's New York
studios.
, Congress
, and the Supreme Court
.
A typical show begins with news stories featuring various Fox News correspondents, followed by an interview conducted by Baier with political newsmakers or pundits. After the halfway point of the show (and a short break for current headlines), Baier presents a segment referred to as "the Political Grapevine" — a collection of short items, sometimes humorous, about minor political happenings. Baier sometimes uses this segment to point out oddities in coverage of a story by competing news media. (In the early days of the Iraq War, this segment was referred to by Brit Hume as "the Wartime Grapevine.")
The best-known part of Special Report is Baier's discussion with "The Fox All-Stars", a two-segment roundtable with a panel of three political reporters and columnists.
The show ends with a comedic clip, known as "the kicker", usually taken from the preceding night's shows by David Letterman
, Jay Leno
, Jimmy Kimmel
, or sometimes MADtv
or Saturday Night Live
. Brit Hume would usually sign off with, "That's Special Report for this time, please tune us in next time, and in the meantime, more news is on the way — fair, balanced and unafraid." When Bret Baier became host, he signed off with, "Your source for news, tonight and every night," which he later changed to, "Straightforward news in uncertain times." As of January 2010, Baier uses Hume's classic "fair, balanced and unafraid" sign-off.
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
and political commentary program appearing on Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, currently hosted by Bret Baier
Bret Baier
Bret Baier is an American journalist and the host of Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News Channel. He previously worked as the network's Chief White House Correspondent and Pentagon correspondent.-Career:...
. It airs live each Monday through Friday at 6:00pm ET. The show focuses on both reporting and analysis of the day's events, with a primary focus on national political news. The show has been a part of the Fox News program lineup since 1996 and is the number one cable news broadcast in its time slot.
Brit Hume
Brit Hume
Brit Hume is an American television journalist and political commentator.For twenty years he was a correspondent for the American Broadcasting Company, including Chief White House Correspondent. He then spent ten years as the Washington, D.C. managing editor of the Fox News Channel and the anchor...
hosted the show from its debut in 1996 until his retirement in December 2008. He has since appeared on the program as a panelist commentator.
Origins and history
The show originated in 1996 and was originally hosted by Brit Hume, who was, at the time, Washington, D.C. managing editorManaging editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
for the network. Hume hosted the program through December 23, 2008, when he hosted his final show before officially stepping down as anchor. The last fifteen minutes of Hume's final program served as a tribute to Hume, including kind words from former President George H.W. Bush, then-President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, then-Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, and then-ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
anchor Charles Gibson
Charles Gibson
Charles deWolf "Charlie" Gibson is a former American broadcast television anchor and journalist. He was a host of Good Morning America from 1987 to 1998 and 1999 to 2006 and anchor of World News with Charles Gibson from 2006 to 2009....
, as well as several Fox News reporters, and allowed him some final thoughts. Hume announced Bret Baier, who substituted for Hume on Fridays beginning in fall 2007, would become the full-time host after the holidays, while Hume moved to a new role as senior political analyst for the network. Chris Wallace and Shannon Bream
Shannon Bream
Shannon Bream is an American journalist for the Fox News Channel. She is Fox News's Supreme Court reporter as well as the Anchor of America's News Headquarters on Sundays from 12:00-2:00 p.m...
are occasional substitute anchors.
On June 15, 2009, the show launched in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
with new music and graphics.
From its inception, Special Report has broadcast live from the network's Capitol Hill studio in Washington. However, on some occasions, such as the night of a significant election, the program will broadcast from the network's New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
studios.
Format
The show reports on the day's events, usually focusing on political stories out of the nation's capitol, particularly on the PresidentPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, and the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
.
A typical show begins with news stories featuring various Fox News correspondents, followed by an interview conducted by Baier with political newsmakers or pundits. After the halfway point of the show (and a short break for current headlines), Baier presents a segment referred to as "the Political Grapevine" — a collection of short items, sometimes humorous, about minor political happenings. Baier sometimes uses this segment to point out oddities in coverage of a story by competing news media. (In the early days of the Iraq War, this segment was referred to by Brit Hume as "the Wartime Grapevine.")
The best-known part of Special Report is Baier's discussion with "The Fox All-Stars", a two-segment roundtable with a panel of three political reporters and columnists.
The show ends with a comedic clip, known as "the kicker", usually taken from the preceding night's shows by David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
, Jay Leno
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...
, Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money...
, or sometimes MADtv
MADtv
MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...
or Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. Brit Hume would usually sign off with, "That's Special Report for this time, please tune us in next time, and in the meantime, more news is on the way — fair, balanced and unafraid." When Bret Baier became host, he signed off with, "Your source for news, tonight and every night," which he later changed to, "Straightforward news in uncertain times." As of January 2010, Baier uses Hume's classic "fair, balanced and unafraid" sign-off.
"Fox All-Star" Panel members
- Charles KrauthammerCharles KrauthammerCharles Krauthammer, MD is an American Pulitzer Prize–winning syndicated columnist, political commentator, and physician. His weekly column appears in The Washington Post and is syndicated to more than 275 newspapers and media outlets. He is a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and The New...
- Washington Post columnist - Fred BarnesFred Barnes (journalist)Frederic W. Barnes is an American political commentator. He is the executive editor of the news publication The Weekly Standard and regularly appears on the Fox News Channel program Special Report with Bret Baier...
- Editor of the Weekly Standard - Tucker CarlsonTucker CarlsonTucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel...
- Editor of The Daily CallerThe Daily CallerThe Daily Caller is a news website based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a focus on politics, original reporting and breaking news, founded by journalist and political pundit Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, former adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney... - Nina EastonNina EastonNina Jane Easton is an American journalist. She serves as the Washington Bureau Chief for Fortune Magazine as well as a commentator on the Fox News Channel, appearing regularly on Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox News Sunday, and Hannity...
- Washington Bureau Chief for Fortune Magazine - Stephen F. HayesStephen F. HayesStephen F. Hayes is a columnist for The Weekly Standard, a prominent American conservative magazine. Hayes has been selected as the official biographer for Vice President Richard Cheney....
- Weekly Standard columnist - Bill Kristol - Editor of the Weekly Standard
- Mara LiassonMara LiassonMara Liasson is an American journalist and political pundit. She is the national political correspondent for National Public Radioand also a contributor at Fox News Channel.-Early life:...
- National Public Radio national political correspondent - Judith MillerJudith Miller (journalist)Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy...
- Journalist for the Manhattan InstituteManhattan InstituteThe Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is a conservative, market-oriented think tank established in New York City in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J... - Kirsten PowersKirsten PowersKirsten A. Powers is an American columnist, blogger, pundit, and political commentator. Powers is a Democratic political analyst on Fox News who appears regularly on shows such as The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News Sunday, Special Report with Bret Baier and Freedom Watch...
- DemocraticDemocratic Party (United States)The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
political analyst and New York PostNew York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
/Daily Beast columnist - Bill SammonBill SammonBill Sammon is Fox News Washington managing editor and a vice president for the network, as well as a published author and newspaper columnist. He previously worked as White House correspondent for the Washington Times and the Washington Examiner before joining Fox News in August 2008.-Personal...
- Fox News Channel's Vice President of News and Washington Managing Editor - A. B. StoddardA. B. StoddardAlexandra Brandon Stoddard is an associate editor of The Hill newspaper, a regular contributor to the paper's Pundits' Blog and a regular guest giving political commentary on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, PBS, HBO, BBC, CSPAN and Court TV....
- Associate Editor of The HillThe Hill (newspaper)The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times.... - Juan WilliamsJuan WilliamsJuan Williams is an American journalist and political analyst for Fox News Channel, he was born in Panama on April 10, 1954. He also writes for several newspapers including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and has been published in magazines such as The Atlantic...
- Fox News ChannelFox News ChannelFox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
senior correspondent - Erin Billings - Associate Editor of Roll CallRoll CallRoll Call is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C., United States, from Monday to Thursday when the United States Congress is in session and on Mondays only during recess. Roll Call reports news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of...
- Elliott AbramsElliott AbramsElliott Abrams is an American attorney and neoconservative policy analyst who served in foreign policy positions for two Republican U.S. Presidents, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. While serving for Reagan and in the State Department, Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, and retired U.S. Marine Corps officer...
- senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations - KT McFarlandKathleen Troia McFarlandKathleen Troia "KT" McFarland was the deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs at The Pentagon from 1982 to 1985 under President Ronald Reagan and speech writer to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger...
- Fox News national security analyst - Michael O'HanlonMichael O'HanlonMichael Edward O'Hanlon is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, specializing in defense and foreign policy issues. He began his career as a budget analyst in the defense field.-Education and early career:...
- senior fellow at The Brookings InstitutionBrookings InstitutionThe Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and... - Paul WolfowitzPaul WolfowitzPaul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
- visiting scholar at the American Enterprise InstituteAmerican Enterprise InstituteThe American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and... - Aaron Miller - Woodrow Wilson International Center for ScholarsWoodrow Wilson International Center for ScholarsThe Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , located in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial that was established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968...
- Nia Malika-Henderson - Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
Staff Writer - Karen TumultyKaren TumultyKaren Tumulty is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Before joining the Post, Tumulty wrote for Time from October 1994 to April 2010. She was a Congressional correspondent as well as the National Political Correspondent based in Washington D.C...
- The Washington Post national political correspondent - Jonah GoldbergJonah GoldbergJonah Jacob Goldberg is an American conservative syndicated columnist and author. Goldberg is known for his contributions on politics and culture to , of which he is editor-at-large...
- National ReviewNational ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
contributing editor - Charles LaneCharles Lane (journalist)Charles "Chuck" Lane is an American journalist and editor who is a staff writer for The Washington Post. His articles are concerned chiefly with the activities and cases of the Supreme Court of the United States and judicial system. He was the lead editor of The New Republic from 1997 to 1999...
- Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
Staff Writer