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Brit Hume

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Brit Hume
Born
Alexander Britton Hume

(1943-06-22) June 22, 1943 (age 81)
Washington, D.C.,
United States
EducationB.A., University of Virginia[1]
OccupationTelevision journalist
Notable credit(s)ABC News correspondent (1976–1988)
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent (1989–1996)
Special Report with Brit Hume anchor (1998–2008)
Fox News Senior Political Analyst (2008-present)
Spouse(s)Clare Jacobs Stoner (divorced)
Kim Schiller Hume
ChildrenLouis, Virginia,
Alexander, Jr. "Sandy" (deceased)[1]

Alexander Britton "Brit" Hume (born June 22, 1943) is a political commentator and television journalist. For twenty years he was a correspondent for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), including as Chief White House Correspondent. He then spent ten years as the Washington, D.C. managing editor of the Fox News Channel and the anchorman of Special Report with Brit Hume. Since 2008, he has been the senior political analyst for Fox News and a regular public affairs panelist for the television program Fox News Sunday.

Early life

Alexander Britton Hume was born in Washington, D.C., the son of George Graham Hume and Virginia Powell (née Minnigerode) Hume. He attended St. Albans School at the same time as Al Gore and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts in English during 1965.[1][2]

Career

Hume worked first for The Hartford Times newspaper company, and later for United Press International and the newspaper Baltimore Evening Sun.[3] He then worked for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson from 1970 to 1972,[4] and later for Richard Pollak, founding editor of [MORE] (a monthly media review published during the 1970s), as a Washington Editor during the mid-1970s.

Hume reported a story for Anderson's column "Washington Merry-Go-Round" that after ITT Corporation had contributed $400,000 to the 1972 Republican National Convention, President Nixon's Department of Justice had settled the antitrust case against ITT. Anderson published a series of classified documents indicating the Nixon administration, contrary to its public pronouncements, had favored Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. After those revelations, Anderson and his staff, including Hume and his family were briefly surveilled by the Central Intelligence Agency during 1972.[5][6] The agents code-named Hume "eggnog" and observed his family going about their daily business. These documents were revealed during President Ford's administration by Congressional hearings, and more recently as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and the so-called 'Family Jewels' revelations.

Hume started working for ABC News during 1973 as a consultant and during 1976 was offered a job as a correspondent, covering the House of Representatives for 11 years. He was assigned to report on Walter Mondale's presidential campaign during 1984 and Vice President George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. During 1989, he became ABC's chief White House correspondent,[3] covering the administrations of Presidents Bush and Clinton and working closely with Peter Jennings and Charlie Gibson.[7]

During January 1997, he resigned ABC for Fox News, for which his wife had recently become the chief of the network's Washington bureau.[3] At his last news conference as ABC's chief White House correspondent, President Clinton told him, "I think all of us think you have done an extraordinary, professional job under Republican and Democratic administrations alike."[7] Hume became Fox News's Washington managing editor and was in discussions about starting a Washington-based television news program for the 6 p.m. timeslot. The Lewinsky scandal began during January 1998, and Hume's wife told him the story was so well-known that he should start the show immediately; Special Report with Brit Hume was initiated that evening.[7]

On December 16, 2008, Hume appeared as a guest on the televison program The O'Reilly Factor and announced his retirement from the anchorman position. When asked how he would spend his time in retirement, Hume stated "Three Gs: God, granddaughters and golf."

On December 23, 2008, he hosted his final episode as anchor of Special Report, announcing that Bret Baier, then the chief White House correspondent for Fox News, would be his replacement. Hume also announced that he would remain with Fox News as a senior political analyst and regular panelist for the program Fox News Sunday.

On January 3, 2010, Hume generated some controversy when on Fox News Sunday he advised embattled golfer Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity to attempt to end his problems. Hume's comments were made after the revelation of Woods' habitual adultery and the resulting deterioration of his relationship with his family. Hume stated on the show that:[8]

Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it's a tragic situation for him. I think he's lost his family, it's not clear to me if he'll be able to have a relationship with his children, but the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal—- the extent to which he can recover—- seems to me to depend on his faith. He's said to be a Buddhist; I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'

Hume reiterated his remarks the next day on The O'Reilly Factor with Bill O'Reilly. Hume insisted to O'Reilly that he never meant to insult Buddhism, and stated that:[9]

I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than I was about anything else. I mentioned the Buddhism only because his mother is a Buddhist and he has apparently said that he is a Buddhist. I’m not sure how seriously he practices that.

Hume gave reason for his strong feelings on Christianity in an interview where he explained how he committed his life to Jesus Christ "in a way that was very meaningful" to him in the aftermath of his son's death by suicide during 1998.[10]

Political beliefs

Regarding his political beliefs, during 2006 Hume said, "Sure, I'm a conservative, no doubt about it. But I would ask people to look at the work."[7] In accepting the William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence from the conservative Media Research Center, he expressed his gratitude for

"The tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report. I don't know what we would have done without them. It was a daily, sort of a buffet of material to work from, and we—we—we certainly made tremendous use of it."[11]

Personal life and religious views

Previously married to and divorced from Clare Jacobs Stoner, Hume is married to Kim Schiller Hume, Fox News vice president and former Washington bureau chief.[12][13]

His son, Washington journalist Sandy Hume, was a reporter for the newspaper The Hill and first publicized the story of the aborted 1997 political attempt to replace Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. During February 1998, Sandy Hume committed suicide. The National Press Club honors his memory with its annual Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism.[7][14][15] More than a decade later, upon his 2008 departure from Special Report, Hume commented on part of the effect of his son's death:[16]

"I want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I'm not claiming it's impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died, I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it's a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you're not really living it."

Awards

Hume is the recipient of several awards including:[17]

Books

  • Hume, Brit (1971). Death and the Mines – Rebellion and Murder in the United Mine Workers. New York: Grossman. ISBN 0-670-26105-X. Retrieved 2008-12-31. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |origmonth=, |coauthors=, and |origdate= (help)
  • Hume, Brit (1974). Inside Story (1st ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-06526-4. Retrieved 2008-12-31. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |origmonth=, |month=, |origdate=, and |coauthors= (help) (a memoir of his days working with columnist Jack Anderson)

References

Specific references:

  1. ^ a b c d Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2009. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Document Number: H1000048166. Fee. Updated 10/02/2008. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
  2. ^ "Q & A – Transcript of Brit Hume interview". C-SPAN. July 20, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ a b c "FOXNEWS.com Brit Hume Bio". Fox News. 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2007-08-16.
  4. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39157420/ns/politics/
  5. ^ "Documents Show CIA Spying on Journalists, Including Brit Hume and Michael Getler". Associated Press. Editor and Publisher. June 21, 2007. Retrieved 2008-12-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Wilderotter, James A. (January 3, 1975). "CIA Matters (memorandum for the file)" (PDF). p. 2. Retrieved 2009-01-01. From February 15 to April 12, 1972 "personal surveillances" were conducted by the CIA on Jack Anderson and ... Britt Hume... The physical surveillances consisted only of watching the targets, and involved no breaking, entry or wiretaping. Apparently ... after ... "tilt toward Pakistan" stories. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e Kurtz, Howard (April 19, 2006). "Moving to the Right: Brit Hume's Path Took Him from Liberal Outsider to the Low-Key Voice of Conservatism on Fox News". Washington Post. p. C01. Retrieved 2008-12-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/04/brit-hume-tiger-woods-should-turn-to-the-christian-faith/
  9. ^ http://rawstory.com/2009/01/hume-tiger-needs-jesus/
  10. ^ Shales, Tom (January 5, 2010). "Brit Hume's off message: Have faith, Tiger Woods, as long as it's Christianity". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
  11. ^ Hume, Brit (March 19, 2009). "Brit Hume Accepts William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence". Media Research Center. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  12. ^ The Social List of Washington, D.C. and Social Precedence in Washington, Part 3", published 1990, page 212
  13. ^ "The Washington Social Register" (1974), page 75
  14. ^ Tapper, Jake (March 13–19, 1998). "Suicide Watch". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2008-12-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) (Vol. 18, #11)
  15. ^ "National Press Club Journalism Awards" (PDF). National Press Club. p. 2. Retrieved 2009-01-01. Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help) [dead link]
  16. ^ Paul J. Gough (November 4, 2008). "Q&A: Brit Hume". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2010-01-05. [dead link]
  17. ^ "Q & A Brit Hume". C-SPAN. July 20, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)

General references:

Media offices
Preceded by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent
1989–1996 		Succeeded by

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