This is Part I of a three part series with Fox News Anchor Bret Baier. Baier, the host of "Special Report w/ Bret Baier," sat down exclusively with TVLifer to discuss his career in television news. Part I chronicles Bret's path from a student journalist to Fox News.
He has delivered exclusive interviews with the world's top news makers including President George W. Bush and General David Petraeus. He has served as Chief White House Correspondent and National Security Correspondent. And, oh, did we also mention that he has the number show at 6 o'clock in all of cable news with the ratings and Facebook fans to prove it.
Baier is now among the elite news broadcasters in the nation. But, Baier's climb to the top was marked by many of the same challenges that face aspiring anchors and reporters today. Not the least of which is where and how to start. "I was always interested in journalism. I had interned at WSB in Atlanta and became fascinated with the business," said Baier from his office in the Fox News Washington Bureau.
After graduating from DePauw University, where he served as the school's first anchor, Baier got his "on-air" break at WJWJ-TV in Beaufort, SC. Assigned to the Hilton Head Island bureau (not a bad gig for an avid golfer), Baier did the shooting, editing, and reporting. "I remember that my deadline was 3pm instead of 5pm because I had to get my story to a plane which left the Hilton Head Airport so that it would arrive in Beaufort in time for the show. I can't tell you how many times my day ended chasing that plane down the runway to make my deadline. And sometimes I was covering stories about new azaleas they had put in that week."
Baier left WJWJ, got an internship at CNN, and took a bartending job in Washington, DC without knowing what market he would land in next. He acknowledges how emotional it is when you're starting out and trying to move forward. "I definitely felt discouraged at times and even thought about giving up. In those days there was no list of job postings online. You had to call a phone number for available jobs and at that point you figured a million people already knew about it."
Opportunities did come calling. After turning down an affiliate in Amarillo, Texas - Baier caught on with WREX (NBC) in Rockford, Illinois. "This was a great market for a young reporter. There were lots of stories to cover including crime and the school district. I did have some horrific live shots. During one, a drunk came up to me and I had to toss back to the studio because I couldn't get away from him. Also, one time someone threw a loaf of bread at my head."
The rough live shots helped motivate Baier to improve his skills. To this day he credits studying award-winning reporter tapes for his success. "I would try to copy what the best in the business were doing and used that to focus on my tape. I worked hard to write to the video, so that combined with improved live shots I could have the best chance of moving on. I was in Rockford for 11 months, 4 days, and 3 hours - the whole time anticipating the next stop."
The next stop was WRAL (CBS) in Raleigh, NC where Baier was put to the test his first day on the job when a tornado rolled through the region. "I went to a trailer park and ended up turning one of the best pieces of my career on the first day." Looking back Baier recalls what a powerhouse WRAL truly was in the market, "after that first story I stopped by a diner in Lizard Lick, NC and about ten guys were sitting at the counter and one of them said 'Hey Bret.'" Recognized on your first day, not bad. It was at WRAL that Baier shifted to the political beat taking over coverage of the North Carolina General Assembly for Jim Axelrod who left for a position with the CBS Evening News.
After two and a half years in Raleigh, Baier got a call from his agent who told him that Fox News wanted him to be their Southeast bureau reporter. "I asked my agent if they wanted me to come up to New York for an interview? He said no - they want to hire your to be their man in the Southeast." At the time who could have predicted that Fox News would grow so quickly. "Nobody knew what FNC was. But, the pay was better. I was close to home and I thought signing a three year deal was the right move."
Fox News was in its earliest days and in some ways it reminded Bret of being a one man band reporter again. "The Atlanta bureau of Fox News started in my apartment - just me and a fax machine. I was getting freelance help on a daily basis - but then we soon hired a staffer and then a producer and so on. That didn't stop us from competing. We've always been a scrappy group at Fox. Our boss, Roger Ailes, even had a big billboard put up in Atlanta right across from CNN the day the bureau opened."
At the bureau, Baier covered all the big stories which took him across the region including 13 hurricanes, Elian Gonzalez, and Timothy McVeigh. But, it would be Bret's passion for political reporting and the 2000 Presidential Election that would ultimately bring him to Washington, DC.
In Part II of our exclusive interview with Bret Baier you will learn about his experience covering the Florida recount and replacing his mentor Brit Hume as the anchor of FNC's Special Report.