Just Asking: Bret Baier, Fox News Channel’s chief political anchor
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Version 0 of 1. Bret Baier, 43, is the host of “Special Report With Bret Baier.” He is also the author of “Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love” about his son Paul’s congenital heart disease. What’s the best insult you’ve received? Ha-ha-ha. That’s a great question. Best insult? “You work too hard.” Well, that’s not really an insult. Oh, “You’re too nice.” That’s a good one. You don’t like hearing that? No, because they want you to be tougher. I spend a lot of time on Twitter and e-mail interacting with readers, and that’s where I hear that. Twitter is sort of a field of land mines. Do you ever start to tweet and pull back? Yeah, I’m one Twitter rant away from causing a scene. But I try not to. Fortunately there’s only 140characters. Some cable news channels have a distinct bent — conservative or liberal. Is that good for America? You know, I focus on my show from 6 to 7, which is a news show. And clearly we have opinion shows that have an opinion that are conservative in nature. There’s a market; people are watching that. So whether it’s good for America or not, well, there are many other things to watch, and they choose to watch that. You’ve lived in D.C. now for 13 years. Do you feel like a Washingtonian? I do. I have Wizards season tickets, which was a good thing this year. I go to Redskins games, and yeah, this is home. In your new book, you write about your son’s serious heart condition and multiple surgeries. This is like every parent’s terror dream. What have you taken from that entire experience? It has shown us how important family is and how precious every second with these little guys is, because you really never know when something is going to happen. So our journey has been tough, but it has also been really good for our family and for me as a person. What’s the best advice someone in the business has given you? Brit Hume, my mentor and friend, told me: “Don’t make it about you. Make it about the news.” That has been very helpful, especially as the show gets more and more successful. There’s a video of you online performing “Rapper’s Delight.” Where does that rank on your list of life’s regrets? Ha-ha. Oh, man, that has made the rounds. Ah, listen, it wasn’t a regret. It was fun. In fact, I had the Sugarhill Gang call and ask if I wanted them to come on the show. It doesn’t really fit into the genre. How could you say no to that? Well, who knows? Maybe we’ll do it down the road. More Just Asking For stories, features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit WP Magazine. Follow the Magazine on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. E-mail us at wpmagazine@washpost.com. |