Brit Hume Biography

Alexander Britton "Brit" Hume (born June 22, 1943) is a conservative political commentator and television journalist.

For twenty three years he was a correspondent for ABC News, 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 anchor 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 and education

He was born in Washington, D.C., the son of George Graham Hume and Virginia Powell (née Minnigerode) Hume. Through his father, Hume is of Scottish descent.

Hume 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 in 1965.

Career

Hume worked first for The Hartford Times newspaper company, and later for United Press International and the newspaper Baltimore Evening Sun. He then worked for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson from 1970 to 1972, 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 Richard 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. The agents code-named Hume "eggnog" and observed his family going about their daily business. These documents were revealed during President Gerald 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 U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate 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, covering the administrations of Presidents Bush and Bill Clinton and working closely with Peter Jennings and Charlie Gibson.

During January 1997, he resigned ABC for Fox News, for which his wife had recently become the chief of the network's Washington bureau. 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." 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.

On December 16, 2008, Hume appeared as a guest on the television 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:

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:

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 in 1998.

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." 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."

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.

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. In 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. More than a decade later, upon his 2008 departure from Special Report, Hume commented on part of the effect of his son's death:

"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:

• Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalist (2003)
• Emmy Award for coverage of the Gulf War (1991)
• American Journalism Review "Best in the Business" award (twice) for White House coverage

Books

• (a memoir of his days working with columnist Jack Anderson)