Hume will leave ABC for Fox News

Abstract

ABC's chief White House reporter, Brit Hume, will join Fox News as a chief Washington correspondent and managing editor in January 1997. The 23-year veteran of ABC News will cover major political stories and contribute news analysis to Fox News Channel and Fox News Edge, the Fox network's affiliate news services.

Headnote

New Washington chief represents coup for Murdoch

In a major coup for Rupert Murdoch, ABC's chief White House reporter Brit Hume will join Fox News as chief Washington correspondent and managing editor in January.

The 23-year veteran of ABC News will cover major political stories and contribute news analysis to Fox News Channel and Fox News Edge, the Fox network's affiliate news services. He joins ABC alums Catherine Crier and Mike Schneider at Fox-as well as his wife, Kim Schiller Hume, who was appointed bureau chief/senior producer of the Washington office in August.

"They made an offer that was just too good to turn down," says Hume, adding that the offer from Fox "took my breath away." Hume's contract with ABC expires at the end of the year.

"I thought people would be wondering why I'm leaving the Yankees to join an expansion team," he continued. "But we see the Fox News Channel in Washington. We know that this is an amazing start-un."

Murdoch, News Corp. chairman, said, "I have long been an admirer of Brit Hume's work, and we are proud to have him join our company."

ABC will replace Hume with John Donvan, a veteran foreign correspondent who has been covering politics, race and the economy for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings since 1994. He begins in January.

A former print reporter, Hume joined ABC in 1973 as a consultant for the network's documentary division and was named a Washington correspondent in 1976. He was promoted to Capitol Hill correspondent in 1977 and covered that beat through 1988. A year later, he was named the network's chief White House correspondent.

Hume expects to perform a wide variety of duties for Fox News, from takeout pieces from Washington to "shorter, analytical commentaries, not opinions. It's something I've wanted to do for years. I believe it can be done without the hint of bias."

Hume said he was approached earlier this year by Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, but contract restraints made it impossible to talk. Thanks to his wife, "I had this great mole to tell me what was going on, whether it was a place I wanted to be or not. All reports are positive."

Hume deserves top billing at Fox News, but Murdoch's news channel has managed to attract a number of movers in the business, including Crier, Schneider and Fred Barnes, a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group and CBS This Morning. The Fox News Channel launched Oct. 7 in more than 17 million homes, offering live newscasts every half-hour, 24 hours a day.