“Accidental TV Journalist” Major Garrett Explains His Move Back To Print

Mediaite: Inevitably there will be those who want to know how much of this had to do with Fox News, and not TV news specifically. Did the opinion programming that exists on the network have anything to do with your decision?

Garrett: No.

Mediaite: So it was all about getting out of TV news as a whole.

Garrett: It really was a desire to get back to where I started in this business. I turned 48 yesterday. Effectively, if I’m honest with myself, I have one-third of a career left. I have been lucky enough to write three books, and another great ambition is to get back, if possible, to write another book. I have always considered myself an accidental TV journalist. When the first TV job you’re ever offered is covering the White House for CNN, it’s idiotic not to take it. But I told people at CNN then, ‘if this doesn’t work out, doesn’t satisfy me, I can always go back to the happy life as a print reporter. When started thinking more actively about it a couple months ago, it didn’t seem like a bright idea, to put it mildly. And at a certain level, I was surprised – more than that – elated, that National Journal would think I have enough print reporter still left in me to give me a shot at what motivated me to be a journalist in the first place.

Mediaite: But also in your current role, you have been at the center of whatever was happening between the White House and Fox News. Did that have any effect on your decision?

Garrett: When I did the first interview with President Obama after the quote-unquote ceasefire, I did it in Beijing, and the next time I was on TV was in Seoul, with Bret Baier on Special Report, the most important news hour on Fox News. And we were live, and he asked me what I think of the ceasefire in the “war.” I said on air what I’ve always believed – I am a conscientious objector in that – I never fought, I never tried to fight, all I tried to do was cover the White House day-to-day. Would life have been easier had it never existed? Sure, but that wasn’t the choice. The choice was to be the best reporter covering the White House and not have it deter me from what the audience deserved, and to report the news.

Mediaite: National Journal has been mentioned several times in the last month on Fox News, and its reporters appear on cable news often. Do you imagine you might be back on Fox News in the future in your new role?

Garrett: Here’s where I am on that. I don’t want to be a reporter who goes on cable to talk about anything that I haven’t reported on specifically. If I reported something, written something, and Fox or CNN or MSNBC or BBC deems it important and wants to talk about it, I’m happy to talk about it, but that’s it. I have no interest in being on television simply to be on television.

Mediaite: Now what’s really important – you have a big following on Twitter, but your handle is @MajorAtWH. What will you change it to?

Garrett: I don’t know. I have to work on it. It’s an important thing – I have tried to have respectful, and enjoyable relations with my followers, I always thank them for following, they don’t have to. It’s to be determined. It’s a serious point, and I don’t take it lightly.

(This has been edited for length and clarity.)

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