Brit Hume Should Succeed Chris Wallace On Fox News Sunday

Fox News is currently on the hunt for the esteemed Chris Wallace’s replacement as anchor of Fox News Sunday.

The dominant cable news network should go with someone in house whose experience is impeccable.

Brit Hume is the perfect choice.

I remembered the days as a kid of watching, with my mother, Hume master the anchor chair as he hosted Special Report, which he did between 1998 and 2008.

Hume has had an incredible career in journalism. He first worked in print at the now-defunct Hartford Times, United Press International, The Baltimore Sun, and for the late, syndicated columnist Jack Anderson.

In 1976, Hume became a correspondent for ABC News, where he covered Capitol Hill for more than a decade and then served as chief White House correspondent for several years. In 1996, during his last news conference in that role, President Bill Clinton told him, “I think all of us think you have done an extraordinary, professional job under Republican and Democratic administrations alike.”

Clinton’s words continue to hold true. Hume has a record of unequivocally holding Democrats and Republicans accountable – a standard that Wallace has also demonstrated. Hume has criticized Donald Trump – for example, when it comes to his rampant tweeting during his presidency – and Joe Biden, for example, when it comes to his fitness for office.

During Hume’s final episode anchoring Special Report, a video tribute of him created by the Fox News staff played.

“He had the mind of a journalist,” said then-correspondent Jim Angle in the video. “And that’s all he ever thought about was getting the story and getting the story right.”

“After decades of hard work you’ve become one of the most respected journalists in the business,” said then-President George W. Bush.

“Fairness is not an attitude. Fairness is a skill,” Hume said in one soundbite. And it’s a skill that is needed particularly in today’s hyper-partisan media environment.

Especially as Fox News has come under fire for inexplicably and disgracefully downplaying the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol — even though, as it was revealed this week, hosts frantically texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the violence on the day itself — the network needs to demonstrate its commitment to installing a serious journalist to the helm of Fox News Sunday, not an opinion pundit.

Hume demonstrated his aptitude in that regard when he blamed Trump squarely for the Jan. 6 tragedy.

“I don’t think there is much doubt that the president’s actions and his entire conduct post the election are what led us to this point,” said Hume on that day. “If you were a Trump believer and you believe the extravagant claims he has made about how this election was stolen, you believe, therefore, that something truly horrible has happened that changes the face of our Republic.”

Although Hume left the anchor chair 12 years ago to be Fox’s senior political analyst, succeeding Wallace on Sundays would be a once-a-week commitment that does not present the same punishing schedule as anchoring a weekday program like Special Report.

Fox News has already announced a slate of impressive names to replace Wallace on a rotational basis until a permanent host is named: Bret Baier, John Roberts, Shannon Bream, Martha MacCallum, Neil Cavuto, Jennifer Griffin, Harris Faulkner, Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino.

But having Hume in the Sunday anchor chair would allow for Fox News to avoid a messy and unnecessary shuffle: The network’s news anchors could remain on the shows they host. The expertise of its reporters, like Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin, is hard to replace — and wouldn’t have to be.

In the Special Report tribute video of Hume, the late president George H.W. Bush said, “Brit, here we are memorializing you and you’re not even dead yet.”

The guessing game over who will succeed Wallace should end already. Hume is the best choice. Fox News should make it happen.

Watch above, via CSPAN and Fox News.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.