Fox News Just Made a Great Hire

Fox News announced on Wednesday the hiring of conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham. As a fan of smart political analysis on cable news (which is in short supply), I’m looking forward to seeing more of her.

Ham is a familiar face to cable news viewers; a widely-respected commentator, she’s bounced around from Fox and CNN while writing at a number of conservative outlets. While at CNN, she wasn’t shy about voicing her disagreements with the network and was eventually dropped as a contributor after speaking out about Jeffrey Toobin’s Zoom scandal.

Now she’s back at Fox, which would seem a better fit for her voice from the right. Yet Ham’s particular perspective is not what Fox News opinionators typically platform. She’s pragmatic and does not fall over herself to carry water for former President Donald Trump like so many other Fox contributors and hosts. She doesn’t paint the left as stupid or evil, spouting right-wing talking points like a MAGA chatbot.

Ham will stand out nicely among the more pro-Trump voices on the network, like Kayleigh McEnany, played a prominent role in disseminating Trump’s election lies in 2020 from her White House perch — a shameful display that was rewarded with a cable news contract. Outright lying about the results of an election used to be disqualifying for on-air hosts at news outlets. With McEnany, Fox carved out a glaring exception.

As someone who learned that it’s better to have an informed opinion bolstered by context rather than just shout my grievances into an echo chamber, I want to hear from someone who thinks differently from me. But I want to listen to an informed perspective, not cheap shots or vapid talking points. Nor do I want to listen to lies or cherry-picked half-truths presented as facts on any cable news outlet.

Ham’s excellent reputation as a conservative pundit precedes this latest gig for her. A DC resident, she is well-liked by cable news folks across the partisan spectrum. Now that she’s returned to Fox News, I am eager to listen to her, even if I don’t have to agree with her. It’s fair to say that Ham and I do not agree on everything, or most things politically, but that’s okay.

Here’s the thing about having different political opinions – we should have them. We have a constitutional right to have them. It’s patriotic! We have different ways of seeing our shared experiences. Like taxes. Some people think we should pay less taxes and keep our money so we can give it to a private company that provides a service, one that is specifically tailored to our personal needs. Some of us are willing to pay more taxes to let the government go ahead and take care of those services because we, as taxpayers and human beings, are entitled to them. That’s a difference of opinion, and it doesn’t make either side evil. Mary Katharine Ham seems to get that, and so do I.

But here’s what I see as the biggest problem with the loudest faction of today’s Republican Party and the conservative movement – all too often, they seem completely bought into the angriest, fringiest, and dishonest political dogma that was once the territory of only the darkest, weirdest parts of the internet. The fringe or extremist end is controlling the party, and to be fair, I can see how the same argument can be made about Democrats and the left as well. Or maybe that’s just how partisan cable news portrays ideological foes.

To be clear, socio-anthropological examinations at the fringes used to be the fun parts. But then people took them seriously. And then some of those people ran for office. Then the internet turned into an algorithm monster and blurred the lines between truth and fiction and, sadly, tried to call it freedom of speech, so no one could stop it. And it led to an actual insurrection, fueled by lies told by the biggest con man who pulled the biggest con on the country.

Ham has historically seen the clear lines between truth and conspiracy theory. I don’t know how she’s going to vote, and that’s her business. She might vote for Trump. But when she’s in the media representing the side opposite of mine, I feel like I can trust that she’s not just going to shove MAGA down my throat and call me and my liberal ilk stupid or gaslight me and make me wonder if I took a bad edible.

Even if she brings an an opinion that I might not like, I still want to hear it. She’s not out to be a bully, she’s out to present a point of view. And credit goes to Fox News for bringing her back, which says a lot about how much they respect their audience’s intelligence. (One small step in the right direction is still a step in the right direction.)

So welcome back to Fox News, Mary Katharine Ham. I look forward to disagreeing with you, but more than that, I look forward to hearing you.

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