Patterico's Pontifications

A Classy Guy, whose daily appearances will be missed.
Can’t wait to see what he’s got in mind for the coming year?

Another Drew (171f89) — 12/24/2008 @ 9:46 am

No reason to watch Fox News anymore, really – I first went there because of Snow, then stayed on because of Hume. Their bench looks mighty weak at this point.

Dmac (e30284) — 12/24/2008 @ 9:57 am

He’ll be missed, but FOX will march onward.

BTW Did you see that the New York Slimes ad revenue was down over 21%!!! Happy Day!! Die Dinosaur, Die!

J. Raymond Wright (d83ab3) — 12/24/2008 @ 10:02 am

Oh I will miss him! The only thing I watched on Fox were the All Stars segments, which were always better when he was around.

He was blessed with a natural gravitas in his look, even when he was a lot younger. Sorta what that guy who follows him doesn’t have..

cassandra (5a5d33) — 12/24/2008 @ 10:23 am

Brit Hume is the best TV journalism has to offer. I’ve seen them all, and Brit is better at his craft than anyone else by a wide margin, more fair, more prepared, and more accurate. Simply, the most outstanding member of his profession to date, and his best contributions are yet to come.

Ropelight (d40bc3) — 12/24/2008 @ 10:36 am

Brett, not Brit, is the new incarnation of Alfred E. Neuman!
First there was Ted Koeppel, now we have Brett Baier;
but the guys in the field are too good at their jobs to put them behind a desk, and Shep is insufferable.
Time will tell how well this works;
but hey, they could always steal Katie from CBS.

Another Drew (171f89) — 12/24/2008 @ 10:40 am

They really need some heavy weights there. Most of it is fluff. The trouble is that every other “news” source is no better. I pretty much use TV only for sports. Cable TV has lost its charm except for a few channels like Military and National Geographic.

Mike K (531ff4) — 12/24/2008 @ 11:03 am

Yes. He is also a Republican.

love2008 (1b037c) — 12/24/2008 @ 12:18 pm

Nothing against Brit Hume, who (as everyone notes) is a class act, but isn’t this clip just more of the same old media self-congratulation and vain preening?

JVW (bff0a4) — 12/24/2008 @ 1:11 pm

Comment by JVW — 12/24/2008 @ 1:11 pm

You would be correct, if he did this every week. But since it’s only at the end of a 20 year stint, I think it’s okay.

Newtons Bit (acb97e) — 12/24/2008 @ 1:26 pm

You would be correct, if he did this every week. But since it’s only at the end of a 20 year stint, I think it’s okay.

OK, that’s a good point. But if he gets more than two lifetime achievement awards from the myriad of media organizations that seem to exist for just that purpose, I am going to call a foul.

JVW (bff0a4) — 12/24/2008 @ 1:40 pm

If Faux news were really fair and balanced, they’d woo real journalists who have done their homework and are not shills for the evil Bushitler regime. Way too much eye candy there. They should pay people who are not getting their fair value from the other networks. Ratings would zoom adding Andrea Mitchell, Keith Olbermann or the deity Chris Matthews, who won the quote of the years award for “felt a thrill up my leg”. …or maybe it was down his leg. Better speaking truth to power than kissing Dubya’s arse. An example of someone with cojones who tells it like it is and risks public chastising is the great artist Bruce Springsteen who hatred for Bush drove him to new creative heights (on Drudge now). Note to Murdock- any of the serious thespians I mentioned are well worth the eight figure income that they seek.

madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 12/24/2008 @ 2:26 pm

I first saw Brit Hume twenty-nine years ago when he did an hour-long documentary for ABC News about the chemical contamination at Love Canal, New York called The Killing Ground. I was still in junior high at the time, and was engrossed. It was nominated for an Academy Award.

I knew that Hume was a different breed of journalist when he appeared on Donahue along with other reporters and foreign policy “experts” on the eve of the deadline for Saddam’s withdrawal from Kuwait before the Gulf War in 1991. Donahue, ever the long-winded peacenik, was slamming the H.W. WH over the entire matter, and Brit — still at ABC News — was socking it back to him to the amazement of all the other panelists.

Shepard Smith is Ted Baxter on Thorazine. Megyn Kelly, Julie Banderas, and the various eye candy that grace O’Reilly’s set are nice (hello, Ms. Body Language!), but there’s no substitute for honest reportage of things that nobody knows enough about to even ask, and that’s what we got from the field reporters and correspondents on Special Report.

Hopefully, Bret Baier will develop some gravitas of his own.

L.N. Smithee (da0b05) — 12/24/2008 @ 3:37 pm

L wrote:

…Yes. He is also a Republican….

Well, at least he isn’t a thespian.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Eric Blair (9294a8) — 12/24/2008 @ 3:41 pm

By the way, LNS: I really appreciate your thoughtful posts. Sometimes I do not fully agree with you, but you never seem to shoot off your mouth (metaphorically). You think before you post.

I tip my hat.

Eric Blair (9294a8) — 12/24/2008 @ 3:42 pm

madmax333 wrote: …Bruce Springsteen who hatred for Bush drove him to new creative heights (on Drudge now).

It is to laugh. IMHO, he’s been on the decline since his dual-LPs Lucky Town and Human Touch back in 1992.

BTW, am I the only one who wonders what in the world Bruce is doing with his right hand on the cover of Born in the U.S.A.? Looks kinda Bill Ayers-ish to moi.

L.N. Smithee (da0b05) — 12/24/2008 @ 3:49 pm

They should pay people who are not getting their fair value from the other networks. Ratings would zoom adding Andrea Mitchell, Keith Olbermann or the deity Chris Matthews, who won the quote of the years award for “felt a thrill up my leg”. …or maybe it was down his leg. Better speaking truth to power than kissing Dubya’s arse.

Madmax333 have you had your dose of Thorazine today?

Mike Myers (31af82) — 12/24/2008 @ 3:49 pm

Thanks, Eric. 🙂

L.N. Smithee (da0b05) — 12/24/2008 @ 3:50 pm

Comment by Eric Blair — 12/24/2008 @ 3:41 pm
What does christmas mean to you?

love2008 (1b037c) — 12/24/2008 @ 4:14 pm

he’s been on the decline since his dual-LPs Lucky Town and Human Touch back in 1992.

Says you! He still tells a better story than most.

LNS, I think the various eye candy works against any seriousness Fox may be hoping to establish. It always feels as if they are forcing one of two possible points: they can compete w/MSM and have hotties with journalism backgrounds (or lawyers as in Megan Kelly & Margaret Hoover), or, that they are just that shallow and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Either way, it feels a bit desperate, like trying too hard.

Britt Hume didn’t need a short skirt, perkiness or any contrivances to convince me of his professionalism and remarkable acumen in the political world.

Dana (79a78b) — 12/24/2008 @ 4:23 pm

17. suffering from hypothermia here with temp having dropped to 22.77778 degrees…oops, that’s celsius, I mean 73 fahrenheit. I wonder where my Congressman, the right honorable Robert Wexler, is at the moment. What happened to that Bush impeachment drive?

But seriously, if Fox News were any good at all, would not the dems have agreed to Presidential debates there? Chrissie is a future US Senator, Andrea is married to once powerful Greenspan and Keith is a brilliant sports analyst and perceptive political raconteur.

Merry Xmas to all, even the atheists and obamatards.

madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 12/24/2008 @ 4:30 pm

Hume was a lackey for Jack Anderson. Speaks volumes. I met Hume years ago in his ABC News days amidst a press gaggle covering President Ford on a campaign stop in Ohio. Steadfastly refused to move to let locals photograph the visiting Ford until one old gent shouted, ‘You see him every day, we don’t.’ Embarassed by the old fella, Hume relented.

DCSCA (d8da01) — 12/25/2008 @ 6:19 pm

LOL, Mad Max, a very appropriate name! Max, Chill, Lighten Up, the Great Messiah has arrived!

“Happy Days are Here Again!”

Boosh is done, he can’t run again! You should be “dancing in the street!”

mike (f9cedd) — 12/25/2008 @ 8:16 pm

Dmac @ #2 – 2 words.

Megyn. Kelly.

JD (ba27e7) — 12/25/2008 @ 8:19 pm

Dana: thanks for the visual. Now I’m going to have nightmares about Brit Hume in a short skirt. As to the others, let’s just say that without a few lawbabes like Megyn Kelly, they couldn’t call the channel Fox News. Truth in advertising, I say.

Mike: methinks you’ve fallen into the great sarchasm. From where I sit, MadMax’s version of moonbattery matches right-wing stereotypes of moonbats too well to be real.

Xrlq (62cad4) — 12/26/2008 @ 4:07 am

#25 Xrlq:

Now I’m going to have nightmares about Brit Hume in a short skirt.

Not something I’d like to see either, but I figger he’s one of the few that could carry off wearing a kilt.

Still, not a visual for the faint of heart, but not nightmare inducing anyway.

EW1(SG) (e27928) — 12/26/2008 @ 5:56 am

DCSCA wrote:

Hume was a lackey for Jack Anderson. Speaks volumes.

It “speaks volumes” only if we can read your mind to know what you thought of Anderson. Elucidate, please.

I met Hume years ago in his ABC News days amidst a press gaggle covering President Ford on a campaign stop in Ohio. Steadfastly refused to move to let locals photograph the visiting Ford until one old gent shouted, ‘You see him every day, we don’t.’ Embarassed by the old fella, Hume relented.

What power did Brit have to allow or prevent people from having access to the President?

L.N. Smithee (da0b05) — 12/26/2008 @ 12:04 pm

12/24/2008

The End of Brit Hume’s Last “Special Report”

27 Responses to “The End of Brit Hume’s Last “Special Report””

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