Bill Hemmer Interview…

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Patricia Sheridan interviews FNC’s Bill Hemmer…

Being a news anchor on one of the three main networks used to be the pinnacle of success in the broadcast world.

I think it has [changed] in the sense that media has changed and the way people get their information. Cable news has become an enormous player in that game. I know a lot of people in the cable news business who wield quite the heavy stick when it comes to influence. The media landscape has shifted. It’s made cable a very important player. You used to find that primarily the people who watched cable news were in either Washington, D.C., or New York City, and with the growth of the Fox News Channel that has clearly changed.

So when you first started out, was your goal to be Tom Brokaw?

[Laughing.] My goal? Way long ago I would have been happy to be a disc jockey at a rock ‘n’ roll station. But times change and people evolve. My ambition has always been the news angle. Personally, look, I think opinion news in the cable world is enormously influential, and it’s been hugely successful for a lot of people. Based on their viewership, the evidence is clear. But that’s not my game. I’d rather moderate the debate than lead it. [Laughing.] I don’t think I’m very good at opinion news. I think I’d much rather be shipped off to Iran to report or Saudi Arabia or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or to Haiti to cover the earthquake.

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