Special Report with Brit Hume

Infobox Television
show_name = Special Report with Brit Hume


caption = Title card for Special Report
genre = Political news/talk program
camera = Multi-camera
picture_format = 480i NTSC
runtime = 60 minutes
presenter = Brit Hume
(Friday substitutes are listed here)
country = flag|United States
location = Washington DC
language = English
network = Fox News Channel
first_aired = 1998
last_aired = present
website = http://www.foxnews.com/specialreport
imdb_id = 0442646

"Special Report with Brit Hume" is an American television program appearing on Fox News Channel. It is aired live each Monday through Friday at 6:00pm ET.

About the show

The show is hosted by Brit Hume, Washington managing editor for the network. The show reports on the day's events, usually focusing on political stories out of the nation's capital, particularly on the U.S. President, the United States Congress, and the Supreme Court. The show has been a part of the Fox News program lineup since 1998, and is the number one political program in all of cable news. There have been reports that Hume plans to step down as host of "Special Report" at the end of 2008. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/15/AR2008071501744.html Fox's Hume to Step Down - washingtonpost.com] ]

Format breakdown

A typical show begins with news stories featuring various Fox News correspondents, followed by an interview conducted by Hume of political newsmakers or pundits. After the halfway point of the show (and a short break for current headlines), Hume presents what he humorously refers to as "the most scintillating two minutes in television," (or some variation of the same), the "Political Grapevine" — a collection of short items, sometimes humorous, about minor political happenings. Hume sometimes uses this segment to point out oddities in coverage of a story by competing news media. (In the early days of the Iraq War, this segment was referred to by Hume as the "Wartime Grapevine.")

The best-known part of "Special Report" is Hume's discussion with "The Fox All-Stars," a panel of three political reporters and columnists.

The show ends with a comedic clip, usually taken from the preceding night's shows by David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, or sometimes MADtv (which airs Saturday nights on the Fox network, also owned by News Corporation), or "Saturday Night Live." Hume then usually signs off with, "That's "Special Report" for this time, please tune us in next time, and in the meantime, more news is on the way— fair, balanced and unafraid."

Allegations of Bias

:"See also: #if:Fox News Channel controversies| | #if:{2|}|#if:{3|}|, | and #if:{3|}|#if:{4|}|, |, and #if:{4|}|#if:{5|}|, |, and #if:{5|}|#if:{6|}|, |, and #if:{6|}|#if:{7|}|, |, and #if:{7|}|#if:{8|}|, |, and #if:{8|}|#if:{9|}|, |, and #if:{9|}|#if:{10|}|, |, and #if:{10|}|#if:{11|}|, |, and #if:{11|}|#if:{12|}|, |, and #if:{12|}|#if:{13|}|, |, and #if:{13|}|#if:{14|}|, |, and #if:{14|}|#if:{15|}|, |, and #if:{15|}|, and #if:{16|}|… MAXIMUM 15 ARTICLES ALLOWED"A study published by Tim Groseclose, a professor of political science at UCLA, comparing political bias from such news outlets as the "New York Times", "USA Today", the Drudge Report, the "Los Angeles Times", and Fox News’ "Special Report", concluded that Fox News' "Special Report with Brit Hume" had an Americans for Democratic Action rating that was closest to the political center, and that Special Report was the most centrist news program on television. Groseclose used the number of times a host cited a particular think tank on his or her program and compared it with the number of times a member of the U.S. Congress cited a think tank, correlating that with the politician's Americans for Democratic Action rating. [http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.pdf] Some have disputed this rating based on a methodology that is allegedly questionable, especially regarding the fact that this study claimed that self-declared conservative publications such as the Drudge Report and the Wall Street Journal were actually liberal in their slant as well.Fact|date=January 2008

The methods used to calculate this bias, however, have been shown to have faults as explained by professor of Computer Science and the Director of Linguistic Data Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania Mark Liberman.cite web| last = Liberman| first = Mark| title = Multiplying ideologies considered harmful| publisher = Language Log| date= 2005-12-23| url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002724.html| accessdate = 2006-11-06] cite web| last = Liberman| first = Mark| title = Linguistics, politics, mathematics| publisher = Language Log| date= 2005-12-22| url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002723.html| accessdate = 2006-11-06] Mark states that the model chosen leads to "very implausible psychological claims, for which no evidence is presented." and concludes by saying he thinks "that many if not most of the complaints directed against G&M are motivated in part by ideological disagreement -- just as much of the praise for their work is motivated by ideological agreement. It would be nice if there were a less politically fraught body of data on which such modeling exercises could be explored."

The documentary Outfoxed pointed out a study by the liberal Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting which found that a full 83% of all guests brought onto Hume's program were conservative or Republican and only 17% were liberal or Democratic. Fact|date=January 2008

The Center for Media and Public Affairs found that, for between October 1 and December 15, 2007, the first half hour of "Special Report" provided almost a 50-50 split of positive and negative stories on both the Republican and Democratic candidates. [http://www.cmpa.com/releases/07_12_21_Election_Study.pdf]

The regular makeup of the so-called "All-Star Panel" is largely Republican. Mort Kondracke is a self-described "independent moderate", while Charles Krauthammer, Fred Barnes and Brit Hume are all self-described conservative Republicans.

"Fox All-Star" Panel

*Fred Barnes - Conservative Republican columnist of the Weekly Standard
*Jeff Birnbaum - Moderate columnist of the Washington Post
*Nina Easton - Moderate Washington Bureau Chief for Fortune Magazine
*Mort Kondracke - Moderate Columnist for The Hill
*Charles Krauthammer - Conservative Columnist of the Washington Post
*Bill Kristol - Editor of the Weekly Standard
*Mara Liasson - Liberal Correspondent for NPR
*Bill Sammon - Deputy Washington Managing Editor for Fox News
*Juan Williams - Liberal commentator and Senior Correspondent at NPR

Facts

Until 2007, news headlines during the live version of the broadcast were provided by Shepard Smith. (Note: This practice has been reinstated as of November 2007.)

A substitute host usually appears on the Friday edition of the program. The substitution gives Hume a chance to appear as a conservative panelist on "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace". Substitute hosts include Jim Angle (Fox News chief Washington correspondent), Bret Baier, Chris Wallace, and Brian Wilson. Lately, it has almost always been Baier.

"Special Report with Brit Hume" is broadcast at the network's Capitol Hill studio in Washington. However, on Election Night (or on nights the primary elections are held), the program is broadcast in the network's New York studios instead of its Washington, DC studio.

References

External links

* [http://www.SpecialReport.com/ "Breaking news" on SpecialReport.com]
* [http://www.foxnews.com/specialreport/ "Special Report with Brit Hume" on FoxNews.com]
* [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183981,00.html About "Special Report with Brit Hume" on FoxNews.com]
* [http://www.newshounds.us/special_report_wbrit_hume/ News Hounds: Special report With Brit Hume] Liberal-leaning critique of Special report With Brit Hume, updated frequently.