WASHINGTON — Shannon Bream, Fox News Sunday anchor and chief legal correspondent, sat for a keynote chat at The Business of TV News, with Tom Umstead, senior content producer, B+C Multichannel News, asking the questions. Asked about changes in the newsgathering business in recent years, Bream spoke about how social media makes most everyone a reporter.
“We have access to more information than ever,” she said, but there’s “a whole army of people who are going to get to the scene before you can.”
Read More: Coverage From the Business of TV News Event
She also spoke about reaching younger consumers on platforms other than television. “We need to go where they are and communicate in a way that makes sense for them,” Bream said.
Bream, a lawyer, spoke of using her mother as a gauge to make sure the more complicated stories she covers make sense with viewers in general. “Why does this matter to her?” she said, then asking, “do you get that?” after it airs.
B+C, Multichannel News and NextTV are hosting The Business of TV News event at the Hotel Washington here May 2.
Asked about how Fox News stands out in the cluttered media landscape, Bream said, “We do have a place that feels very much like a family.”
She also touched on Fox News using digital platforms, such as Fox Nation, to broaden its reach, and the array of content it covers.
“News is our bread and butter,” she said, but Fox Nation provides “ways to capture new and different audiences.”
Asked about her own news sources, Bream cited social media, opinion pages and the “bank of TVs” in her office. Local news, she said, is a vital source for breaking stories. “Local sources are the heart of the news business,” she said, with key resources in a given community when news happens.
Stepping into Fox News Sunday in 2022, Bream said the show offers “a lot of institutional knowledge.” She’s been working on relationships in the White House, Congress and elsewhere in the Beltway. “It takes relationship building, which takes some time,” she said.
She said she asks weekly for President Joe Biden to come on, to no avail. She also said she’d be eager to “pick the brain” of Chief Justice John Roberts.
Asked which issue may determine the election more than others, Bream mentioned immigration and abortion, but also cited the axiom “It’s the economy, stupid” in singling out the key issue.
“The economy just permeates real life,” she said.
