By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Bret Baier, who took over Fox's Washington newscast last night, dutifully declares that he will gradually put his own "stamp" on the program.

Yet in praising the decade-old show that Brit Hume built from scratch -- with its heavy focus on politics and punditry -- Baier doesn't sound like a man with an agenda. "Why change the thing that has worked so well?" he asks.

The 38-year-old reporter alters one very important thing with his presence in the "Special Report" anchor chair. Hume was a proud conservative who saw himself as providing a balanced counterweight to the media's liberal slant. Baier says he is an independent who does not bring an ideological approach to his work.

Still, he says, "this campaign has at times been an easy ride for the Obama team. If that were to continue, people would be disappointed. Fox doesn't have to be in a mode of attack, but it has to be in a mode of covering stories that perhaps other news organizations are not going to do. . . . There's an argument to be made that Fox could do even better in this environment."

Baier declines to say why he believes other outlets will shy away from such stories, but adds: "I hope the media will cover the Obama administration with as much aggressiveness as they covered the Bush administration."

Baier was the front-runner from the moment Hume announced that he would give up his show, as well as his post as the network's Washington managing editor, at the end of 2008. Hume endorsed the Brit-to-Bret switch.

"He's a very serious guy, and a good reporter," Hume says. "I picked that up almost from the first time I saw him. Bret was a guy who did very good [taped] packages. He wrote them well. And he completely got what we were talking about with fair-and-balanced news."

On last night's program, Baier told viewers he is "dedicated to keeping the same high standards that Brit set for this show." He even kept the tradition of using a funny kicker, changing only Hume's defiant sign-off -- promising news "fair, balanced and unafraid" -- to the more neutral "your source for news, tonight and every night."

A veteran of local television, Baier was covering politics for the CBS affiliate in Raleigh, N.C., when he sent an audition tape to Fox in 1998. He was quickly tapped to be the fledgling network's Atlanta bureau chief, working out of his apartment. "There was apprehension," he says. "I really didn't know what Fox News Channel was."

Baier was constantly on the road, covering 14 hurricanes and stories such as the Elian Gonzalez melodrama, which included six trips to the young boy's native Cuba, and the 2000 election recount. On Sept. 11, 2001, he drove from Georgia to Virginia to cover the attack on the Pentagon, and never returned to Atlanta. He was stationed at the Pentagon for five years, making 13 trips to Iraq and 11 to Afghanistan.

Baier exudes earnestness as he talks about his move to the White House beat two years ago: "To stand in that Oval Office as the president is meeting foreign leaders, and ask the president a question that can not only be the news of the day but of the week or month, is a privilege."

He is popular at the White House. "I've always said about Bret: How does he pack so much information into a package?" says presidential press secretary Dana Perino. "He's a reporter who's worked his way up the old-fashioned way. He isn't snarky or rude. . . . He also pursues stories that others won't necessarily have time to do, and he knows many different subjects, from the economy to Middle East peace to Guantanamo Bay."

When Baier's son Paul, who was born with heart defects, was scheduled for a second open-heart surgery last year, President Bush invited the reporter and his wife, Amy, to bring him to the Oval Office for a visit. Bush had the White House physician keep him posted on the boy's progress. Paul, now 18 months, is doing well, though he faces more operations.

Baier has not been a pushover for the president, however. In an exit interview with Bush last month, he asked about criticism that Bush's "policies on interrogation techniques amounted to torture, and the policies for surveillance amounted to illegal wiretapping, and that America's image was hurt around the world and that made us less safe." As for the financial crisis, he asked: "Are you worried about being the Herbert Hoover of the 21st century?"

Under Hume, "Special Report" -- originally a temporary moniker during the Clinton impeachment scandal -- has for years been No. 1 in cable news at 6 p.m. He left to video tributes from Bush and Vice President Cheney. Baier will be competing against CNN's "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer and MSNBC's "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," where David Shuster is the new anchor, after David Gregory's move to "Meet the Press."

Baier says Fox has a conservative reputation "because of our opinion shows," but that "Special Report" and Shepard Smith's 7 p.m. newscast feature "a straight-down-the-middle presentation."

In the fall of 2007, Fox asked Baier to substitute for Hume on Fridays. "My palms were sweating," he says. "They had to call in the makeup lady five times. It was a bit of Albert Brooks. I was definitely feeling the pressure."

Baier gained enough confidence to win the job, but continues to view Hume with something approaching awe. "His shoes are so big, he's such a legend in this industry, that you feel a responsibility," Baier says.

Hume, for his part, envies his successor in one respect: "He has this radiant smile, which is a huge asset in the anchor chair. I was always trying to fight a natural tendency to scowl."