Hemmer Time
Fox’s Ex-CNN-er has the last laugh
MORE
NYTV
“He’s an Ohio guy,” said Bill Hemmer. “And I’m an Ohio guy. We Buckeyes stick together.”
It was a recent Wednesday morning, and Mr. Hemmer, a native of Cincinnati, was sitting across from NYTV at a restaurant in the Muse Hotel on West 46th Street, talking about his boss Roger Ailes, the president of the Fox News Channel and scion of Warren, Ohio.
Until a few years ago, Mr. Hemmer and Mr. Ailes played on opposite sides of the ball. Mr. Hemmer, 43, made his name at CNN, where he rose quickly through the ranks over the course of a decade, reporting from the likes of Kosovo and Afghanistan and hosting a series of morning news shows.
By 2005, Mr. Hemmer was anchoring American Morning alongside Soledad O’Brien, and had seemingly emerged as one of the network’s golden boys. “He practically had CNN tattooed on his forehead,” said Daryn Kagan, Mr. Hemmer’s friend and former on-air co-host.
That year, CNN president Jon Klein offered to make him the network’s chief White House correspondent, a high-profile assignment that Wolf Blitzer had ridden to a prime-time anchor role. But Mr. Hemmer loved New York, and didn’t want to move to that dreary political pumpkin patch on the Potomac. When CNN handed his American Morning anchor chair over to Miles O’Brien, his days at the network were numbered.
“Thankfully, Roger Ailes was there with open arms,” said Mr. Hemmer. “I thought it was in my best interest to join the Yankees.” (As a lifelong Bengals fan, Mr. Hemmer said he is still learning to enjoy life at the top of the cable news division.)
Joining the Yankees has been a good move for Mr. Hemmer. In February, Mr. Ailes teamed him with Megyn Kelly, an attractive former practicing lawyer, to host the 9 to 11 morning show America’s Newsroom. The name seems spliced from two CNN morning shows (CNN Newsroom and Mr. Hemmer’s old show, American Morning), but the show has enjoyed early success, averaging 961,000 viewers in November, a 15 percent increase over the same time period last year.
Meanwhile, in Mr. Hemmer’s wake, CNN’s morning programming has undergone several shake-ups, and continues to struggle. According to Nielsen numbers, passed along by Fox, American Morning is down 16 percent in total viewers since Mr. Hemmer’s departure—and in November averaged less than half the viewers of Mr. Hemmer’s new show.
“People ask me all the time what the difference is between CNN and Fox,” said Mr. Hemmer. “It’s day and night. We’re a business. Viewers count. Ratings count. The store has got to stay open. We need customers.”
Jay Wallace, FNC’s executive producer of news, described Mr. Hemmer as a multifaceted correspondent who isn’t tied to a prompter and who ad-libs well. According to Mr. Wallace, as the political campaign season progresses, Fox will probably further test Mr. Hemmer’s range by sending America’s Newsroom out into the field to places like Iowa and New Hampshire. “He can easily juggle world events into that coverage,” said Mr. Wallace. “He’s well-read and versatile.”
Mr. Hemmer took another sip of his coffee and launched into a story about flying to Louisiana with a lean four-person team to cover Hurricane Katrina on his first assignment for Fox. There, on the sweltering streets of Baton Rouge, he came face to face with a 15-member CNN crew, who were busy eating pizza.
Mr. Hemmer shook his head. A pizza party in a disaster zone? He said the story was telling of an organization that had grown plump and was no longer hungry. “At Fox we do more with less,” he said. CNN declined to comment, but it’s worth noting that the network is comprised of multiple channels, including Headline News, CNN International and CNN en Español, which could account for the larger team.
As a kid, Mr. Hemmer, too, learned to do more with less, as the middle of five children growing up in Cincinnati. His dad was a mattress executive. His mom was a homemaker. As a teenager, he had many odd jobs. He managed a produce department, loaded mattresses onto trucks, delivered motor engines to Indiana and Kentucky and washed dishes at a chili joint.
These days, Mr. Hemmer splits his time between a luxury apartment in Greenwich Village and a swank spread in the Hamptons. Of his siblings, Mr. Hemmer is the only one who’s yet to marry. In recent years, the son of a mattress executive has inspired much speculation about the details of his own mattress-hopping. Mr. Hemmer declined to kiss and tell. Next Page >
Bill Hemmer (aka Bush Cabana Boy) was a Faux Noise wannabe even when he was shilling for Bush over on CNN.
He's bound to be crying a river on Election Night 2008, when his precious Rethugs lose.
does he tap his foot like larry craig?
HELLO !!! HE'S GAY GAY GAY !!!!!! not that there's anything wrong with that!
but how can he still be in the closet? oh yeah, rethuglicans do that.
oh and regarding the pizza eating by CNN. I suppose Mr. Hemmer fasted the whole time he was in N.O. Maybe the CNN team was just EATING ???!!! Way to spin it Faux news.
To me Hemmer was nice enough, but always seemed to be out of his league. Truth is I haven't watched him in years.
Well, of course it's about the "customers". It damn sure ain't about objectively providing information to viewers. It's about attracting eyeballs to commercials, and there are classy ways to do that, there are sleazy ways to do that. If it were about journalism the Hemmers of the world (hemmeroids?) like Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera would be in retail, beckoning from behind the counter, selling stuff, while real journalists like Lara Logan, Mike Ware, John Burns and Jon Lee Anderson informed us with more than 30 second standups. When one works for Roger Ailes, ones credibility hemmerages.
Bill is good at what he does. I believe he looks at Fox as a job, not as a philosophy. At least I hope he does.
By the way, I am the cartoonist and I am going to link my comic page. Enjoy or don't, either way I'd love feed back!
The Adventures of Chad Cleanly
Glad to read he and Daryn Kagan remain good friends. She was by far his best co-anchor.
Hemmer is a right wing nut job. He is from Cincinnati where people are taught from childhood how to hate anyone who does not look like them. Of course he is friends with Daryn Kagan, she is also a extreme right wing GOP and Bush person. She even dated Rush Limbaugh. Someone posted that they thought Hemmer was just treating his Fox Noise thing like a job and really did not believe all their bull, but he does, he buys into what Fox stands for because that is who he is.
In the article, Hemmer states: "We’re a business. Viewers count. Ratings count. The store has got to stay open. We need customers.”
That's as much of an admission of their bias and infomercial orientation. He didn't say the truth was the network's product nor the public's need (right?) to know the facts to make informed decisions nor the news. Their mission is to pander to a specific audience to promote their own interests. That's why they're Faux Noise--biased, predictable and ultimately irrelevant
Hemmer was always white bread and mayonnaiase and his reporting always came through as so--bland and not very exciting. He belongs at Fox where it's a business and not necessarily news and where you can hardly describe Fox as having any real journalsts. It's show biz and bull from Bill O'Reilly and Hannity. Hemmer had a cnahce to be a real contender at CNN but blew it when the white bread and mayo came out of the closet. No fire in that belly at all.
Well the Ohio thing explains a lot. I have met more dumb asses from Ohio than I can count. Got to the point where if someone said something really stupid my husband and I would look at each other and say "Must be from Ohio."
Look in the dictionary under "Fluff,'' and you'll find this article
Oh let's read between the lines people. He's 43 and unmarried and has an apartment in Greenwich Village. Can you say.............GAY !!! And he wouldn't leave NYC for DC? Oh please.........HOMOSEXUAL !!!
CNN can only have 1 high profile homosexual and that's Anderson Cooper.
Now we'll just wait and watch for Hemmer to slink out of the closet on FOX.
Not that his being gay is a bad thing. We welcome him to the club.
CNN fed their staff pizza in New Orleans, so they are fat and happy, Hemmer whines.
What a loser.
He and Faux deserve each other.
CNN - what a mess. Since Klein took over the ratings and the quality of the news shows has gone down the tube. I used to watch either CNN or HNN - now it is all what do you think? Send in your pictures. Rick Sanchez - a Klein favorite from their Miami days is a disaster - he has tainted every show that he has been on - if he is on - the ratings go south.
Bill Hemmer, Solada O'Brien - bring them back. Jack McCafrey (sp?) needs and deserves more air time.
CBS should have hired Soledad for the evening news.
YEah...Hemmer is a big pickle-smootch. I'd tap it...
YEah...Hemmer is a big pickle-smootch. I'd tap it...
Oh, you must be from West Virginia then!
I find it hilarious that one (unregistered) bozo comes in here to bash Hemmer a dozen times. Does it really hurt so bad that he scorned CNN, the Clinton News Network? After treating "Wolf" Blitzer like their personal poodle regarding the Vegas "debate", Hillary was thrilled while every unbiased person was astounded. Hemmer was a pinup boy, so the San Francisco crowd fell in love. But being single is not the same as being Gay, so get over your salacious daydreaming. You will have to make do with Doogie Howser.
Uh... when he arrived in MS, he happened upon the CNN crew eating pizza BECAUSE THEY HAD BEEN THERE LONG ENOUGH AHEAD OF HIM TO HAVE WORKED UP AN APPETITE.
Need someone point out to Hemmer that Fox needs fewer people than CNN on a story because they only bother to cover one side.
Need someone point out to Hemmer that Fox needs fewer people than CNN on a story because they only bother to cover one side.
Need someone point out to Hemmer that Fox needs fewer people than CNN to cover a story because they only bother to tell one side.
Need someone point out to Hemmer that Fox needs fewer people than CNN to cover a story because they only bother to tell one side.
Congratulations, Mizz Scarlet the Termite! Finally, somebody's paying attention to your works. You go, gal!
What can I say about Bill's style on AN? Well, I cannot deny that I appreciate watching him. I simply admire him!
I look forward to watching his New Years Eve bash with Megyn Kelly - You Party 2008!
Bournemaiden - from Hemmerobilia
Again, not that there's anything wrong with it, but YES, Bill Hemmer is gay. What a coward to pretend otherwise. He's kidding nobody.
It never ceases to amaze me the hate that can be spewed by those who consider their views the only views and the rest of us as stupid. We're not. Gay, straight, black, white, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Atheist - just report the news. Bernie Goldberg is correct.
Wow, the pink sheep are bleating their hearts out over Hemmer's pilgrimage. Very comedic the Leftwing conceit to being brainier or better educated than Conservatives. So, if you all are so smart, why runs so many dumb candidates in a single election? But I digress...
Fox does tell both sides, you don't need a village to pull that one off. Why is there an Allan Colmes or Point/Counterpoint on O'Reilly if Fox is so biased? Liberals are incapable of winning any contest that is an even fight, which is why you cry so hard over Fox, as it tips the balance a bit right.
And yes, News is a business, just like medicine or homebuilding. But that doesn't mean Fox doesn't tell the truth. To the contrary, common sense tells you that if you are less radically Liberal in your reporting, the fewer openminded people you will offend.
Bigotry is the Sacred Disease -- Heraclitus.
LOOK EVERYONE KNOWS THAT FOX NOISE IS GOING DOWN HILL FAST, BILL O'REILLY BRAG ABOUT HOW BIGHT HIS VIEWERS ARE BUT 1.4 MILLIONS IF THAT OUT OF 300 MILLIONS IS DROP IN THE BUCKET, AND BILL HEMMER 900,000 AND SOMETHING DON'T EVEN EXSIT, WHERE ARE THE OTHERS 280,000,000,VIEWS.
You poor anti-Hemmer'oids need to give it a rest. Take a bit of a walk, stand up, don't put so much pressure on your brains!
http://www.drudgereport.com/ma.jpg