Boston Globe Reporter, Nina Easton, Not on Brit Hume Show Last Night
By MassNews Staff
            Boston Globe reporter Nina Easton did not appear on the Brit Hume show on Fox News last night.
            We will never know whether that resulted from our lead story yesterday, "Is Fox Dumping Brit Hume?" or whether one or more of our 100,000 readers wrote to the network about your concerns. We can guarantee that if they received 1 or 3 emails yesterday, their antennae went up. If they received 10 letters from across the country, alarm bells sounded.
            Although Fox prides itself on presenting all sides of the issues, it's clear that its viewers want Brit Hume to be in charge of deciding whether "all sides" have been presented.
            The rapid success of Fox was largely due to the presence of the well respected Hume, who was well known across the entire country for his work at ABC News for 23 years where he was chief White House correspondent when hired away by Fox in 1996.     
            Hume was known by television viewers as an independent thinker who stood out from the crowd of television reporters at the three major networks who simply repeated the liberal mantra which was expected of them.
            Hume's wife, Rhoda Hume, was also with ABC as producer for its nightly news and "This Week with David Brinkley." She is now a Fox News vice president and Washington bureau chief.

Last Night's Panel Was the Two Regulars Plus Juan Williams
            The panel last night was the two regulars, Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke, with the addition of Juan Williams of National Public Radio for the night.
            Although Barnes and Kondracke often disagree, with Kondracke being the liberal, there's usually a common ground that allows Brit Hume to identify with them. Many times, however, Brit makes one feel sorry for Kondracke as Brit takes him to the woodshed and points out facts which Kondracke cannot rebut because he has not considered them. The show is obviously not rehearsed.
            Barnes and Kondracke are known as the "Beltway Boys" with their own show Saturday evenings at six.
            Barnes has been friends with Hume for years as their paths have been similar. Barnes became a reporter for the old "Washington Star" in 1979 before moving to the Baltimore Sun where he was national political correspondent. He then became senior editor and White House correspondent for ten years for "The New Republic." He also wrote for "The American Spectator" and appeared on the McLaughlin Group. In 1984, he was one of three panelists quizzing President Reagan and Walter Mondale in the first debate of the 1984 campaign.
            Mort Kondracke was on "The McLaughlin Group" for 16 years. He served as senior editor of The New Republic from 1977-91. He was the Washington bureau chief of Newsweek, a regular panelist on This Week with David Brinkley, and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

More Tomorrow: Because Fox News is important to many of our readers, we will continue to watch this story for you.