Adam Housley Leaves Fox News Over Disagreement With Direction Of Network
Adam Housley joined Fox News in 2001 and announced Thursday that he will be leaving the network. Politico reports that the reason for his departure is “frustrations with the direction and tone of the network.” They cite two former Fox News employees who are familiar with Housley’s situation as saying that he saw the opportunities for reporters of as the network focused more on President Trump and less on the hard news reporting he enjoys.
Housley is the second reporter to leave the news network in recent weeks. Former Fox News Jerusalem reporter Conor Powell left earlier this month, reportedly for similar reasons. Both men left without other jobs to transition to but believed their roles were being diminished by the direction of the network. Housley indicated he intends to spend more time with family. He released this statement about his resignation.
“After nearly two decades at Fox News, I have decided to leave the network and take some time in northern California to raise our two young children closer to my family, which includes running the family winery and even coaching their sports teams. I could not be more proud of the journalism I did at the network, from war zones, to tsunamis, to watching miners pulled from the ground in Chile, I am grateful for the extraordinary opportunities to have a front seat to history and cover news all over the world. A huge thank you to the many Fox employees, especially behind the scenes, who have supported me every step of the way. We are friends for life.”
Fox News president Jay Wallace issued a statement in which he thanked Housley for his work.
Second Fox News reporter, @adamhousley, leaves amid objections to network https://t.co/KPUEcESOGe #BroadcastNews #TVNews pic.twitter.com/n93OotkbCH
— TVNewsMix (@TVNewsMix) August 24, 2018
Former Fox News employee Greta Van Susteren explained that the move away from field reporting may be due in part to cost concerns, explaining that studio discussions are much less expensive than gathering news. It only makes sense that if the network is getting high ratings from less expensive studio discussions, they are going to focus more on that and less on hard reporting. The network has not completely given up hard reporting, however, and has reported on some major news stories like the murder of Mollie Tibbetts and Chris Wallace’s interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A former Fox News employee has reportedly stated that there are many reporters still in the ranks at the network who also want out but don’t currently have another job to move to. They are all motivated by a desire to do more of what they love – hard news journalism.
