Chris Wallace in 'the post-Russert era'

by Mark Silva

In the "post-Russert era'' of the Sunday morning news shows, FOX News Sunday's Chris Wallace is settling in for his sixth year in the saddle.

And for this seasoned Sunday-morning newsman, the challenge of preserving the "firewall'' between hard, objective news and the pointed opinions that have come to occupy more of the cable television's universe of news programming remains Job No. 1. He also downplays the notion that traditional news shows now are competing with comedy shows for the primary source of many Americans' news.

There's a big difference between the Sunday morning shows and the daily reporting of news and the evening commentary that kicks in on FOX and MSNBC, for instance.

"I could make a distinction at FOX News between the basic preponderance of our broadcast day'' and the evening commentators, Wallace says, speaking with the Swamp on the occasion of his own anniversary and the shifting lineup of the Sunday morning shows. "I see what we do all day, until 8 pm, as news coverage.''

After 8, when the pointed Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity commentary kicks in, Wallace allows, that's something else altogether. And during the evening hours on MSNBC, the news gives way to the liberal voices of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

"I don't have a problem with Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow,'' Wallace adds. "I like to hear their views...

"The one difference is that FOX created a firewall,'' Wallace says. "We've built this firewall between news and opinion. The biggest difference I see with MSNBC is, they didn't.'' And, for all the philosophical pronouncements in which CNN's Lou Dobbs wraps his own news program, Wallace suggests that CNN too has hewed to the lines.

"I think they're more in our mold of separating news from opinion,'' he says, suggesting that MSNBC has been "egregious'' in blurring the distinction between the two.

Now that David Gregory is taking over at the leading program in the Sunday morning news lineup, and the oldest continuing program on television, NBC News' Meet the Press, Wallace sees a new opportunity to attract viewers who haven't been turning his way. In the months following the surprising death of longtime MTP host Tim Russert, NBC's Tom Brokaw held the chair, but now has handed it over to the younger Gregory.

"I think the post-Russert era begins now,'' Wallace says. "Brokaw was as much a news icon as Russert was.''

Gregory, hus competitor at FOX suggests, "is gonna have to settle in, and I think the audience is going to look around. When they shop around, I think they'll like what they see'' at FOX, Wallace suggests, with the hopeful view that "there is a fluidity on the Sunday circuit.''

Interest in all of this programming has been spurred by an unprecedented presidential campaign, Wallace suggests.

"I think we had a big rejuvenation with the 2008 campaign,'' Wallace says. "The ratings across the board were up, for all the news cable networks and evening newscasts.

"If we build it, they will come,'' he says. "People were interested in this campaign - in Barack Obama - and they couldn't get enough of it.''

He expects that interest to continue.

"I certainly think it will on the Sunday news shows,'' he says. "The Sunday news shows are going to be very focused on the transition.''

In the evolving field of television news - in which evening comedy shows such as Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have staked their own claims as primary sources of news for many younger viewers - this veteran of the broadcast news networks and now FOX doesn't buy the idea that news is competing with comedy.

"I don't believe that,'' says Wallace, who has appeared on Jon Stewart's show a few times. "You couldn't get the joke, if you didn't follow what the news was.''

Wallace is a Chicago-born newsman. He lived there until he was seven, and got his first job in TV at WBBM, serving there between 1972-75.

Before FOX, Wallace served at ABC News for 15 years. He was senior correspondent for Primetime Thursday and a frequent substitute host for Nightline. Before that, he served as chief White House correspondent for NBC News. He anchored Meet The Press from 1987-88 and the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly New from, 1982-84 and 1986-87. He started with NBC as a reporter for WNBC-TV in New York City in 1975, after leaving Chicago.