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Brian Williams’ decision to leave his longtime network wasn’t the only newsman surprise for Americans in 2020. Though he did it with a lot less class, Fox News’s Chris Wallace also chose to leave his network, but he didn’t even announce it to his co-hosts before he said, on-air, that he was leaving his professional home of 18 years, according to Business Insider.
Williams left NBC on Thursday after nearly three decades of reporting for the peacock-themed news service. The anchor told his audience a month ago that he was leaving after contract negotiations that didn’t turn out in his favor.
Wallace, however, reportedly surprised even his fellow panelists, according to Business Insider and his colleagues were “shellshocked” at the announcement, according to BI, and to make matters worse, Wallace didn’t just announce his move away from the network, but that the show he was anchoring was his last episode for the media giant.
“Eighteen years ago, the bosses here at Fox promised me they would never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked. And they kept that promise,” Wallace said while making his announcement. “I have been free to report to the best of my ability, to cover the stories I think are important, to hold our country’s leaders to account. It’s been a great ride.”
Fox News wasn’t quite ready to respond to some requests for comment about the announcement specifically, however they did put out a statement on Sunday evening saying that they were proud of what Wallace did for their network for the better part of two decades and that his “legacy” on Fox News Sunday would continue. They made no announcement about who his replacement would be.
As for Wallace though, you won’t have to deprive yourself of his sparkling commentary for very long. The former Fox host said on Sunday that he would be joining CNN+, CNN’s upcoming streaming platform. Wallace said he was “thrilled” to be moving to the streaming service, even facing the idea that he was leaving cable news, but it’s worth questioning whether the former anchor of the (at least somewhat) conservative network could just be putting on a brave face?
One cannot help but ask, since when is a streaming service at a second-tier network the same as a Sunday morning slot on the biggest cable news network the world has ever seen?
After hearing Chris Wallace bully former President Donald Trump while moderating the presidential debate ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Wallace leaned a little too far left for most conservative Americans.
Over the years the anchor has doubled down on his liberal opinions and interjections into the news and some of us are of the opinion he will feel right at home with CNN+. The rest of us who are still a little salty about the debate among other things, arent even sad about it.
The idea that he would feel comfortable at CNN (let’s not forget the +) speaks volumes without even having to utter a word.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Chris
Wallace’s treatment of his departure from Fox News is a stark contrast to Williams’ departure, though from a network conservatives tend to think less of, the anchor appeared to have the best of reasons behind his move.
At the end of Thursday’s show Williams thanked his friends and family as well as his co-workers at NBC, saying that he was ready to jump into the “great unknown,” but his reasons were interesting:
“The truth is I’m not a liberal or a conservative. I’m an institutionalist. I believe in this place and my love of country I yield to no one,” he told viewers. “But the darkness on the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods. It’s now at the local bar, and the bowling alley, at the school board, in the grocery store. And it must be acknowledged and answered for,” Williams continued. “Grown men and women who swore an oath to our Constitution — elected by their constituents [and] possessing the kinds of college degrees I could only dream of — have decided to join the mob and become something they are not while hoping we somehow forget who they were. They’ve decided to burn it all down with us inside. That should scare you to no end,” he added.
Unlike the vast majority of his colleagues, Williams is one of the only and possibly the most well-known news anchors to never receive a college degree.
