In a first-person essay published by foxnews.com, correspondent Mike Emanuel reflects on nearly three decades at Fox News, tracing his career from an unvetted startup hire in 1997 to anchoring historic domestic and international breaking news events.
The Startup Origins in 1997
Emanuel recounts being hired at Fox News during its inaugural year in 1997 without a formal job interview, securing a correspondent role based solely on his audition reel. The network’s top executives offered him the job despite his never having met them or seen the network, with his career manager noting there were smart people figuring out how to make the startup a success.
Reporting from Texas to Washington
His assignments included jumping into a pit at the world’s largest rattlesnake roundup in Sweetwater, Texas, wearing heavy boots and protective chaps to generate weekend content—nearly giving the New York control room producers a stroke because they were scared he would end up in the hospital with snake bites—and camping out in Austin for six weeks following the 2000 presidential election, standing on a platform on election night waiting to find out if George W. Bush had won or lost after hearing that Vice President Gore had called to concede before calling back to say it was too close.
Relocating to Washington, D.C., with no prior D.C. reporting experience, Emanuel covered presidential trips to the Crawford ranch, where President Bush would typically call on him for a question if he saw him in the reporter crowd. Six months after his move, the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred amid chaos and concerns that the White House and U.S. Capitol could also be targets while the understandable focus remained on New York City. He delivered live updates from the Washington bureau roof with Pentagon smoke visible behind him, reported from the Pentagon later that day, and deployed to Islamabad and Kabul between late 2001 and early 2002 to cover the early stages of the war in Afghanistan.
| Year / Period | Assignment / Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Hired at Fox News; Princess Diana coverage | New York / London |
| 1998–2001 | Dallas bureau opening; 2000 election | Texas / Washington |
| 2001–2002 | 9/11 attacks response; Afghanistan war | Washington / Pakistan / Afghanistan |
| 2005 | Embedded with 10th Mountain Division | Baghdad, Iraq |
| 2011 | Chief Congressional Correspondent | Capitol Hill |
War Zones and Capitol Hill
In 2005, Emanuel embedded with the 10th Mountain Division in western Baghdad to cover security preparations for Iraqi elections. He subsequently served as a White House correspondent during the final years of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama presidency, interviewing President Bush about wartime leadership and conducting the final television interview with Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2011, network leadership assigned him to Capitol Hill as chief congressional correspondent, where he covered a decade of State of the Union addresses, Supreme Court confirmations, and government shutdowns.
Anchoring Historic Breaking News
While serving on Capitol Hill, network executives asked Emanuel to fill in as an anchor, drawing on his two decades of field reporting. On Sunday, July 21, 2024, he anchored the unscripted, 90-minute wall-to-wall coverage when then-President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the reelection campaign.
