In Memorium

First of all, I'm sorry I'm a blog slacker. I swear I will not slack like this again. Please forgive me.

And now on to the topic of today's post...

Brit Hume retired. This tragic and awful event was first brought to my attention by my sister Holly. December 23, 2008 marked the last time Brit Hume would sit in the anchor for his 3 pm show, "Special Report with Brit Hume."

Mr. Hume's resignation is sad for a number of reasons. Most selfishly, Special Report was my 'serious news' show. Commentary programs are a dime a dozen on cable television and serious, unbiased, well produced news is hard to come by. Mr. Hume was an Emmy winning, brilliant journalist with 35 years of experience that he brought each and every day to the stories he covered. News coverage is more clear, concise and insightful when a journalist actually understands the material he is covering. Mr. Hume probably knew more about Washington and the games on Capitol Hill than anyone else in the industry. His show will be hard to replace. This brings me to the second reason for sadness, the news industry and FOXNews are losing a great journalist. In a world where the line between editorial and news is being blurred past the point of recognition, we need people like Mr. Hume to tell us the truth. We need people we can trust. Mr. Hume earned my trust, day after day, story after story.

Mr. Hume's chair will be filled with the young Bret Baier. Mr. Baier has filled in for Mr. Hume almost every Friday for the past couple of years and shown himself to be a competent reporter. He does not, however, possess Mr. Hume's famous wry sense of humor or sense of gravity. Maybe Mr. Baier will acquire these over time, or maybe he won't. But he will never be Brit Hume.

Mr. Hume's retirement marks one of the last in the older generation of reporters. Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw. A still few hang around, but a clear transition is being made. We can only hope that this generation's batch of journalists is more balanced and honest as the last one. Because if it's not, we won't even have Brit Hume to tell us like it really is.