Fox's Baier: Success due to “scrappy” attitude

Mediabistro.com's TVNewser points to a Fresno Bee profile of Fox News' Bret Baier who took the reins of Special Report from Brit Hume about six months ago.

Says Baier of his early success (emphasis added):

“I have a lot of people tell me they establish a relationship with an anchor. It is about believability and trust. It is about inviting that person into your home, into your living room, every night,” Baier says in a telephone interview. “It is about the product that goes on the air. It is about being true to our motto which is 'being fair and balanced.'

”I am proud of what we have been able to do and I think our numbers and the network numbers show that we are striking a chord."

Too bad the “chord” Baier and his Fox News buddies keep striking is so badly out of tune.

The piece goes on to note that Baier attributes Fox News' success to its “scrappy” early days as a new kid on the cable news block. How touching, they only had bagels and a moving truck (again, emphasis added):

Baier knows what it means to fight for viewers. He's been with Fox News since 1998 when he started the network's Atlanta bureau out of his apartment only two years after the channel launched.

Two years later, the presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore rested on “hanging chads” in Florida and a Supreme Court decision in Washington, D.C. Baier was dispatched to Florida.

“I remember CNN had all of these trucks. And they had this buffet set up. We were working out of the back of a Ryder truck and eating bagels,” he recalls. "That is the beauty of Fox. We have always been scrappy."

I don't know if “scrappy” is the right word for what Fox News has “always been.”

Seems to me there may be an extra letter in there somewhere.