WARM HEARTS
Bret & Amy Baier
Everyone wants a voice in Washington. Luckily for Bret Baier, host of Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News Channel, he is guaranteed an average audience of nearly two million viewers at 6 PM every night. Since taking over for Brit Hume in 2009, Baier has become the lead political anchor for FNC. Not bad for a guy who worked as a one-man Atlanta bureau for Roger Ailes's start-up in 1998. His share of FNC's sizeable audience is on par with Sean Hannity thanks to his nuanced and balanced reporting, plus his popularity as the moderator of five Republican primary debates this year. His no-nonsense approach and aggressive line of questioning has flustered both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney—and he's in no mood to let up.
"My goal was to always be in this chair, the anchor chair, covering politics when politics is at the front of everyone's mind," says Bret. "This election year is particularly exciting. Covering it is like drinking from a fire hose—it's constant, nonstop, and completely unpredictable."
Baier's podium has also allowed him to trumpet his passion for Children's National Medical Center. When his wife, Amy, gave birth to their first son, Paul, in 2007, the couple found out he had five congenital heart defects and needed surgery before he was 12 days old. Their son's continuing care brought the two to the medical center, where they are both foundation board members. Along with Amy's parents, Paul and Barbara Hills, the Baiers have donated $2 million to create the Paul Francis Baier Comprehensive Media Room, which gives physicians and nurses a place to review diagnostic images and tests, and funds research by Paul's surgeon, Dr. Richard Jonas. The Baiers also did several media interviews, chronicling their son's journey, to help publicize the surprising number of congenital heart defects in children. "His next surgery is tentatively scheduled in the fall," says Amy of her son, who at nearly five years old already has undergone two open-heart surgeries and five angioplasties.
"We tell him he has a special heart that's different from everyone else's in the world," says Bret. "Even though we should be old pros at this, it gets harder each time. There's no end in sight. Thankfully, we have Children's National in our backyard. They're transforming children's health care and are already showing us what it can be 10, 20 years down the line. We couldn't be more honored to be working with them."
