Q&A: Wallace finds professional "fulfillment" at Fox

By Paul J. Gough

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox News Channel's Chris Wallace may have a famous father in "60 Minutes" correspondent emeritus Mike Wallace, but he's noted in his own right. The Emmy and Peabody winner has had a long career covering political leaders at ABC, NBC and now Fox News Channel, where since 2003 he has hosted "Fox News Sunday."

While there, he famously has sparred with former President Bill Clinton -- who accused Wallace of doing a "Republican hit job" after Wallace asked about the Clinton administration's role in targeting Osama bin Laden before 9/11 -- and with his colleagues on "Fox & Friends," taking them to task for "bashing" Barack Obama. Wallace recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter in his office at Fox News Channel's Washington bureau.

THR: With all the talk that Katie Couric might leave the CBS Evening News, your name is rumored to be on a short list of people CBS might be interested in. Is that something you'd like to do?

Chris Wallace: No. First of all, I don't think they're going to ask, and second of all, I'm very happy at Fox News Channel.

As much as I grew up in CBS and as much as I associate that anchor chair with Walter Cronkite and the history of broadcasting, I have never been so happy as I have working the last four-plus years at Fox. I suspect I've had a much better last couple of years than Katie Couric.

THR: It sounds like it.

Wallace: You can't buy that kind of happiness and fulfillment and sense of collegiality. As I say, I don't think they would offer it to me, but if they did, I would let you and everybody else know I had been offered it because it would be good bragging rights. But I'd say no.

THR: Earlier this spring, you introduced "Obama Watch," counting the days since Obama promised he would appear on "Fox News Sunday." Then, recently, he agreed. How effective was "Obama Watch?"

Wallace: There were two factors in his decision to come on. One was the "Obama Watch." It gave us a way to dramatize the fact that he was ducking us. Right after we started it, I called one of the people in the Obama campaign who had been putting me off for months. I said, "What did you think of it?" His response was that it was obnoxious.

But now I say it was obnoxious and effective. More important was his defeat in Pennsylvania and his lopsided defeat among white, working-class voters.

THR: How did the Obama interview go?

Wallace: I was very pleased with it. It was a serious, substantive interview from a different perspective than he's generally been interviewed. I think we asked him different questions.

THR: Do you think he'll be back?

Wallace: He said he would. At the end I said, "Don't be a stranger." And he said he won't be. I have a guest book that I have everybody on the show sign. I lugged it out to Indianapolis with me. He wrote something that he wouldn't wait 772 days to do it again.

THR: You made some news in March with "Fox & Friends." You brought up that they might have been a little too hard on Obama. Are you still friends with them?