Saint Anselm and Fox News Team Up

By Tracy Manforte Sweet

As candidates for president began their political journey more than a year ago to test their messages with voters across New Hampshire, executives from the Fox News Channel in New York began a quest of their own across the first-in-the-nation primary state. Theirs wasn’t a stump for votes but a search for the perfect location, one that “screamed New Hampshire.”

With the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) building its reputation as a valuable educational resource, the college was on a similar quest to partner with a national news outlet for the 2004 primary.

A handful of networks was courted, including CNN and ABC, but Fox prevailed. Several site visits, tele-conferences, and e-mails later, “the brash new kid on the block,” according to local press, claimed its spot on the quad of Saint Anselm College. The final contract took nine months and a dozen drafts before it was signed in November 2003. By January 19, 2004, America’s most-watched cable news station had erected a 40-by-40-foot glass enclosed studio with sweeping views of Goulet Science Center and Alumni Hall.

From January 22 through Sen. John Kerry’s victory speech on January 27, Fox personalities like Brit Hume, Greta Van Susteren, and Shepard Smith had the exclusive scoop on Benedictine hospitality.

“We are absolutely thrilled. The people are friendly and gracious. Everything about the setting says New Hampshire—including the wind chill,” observed Hume, before entering the “Fox Box” for a 6 p.m. broadcast of Special Report. The veteran news anchor also moderated a Democratic presidential debate January 22 at the Dana Center with ABC’s Peter Jennings and local journalists John DiStaso and Tom Griffith. “Saint Anselm College has such a history of hosting presidential events and being involved in the electoral process,” Hume continued. “You’re really in the heart of it, and that’s exactly where we want to be.”

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