MARTHA MACCALLUM: After 22 years, here's why I'm grateful to call Fox home

Twenty-two years ago, I made the best move of my career. My early years were spent at The Wall Street Journal and CNBC. But coming here changed my life in so many positive ways that I can’t imagine what any other path would have looked like. I am deeply grateful that I trusted the gut feeling that told me I belonged here.

On my first day, Jeff Hark, who was overseeing the scheduling of reporters and anchors, asked me about my family. He knew I had three young children, and he wanted to assure me that Fox understood the pressures of young professionals raising kids. Defensive at first, I insisted I could handle it and wouldn’t be bothering him with requests for time off, but then I realized he actually meant it. It was such a smart company perspective that it made me want to work even harder, knowing they would have my back.

Fox liberated me to grow and take on so many new challenges. The environment was still scrappy, and the growth was exponential.

Fox News Channel anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum at FOX’s upfront presentation to advertisers in May. (FOX News Media )

Every opportunity I leaned into opened a door. That first year, I asked to be part of the election team covering the November 2004 presidential race. I offered to stand on a street corner in Boston and report on how the DNC was affecting traffic. Kidding, but not kidding—I just wanted to be in the "room where it was happening"!

I soon found myself reporting from the floor of the Democratic convention alongside correspondents Carl Cameron and Major Garrett, two of our most seasoned political reporters. I was exuberant and terrified. But I survived, and it was the beginning of 20 years of covering elections for Fox News.

Fox News Channel anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier led "Democracy 2024" coverage of the historic presidential race.  (FOX News Media)

I have traveled the world, covered presidents and kings, and perhaps most rewarding of all, I have had the honor of walking the beaches of Normandy with our war heroes and sharing their stories, from Berlin, Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

At Fox, a deep respect for our veterans was encouraged in a way that would not have happened anywhere else.

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I am forever grateful for our Fox family here. For Lachlan, Suzanne and Jay, and everyone else who feels like home. We are bonded by a love for our country. We are driven to hold it to the highest standard. To hold those who govern it accountable. And to pray for its continued success.

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Happy 30th birthday, Fox.

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Martha MacCallum currently serves as the anchor and executive editor of The Story with Martha MacCallum (weekdays, 3 PM/ET) on FOX News Channel (FNC), co-anchor of the network’s election coverage, and hosts the podcast, The Untold Story with Martha MacCallum. She joined FNC in 2004 and is based in New York.