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Former Tampa TV reporter finds new life at Fox News

Fox News Channel

Shannon Bream finds herself centerstage covering the appointment of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 9, 2009

TAMPA - Shannon Bream recalls the day that a news director at a Tampa TV station told her that she would never succeed as a television reporter.

She says she went into an editing room and cried for two hours.

It was nearly nine years ago when Bream, who now covers the Supreme Court for Fox News Channel, gave up a promising law career for an entry-level job at WFTS, Channel 28.

"I didn't have any journalism training but I wanted to learn so I made coffee; I clipped newspapers; I did filing and all the other beginner tasks just to be in the newsroom," she said in a recent telephone interview.

Just as she was given a chance to do some on-air reporting, the station had a shake-up in management.

"I hadn't even been there a year when there was a new news director who told me I was terrible," she says. "He said my voice was too high. And I should have never given up being an attorney."

But Bream, 38, who lived in Tampa for five years, didn't give up; and this summer she's moved into the spotlight on Fox News Channel.

Her coverage of President Barack Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, has resulted in on-air exposure and some guest-hosting on various Fox News programs.

And she's likely to get more air time as the confirmation hearings get under way July 13 and continue possibly into the fall.

"This is an exciting time to be in Washington, and it's especially exciting for a law geek like me," Bream says. "I finally have my dream job."

With the increased attention, comes criticism. Bream, who joined Fox News in November 2007, has come under fire from liberal media watchdog groups that say Fox News is biased against Obama.

Media Matters and FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) claim some of Bream's coverage of Sotomayor has been unfairly negative and that she has taken some of Soyomayor's comments out of context and has echoed unfounded conservative talking points.

Bream says that she takes that kind of criticism "with a grain of salt."

"I am more concerned about being accurate," she says, "I'm careful about that. If there is that kind of criticism, I just have to let it go. I learned long ago not to Google myself."

Bream says that Sotomayor has the legal credentials to serve on the Supreme Court.

"I think no one is questioning her qualifications," Bream says. "And she's got support from both sides of the aisle, but she has said things that bother some people."

A native of Tallahassee, Bream graduated from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and studied law at Florida State University. While at Liberty, Bream was crowned Miss Virginia in 1990 and competed in the 1991 Miss America pageant. She competed in the 1995 Miss USA pageant.

She says that she and her husband, Sheldon, intended to make Tampa their home, but her interest in news, current affairs, pop culture and politics changed and led her into a new career.

She got a taste of television in 1999, when she was picked as "citizen panelist" on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" talk show on ABC. Picked from more than 50 who auditioned at a Tampa mall, Bream appeared on the show with comic Robert Klein, actress Mary Stuart Masterson and conservative commentator Horace Cooper.

"I was tagged as a conservative on that show, and I enjoyed the give and take of debating the issues," she says. "I have always been a news junkie."

She says that she began to think that she should switch careers.

"I took a big pay cut to take that entry-level job at Channel 28," she says.

When she left the station, she landed a reporting and anchoring job at WBTV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. She was there three years.

In 2004, she joined NBC affiliate WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., as a weekend anchor. Her husband works for the Washington Speakers Bureau, which books notable politicians, authors, members of the news media and other celebrities.

One day Bream met Brit Hume, who was managing editor of the Fox News Washington bureau at the time.

Telling her not to get her hopes up, Hume said he was impressed by her law background. She submitted audition tapes and was hired.

"This is where I want to be," she says. "The work is hectic and fast-paced, but I love it."

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654

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