|
Wharton Leader
Bruce Becker, C’83, WG’06
Breaking News as
Vice President,
Washington Bureau Chief,
FOX Business Network
 The FOX News Washington Bureau is on the fifth
floor in a building with views of Union Station and
the Capitol rotunda. Bruce Becker’s office faces the
set where on-air segments are filmed for FOX
Business Network (FBN), and he has three TVs right on his
desk so he can stay on top of things. As bureau chief of FBN,
Becker is thoroughly engaged in all aspects of the business,
from hiring all staff to approving stories to consulting with
FOX News in New York on company-wide direction for
Washington coverage.
The onetime Penn English major (C’83) and soccer player
credits his degree from the Wharton MBA Program for
Executives program with helping him move into this leadership
position at FBN, which launched last fall.
“I felt that an understanding of how businesses operate
would be critical to coverage of Washington for a business
channel,” Becker says. He also sought to make himself “more
viable as an executive, not only a journalist, in the company.”
His entire career has been centered on Washington news,
first on a local level and then nationally. Born in Chicago,
Becker grew up in Bethesda, MD, just outside DC. After
graduating from Penn in the mid-’80s, he returned to the
nation’s capital and worked as a news writer at WTTG-TV,
Channel 5. Shortly thereafter, Rupert Murdoch bought the
station and it became a FOX affiliate.
Becker moved up to become a producer of, among other
things, documentaries and a nightly program called “City
Under Siege.” Then he worked briefly at WETA-TV,
Washington’s PBS affiliate, until the recession of the early
1990s negatively affected their funding. It was then that he
returned to FOX, and rose to executive producer for its affiliate
news operation.
He was there for the founding of FOX News Channel in
1996, and oversaw the network’s Washington, DC, editorial
newsgathering operation as executive producer, then deputy
bureau chief and acting bureau chief. Becker played an integral
role in the coverage of news stories from elections to 9/11 and
the war in Iraq.
The September 11 attacks stand out for him, he says. “For
the first time in my career, I felt that people under my care and
supervision were in actual physical danger. We had FOX
staffers working at the Pentagon when it was hit by one of the
hijacked planes, and there was a real belief that the hijacked
plane in Pennsylvania was headed for the U.S. Capitol, where
we had producers and camera crews, and which is very close to
our bureau... So, under very difficult circumstances, we had the
biggest news story of our lifetime unfolding in front of us, and
every single person on our staff understood that and performed
their jobs extremely well.”
A few years ago, Becker started becoming more interested in
covering business, with a particular interest in finance, something
he says Wharton does especially well. He says the demands and
rigors of the Wharton MBA Program for Executives are comparable
to those of a traditional MBA at Wharton, and he appreciated
the mandatory maximum completion time of two years.
From May 2004 to May 2006, Becker left Washington every
other Friday on a 6:00 a.m. train bound for Philadelphia,
arriving just in time for his first class at Wharton. Many of his
classmates took the train with him, and now he meets up with
fellow alumni about once a month. “It gives us a good forum to
bounce ideas around and solve problems,” he says.
Does being from the Washington, DC, area give Becker a
special advantage for covering Washington that transplants may
not have? Somewhat. He sounds a refrain that perhaps only
those who live in Washington can understand: Because of the
nature of politics, he says, “Faces change... being here over 25
years doesn’t help.”
But, he says, “Having covered Washington for so long allows
me to see patterns developing sooner. Members of the news
media often run in packs, and I like to think I can see when the
pack is running in the wrong direction and avoid that mistake.”
Also, he says, “knowing how these things played out in the past
helps you anticipate what might happen in the future.”
— Scott Shrake
| 
