Harris Faulkner
ROBERT MILAZZO
Harris Faulkner, six-time Emmy Award winner and FOX News anchor, joined me at Cannes Lions to discuss her breakout year, what motherhood looks like when advancing your career, and how we can hold people accountable on the important issues facing the country. Her rise is more than a statistic. Faulkner created her destiny, she didn’t fall into it. She is not just the first Black woman to anchor a weekday cable news program; she is an amazing leader in the newsroom who surprises people all the time with her insights and authenticity. This interview was a glimpse inside her journey.
On motherhood
When asked what she wants her own legacy to be, she said, “If anybody would just say that I was a great mom, that’s enough for me. And I mean that across every spectrum of my life because I’m raising these young women of color under-construction, my biracial daughters who are 12 and 14. My definition of great motherhood is to inspire the next generation to want to do everything they can to make the world a better place, and to rise…that you can show love without being seen as weak.”
She said there is nothing overrated about survival and nothing overrated about being a boss or a leader. “If someone tells you not to be pushy, start pushing that person out of the way.”
She continued, “This generation of women has an expectation that is so different than mine did, and I’m in my 50s now. They legitimately believe they are bosses — that’s progress. ‘Alpha female’ had always been said with derogatory terms. Some of them start with a ‘B,’ and I don’t mean best.”
On the power of reputation
Faulkner champions the power of reputation and the power of love, especially when she has to report things that are difficult for people to hear. On the morning of the Sandy Hook mass shooting, moments before she went live, there was some discussion behind her in the newsroom, “Do we go forth with the number of deaths?” They knew it was going to be hard to report it first.
When Harris saw a hearse pull into the Sandy Hook parking lot on one of the studio’s screens, she knew something had to be said. She addressed her viewers softly, “You know why they’re showing up, let’s just take this moment together…a moment of silence.” In that pause, she let the audience have the space they needed to process the dire, heartbreaking situation that had unfolded.
In 2020, her sit-down with former President Donald Trump dominated headlines for weeks. It was shortly after the George Floyd shooting and national tensions were at an all-time high.
“I don’t normally put myself into the story. But as he talked about George Floyd and the death, he’s like, ‘You know, I understand people are in the streets and they’re angry, but…’ And I said, ‘Let me stop you right there.’”
In the interview, she went on to share with him, “When George Floyd called out on the last few breaths of his life for his mom —his Black mother — he called my name, Mr. President. He called my name. I’m mom first.”
Faulkner said that for a second, it was like they were just two people sitting on a log, simply talking, “because sometimes it calls for the humanity and the humanness of the moment to come forward. You don’t have to interject and be bold with opinion or whatever, but you do need to let people see who you are.”
Harris Faulkner on the air
FOX News
She was proud at the end of the day, because they both did their jobs. “This is why I said what I said. We got a better interview, because we both came at it from different perspectives.”
Delivering News While Remote
“They don’t give you a show with your name on it — the first in the network’s history and across the board during daytime television to a woman of color over 50 — if you’re not working.”
Said Faulkner from her home studio, “I’m in my house right now, you probably see that because all you see all the lights that are on around me, but this is a whole set in here that that comes alive during the two shows that I do The Faulkner Focus and Outnumbered the talk show, which has been on the air for seven years. I’ve never done anything from my house before. I didn’t know what this was going to look like. So last March, I started to do pandemic specials; I did 11 from this space.”
She didn’t miss a beat. To Faulkner, work from home is more than an acronym, it’s more than a hashtag. “Look, I love going into the studio, I’ll be back in there for three days this week. The other women on Outnumbered have not moved to New York. So we’re kind of piecemealing when we can be in the studio together. But my feeling is if there’s a day going forward that I want to dedicate to self-care or care of, particularly my family members, I should be able to communicate that to my boss and say, you know what? Friday I am going to work from home…I need to take care of this. I’ve proven I can win.”
Faulkner hopes she can continue to bring something to the conversation about what comes next for women in the workplace. Tune in to her daytime programs on FOX — The Faulkner Focus (weekdays, 11AM-12PM/ET), which she launched during the pandemic, and Outnumbered (weekdays, 12-1PM/ET).
