Before he got his own show on Fox News and became the network’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier did double duty as a local television journalist and a bartender/delivery guy at an Applebee’s in South Carolina.
Baier shared the story while accepting an award from the National Press Foundation on Thursday night.
“I made very little money — so I also was a bartender at Applebee’s and I delivered food,” he told the crowd. “I would show up at someone’s door, and they’d answer and say, ‘Hey, aren’t you the reporter on Channel 6?’ And I’d say, ‘Yes, did you order the calzone?’ ”
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The Hollywood Reporter followed up to learn more about Baier’s experience as an Applebee’s employee. Through a Fox News spokesperson, Baier said he worked at the restaurant for about a year.
“I rarely have been back,” he told THR on Friday. “But a couple times on the road for election coverage. I purposely chose Applebee’s to relive the old days.”
Baier added: “The Applebee’s birthday song is still in my head. I led the birthday songs at the bar. ‘Applebee’s is fun, it’s true — happy birthday to you!’ And it goes on with a lot of clapping.”
On a more serious note, Baier’s speech on Thursday night also touched on attacks on journalism — he said the profession is “rhetorically being bombarded every day.”
As he did in an interview with THR in September, Baier made the case that journalists shouldn’t cross the line and veer into editorializing, which he said makes the job harder for everyone.
“When journalists stray into opinion or advocacy — presenting their wishes or goals in one way or another — it empowers the people who are looking to broadly attack the media every chance they get for some political gain,” he said. “We shouldn’t make it easier for them to do that.”
Baier, it should be noted, still hasn’t landed a one-on-one with President Donald Trump, even though he said at an event last month that Trump has personally conveyed to him in social settings that he’ll sit for an interview.
