NewsNation’s Chief Washington Anchor Leland Vittert (Medill ’05) said he arrived at Northwestern by chance, choosing to study journalism because it didn’t have a language requirement at the time. Now, more than 20 years since stepping foot on campus, he’s earned a coveted spot as a prime-time cable news anchor.
Before joining NewsNation, Vittert served as a foreign correspondent for Fox News Channel for more than 10 years. He also previously anchored the weekend news at KDVR-TV in Denver, and was a reporter for WFTV-TV in Orlando, Florida, KATV-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas, KNWA-TV in Fayetteville, Arkansas and WMTV-TV in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Daily sat down with Vittert to discuss his time at NU, his career and his recent jump to prime-time television.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The Daily: What made you want to stick with journalism once you got to Northwestern?
Vittert: I think what’s always attracted me and what keeps me at it now is the ability to really tell stories. There’s a magic in being able to tell people’s stories. When you start off in local news, you’re really telling individual people’s stories. This person’s house burned down, this person’s cat got caught in a tree … You’re really telling the story of a couple of people, and you’re telling good stories.
The Daily: What was your Northwestern experience like?
Vittert: Well, I went to a lot of parties, I threw a lot of parties. But the thing that I think is so remarkable about my experience about Northwestern is a guy named (former Prof.) Joe Angotti. (I was) somebody who wasn’t a great student, but he saw somebody that really believed in what journalism was about, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.
The Daily: You started with local news, and you’ve reported all over America. What did local reporting teach you that you wouldn’t have learned from starting with national or international reporting?
Vittert: I was probably in the last vintage of people who came up through local news, right? The advice I had always gotten was go practice your craft. If you want to be on TV, go be on TV.
I say this respectfully to all the people that I work with who did not come up through local, but people who came up through local have a different skill set. They can think on their feet in a different way. They can connect out in the field with viewers. It’s one thing to connect and interview a congressman. It’s another thing to be able to drop into where there’s been a school shooting or a disaster or a plane crash or a riot and connect on this very deep interpersonal basis quickly with someone who’s in the middle of a crisis, which is in local news.
The Daily: You started working for Fox News Channel in 2010 as a foreign correspondent. What went into the decision to make that big jump to reporting in Jerusalem, and what was it like to go from local news to international news?
Vittert: It was just a great opportunity. I’d always wanted to see the world and get the Peter Jennings education.
Going to the Middle East was definitely hanging on, but it was a tempering experience. For somebody who is young to go to war and to see the world differently, it was the experience I think I needed then to be able to come back to Washington and work.
The Daily: When you were abroad, you covered Israel and Hamas, and you also had the chance to cover Ukraine and Russia. How have those experiences helped ground your coverage now?
Vittert: I think it makes me one of the more unique prime-time anchors in cable news right now. The world looks different, downrange and outside the wire. You can talk about Eastern Ukraine and what it means as an American, (but) until you’ve been there and you’ve met the people, and you’ve walked with them and you’ve spent time understanding what all this means, that’s just a totally different perspective to bring to the story.
The Daily: You’ve faced danger and backlash as a reporter, notably when you were attacked by demonstrators at a protest for George Floyd. How do you handle that?
Vittert: Outside the White House, (my reporting team) was jumped. When I was in riots in Tahrir Square, when I was running with the rebels in Libya, or in Ukraine with the Russian partisans or whatever, your antennae are just so focused, and so your defenses and your senses are so alert. The idea that you’d get jumped and attacked in America as a journalist wasn’t something that occurred to me.
It was a combination of (Black Lives Matter) and antifa. We got the team together, and we linked arms, and we walked out through it. CBS and a few other crews put lights on us, so the crowd didn’t quite know what to do after they initially attacked us. You just try to survive and get out.
I think what NewsNation is really dedicated to is you can’t get caught up in the narratives, either way … (not) seeing the story through a left lens or a right lens, which is what cable news does now, but seeing it through the lens of right and wrong. I’m from St. Louis — looking at the story from a right, wrong, Midwest sensibility, not a left, right Washington sensibility — is a very different way to tell stories.
The Daily: Why did you decide to join NewsNation in 2021, and what stood out to you about the network?
Vittert: What person who wants to achieve doesn’t just absolutely jump on that opportunity and be incredibly grateful for it?
I think if you look at my background and my reporting over time, and what people have said about it, I’ve kind of been known for ruffling feathers on both sides, which I view as a badge of honor. Everyone has their own bias. There is no such thing as unbiased. I think what makes us different is that we don’t exclude an opinion, and we don’t ridicule an opinion. We afford all sides their best argument. I think that’s what makes us unique in cable news.
The Daily: How are you feeling about “On Balance” moving to prime time? Does the shift change anything about your show?
Vittert: It’s a great opportunity. I’m really grateful for it. I think one of the reasons we got it is because what we were doing is working, and if what you’re doing is working, you don’t change it. By 9 p.m., people kind of know what the news is, and now they’re looking for someone who has had all the experiences I have to tell them what it means.
The Daily: Looking back at your career, what advice would you give to young journalists at Northwestern who are about to enter the industry?
Vittert: Run quickly. I say that only half-joking, because invariably, in any profession, you know how hard it is, right? The flip side of that is I’ve had the most rewarding and incredible career that I could possibly imagine. I’m so grateful to Northwestern and to all the people along the way, especially Angotti who believed in me.
The advice would be to practice your craft. There’s no substitute for that. And get out of the bubble. So many people in Washington think Washington is real life, and it is not. The problems of Washington are not the problems of the rest of America. If you can be different and you can be fair, you’re going to be rewarded, because there’s really a thirst in America for journalism right now.
Email: lilyogburn2026@u.northwestern.edu
X: @LilyOgburn
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