Martha Bowes MacCallum[1] (born January 31, 1964) is an American journalist and news anchor for Fox News. She is the executive editor and anchor of The Story with Martha MacCallum, broadcast from Manhattan Monday through Friday at 3PM ET, and co-anchor of Fox News Election coverage. MacCallum joined the network in 2004 and is based in New York City. Her interviews with President Donald Trump, President Barack Obama, First Lady Laura Bush, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and others have been featured on her programs.
In 1996, she moved to WBIS-TV, a short-lived sports and business station in New York, as an anchor and reporter.
CNBC
MacCallum was next a reporter/anchor for NBC/CNBC from 1997 to 2003. She frequently contributed to The News with Brian Williams, Today, NBC affiliate news programs, and CNBC World before being assigned to co-anchor CNBC's Morning Call with Martha MacCallum and Ted David. She also appeared on Checkpoint, an evening show which examined homeland security and the war on terror. MacCallum created the series "Inside the Business" for Business Center, a former CNBC show.
Fox News
MacCallum joined the Fox News Channel in 2004. She hosted The Live Desk from 2006 to 2010 and America's Newsroom from 2010 to 2017. MacCallum hosted the new program, The First 100 Days, on Fox News Channel, which debuted January 9, 2017. The program averaged 3.5 million viewers in the first month, an increase of 79 percent in the time slot compared to the year before.[5] On April 28, 2017, the show was rebranded as The Story with Martha MacCallum.[6] At the close of 2020, "The Story" was moved from the prime 7 p.m. ET time-slot to the 3 p.m. ET time-slot.[7]
In addition to hosting The Story, MacCallum serves as a fill in host on programs such as America's Newsroom, The Faulkner Focus, Outnumbered, and The Five.
MacCallum has hosted two series about WWII streaming on Fox Nation. In 2023, MacCallum hosted The Final Journey of the Greatest Generation, a two-season, six-episode series about heroes of WWII taking viewers on one last journey through their personal experiences fighting against the Axis powers in Europe and the Pacific.[8] In 2022, MacCallum began hosting The Secret History of World War II with untold stories about heroes from WWII, with three seasons and eleven episodes.[9]
In January 2019, MacCallum launched “The Untold Story with Martha MacCallum,” a twice-weekly podcast where she sits down with a major newsmaker sharing inspiring stories of positivity, perseverance, and more.[10]
In 2018, MacCallum had the first and only interview with then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh. The interview aired on The Story With Martha MacCallum on September 24, 2018 at 7 PM ET and was watched by 3.6 million viewers, cable news' most-watched program of the night. According to The Hollywood Reporter, MacCallum earned "near-universal praise" for her interview of Kavanaugh.[11]
In July 2023, Fox News announced that MacCallum interviewed Buster Murdaugh, the last living son of Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted of murdering his wife Maggie Murdaugh and son Paul in June 2021. She presented the interview in a seven-episode Fox Nation series entitled The Fall of the House of Murdaugh,[12] covering the twists in the double homicide case with exclusive interviews, prison audio, and never-before-seen family video & photographs.[13]
After a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, MacCallum initially said, “This is a huge victory for these protesters. They have disrupted the system in an enormous way!”[14][15] Later on during coverage of the events she called them "unsettling" and stated that "control has to be maintained."[15] She likened the storming of the U.S. Capitol to a peaceful protest outside Josh Hawley's home a few days earlier; The New York Times said it was "bizarre" to link "swarms of Trump supporters breaking into the seat of democracy, an event that made worldwide news, to a small-scale incident at the home of a Republican official."[16]
MacCallum and Bret Baier hosted Donald Trump's first TV town hall of the 2020 election cycle at the Scranton Cultural Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania on March 5, 2020, one of the last in-person political events before COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.[22] MacCallum and Baier also co-anchored a virtual town hall with Donald Trump on May 3, 2020, from the Lincoln Memorial.[23]
During the 2022 midterm election, MacCallum and Bret Baier moderated a town hall with Ohio Senate hopefuls Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Ryan, one week before Election Day. The event was held in Columbus, Ohio on November 1, 2022.[24]
In January 2024, MacCallum co-moderated with Brett Baier three back-to-back town halls featuring Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.[26] Donald Trump, in his first live appearance on Fox News since 2022, appeared in a town hall on January 10, 2024, from Des Moines, Iowa, days before the Iowa Caucus. Ron DeSantis appeared on January 9, 2019, and Nikki Haley on January 8, 2024.
Awards
In 2024, MacCallum received the John R. "Tex" Cray Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for her work covering the military.[27] MacCallum is a two-time recipient of the Gracie Award for Women in Journalism in 1997 and 2003,[28] and has received the Soldiersocks / SoldierStrong Commitment To Serve award.[29]
Book
In 2020, assisted by Ronald J. Drez, she published a book titled Unknown Valor: A Story of Family, Courage, and Sacrifice from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima, incorporating the personal stories of several United States Marines into the larger story of the Pacific Campaign, making The New York Times bestseller list on March 15, 2020.[30]
Personal life
Martha MacCallum married Dan Gregory on August 22, 1992, at St. Elizabeth Church in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Together, they have 3 children, two sons and a daughter.[1]
↑Rohan, Virginia (November 13, 2005). "Professional juggler". The Record (Bergen County). Archived from the original on July 30, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2014. I'm sort of half in one world, half in the other at this point of the day, says MacCallum, a Wyckoff native who has lived in Ridgewood since her elder son was 2 weeks old.... After attending Sicomac School and Ramapo High School, MacCallum moved on to St. Lawrence University, majoring in political science.