Neil Cavuto

 

Neil Cavuto has covered some of the most important business stories of the last two decades, including the 1987 stock-market crash, the Enron scandal, and, more recently, the many failing banks, bailouts and foreclosures. He anchors daily financial programs on both FOX News and FOX Business Network.

 

WS: What do you want to offer viewers that they can’t get anyplace else?

CAVUTO: We’re really about following the money, and that means not just following the markets. There is a big difference. Minor moves in the market pale in comparison to major moves in Washington that involve even more major sums of money. When you think about it, in [the U.S., the government’s money is] our money. And globally, since this has been going on with all countries participating in these huge financial bailouts, that’s all our money. So you don’t have to be in stocks to know you have a major stake in this generational story. If you think about it, with our investments, it’s really our call or our money managers’ call, but with what’s going on in our capital and in capitals all over the globe, it’s our politicians’ call but with our checkbooks, so we call them on it. And we are the only ones that have been consistently calling them on it—from the day FOX Business was born.

 

WS: What have been the main challenges in covering breaking news, while at the same time providing necessary context?

CAVUTO: I always argue I’d rather be a little late and right, than rush to get something on the air first and be wrong, but this really isn’t as complex as you think. It’s really about money going out versus money coming in. Right now there is a lot more money going out under the assumption that that will eventually lead to a lot more money coming in. Now, I’m not en­tirely convinced that this works, but we’re watching it. Sometimes you really serve your audience best by cutting to the chase. Take, for example, giving AIG $285 billion. It really comes down to protecting an institution whose financial health is supposedly vital to all—that “too big to fail” argument. We try to point out why those in Washington think that AIG is worth giving $285 billion and others think it’s not. Then we look at the history of these rescues. I’ve learned that with history, we often repeat our triumphs, but more often our mistakes, and I like to tell folks what the comparisons are between today’s bailouts and the New Deal. What FDR did during the Great Depression was only half of the kind of money we are talking about now—it’s the New Deal on steroids. So we either get a big bang for the buck or a big hangover when we realize we just spent a lot of bucks.

We made our mark following the money. We really didn’t speak to a Wall Street community who seemed at the time to relish taxpayers bailing them out of their bad behavior, but we always addressed it to the taxpayers themselves, who weren’t quite so convinced this was a worthy investment. When all is said and done, Americans are pretty canny. If it involves a lot of money they want to know A) why the sums are so large and B) is there any chance in hell they’ll see that money again. Americans get the big picture, and I think sometimes this story is made needlessly complex, as if to intimidate average folks and maybe force them not to ask questions. Average folks know the big implications, and we get that, we get that they have trusted FOX because we are on their side.

 

WS: How is your offering online helping your viewers get more context or faster headlines?

CAVUTO: Our website allows us to go into much more detail to really get into the nitty-gritty of issues. Take, for example, sales reports. We have looked not only at a given region but also town by town in the case of retail stores, even store by store—recently we even did item by item, what items were selling versus which ones weren’t. We give the headline numbers on TV but offer our viewers the chance to get much more detail on the web. That’s an informational win-win. We’re giving context and perspective on air; we’re giving that and more on the web.

 

WS: Is the lion’s share of your viewing still on the linear channel?