Political Analyst Chris Stirewalt Discusses the Evolution of News Media
Past President Kate Nielsen and Rotarian Raymond Harbert with Chris Stirewalt
On May 24, 2023, the Rotary Club of Birmingham welcomed guest speaker Chris Stirewalt, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow, NewsNation political editor, The Dispatch contributing editor and columnist, and host of the Ink Stained Wretches podcast. He previously served as political editor at Fox News Channel.
Stirewalt discussed his background in print journalism and navigating a career in political analysis through the evolving media landscape. He shared insights about how coverage of government and politics has shifted over the decades, as media has fundamentally changed from print to broadcast television to cable to internet and streaming content. He observed that the shift from information being scarce to overabundant has resulted in fragmented and disengaged audiences.
About Chris Stirewalt
Chris Stirewalt is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on American politics, voting trends, public opinion, and the media. He is concurrently a contributing editor and weekly columnist for The Dispatch. Before joining AEI, he was political editor of Fox News Channel, where he helped coordinate political coverage across the network and specialized in on-air analysis of polls and voting trends.
Before joining Fox News Channel, Mr. Stirewalt served as political editor of the Washington Examiner, where he wrote a twice-weekly column and led political coverage for the newspaper. He also served as political editor of the Charleston Daily Mail and West Virginia Media. Mr. Stirewalt began his career at the Wheeling Intelligencer in West Virginia.
A well-known political commentator, Mr. Stirewalt wrote about his personal experience of the 2020 election in the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of “Every Man a King: A Short, Colorful History of American Populists” (Twelve Books, 2018), in which he looks at American populism through the history of seven famous populists.
Mr. Stirewalt is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he studied history.