By Amy Reiter.
Campbell Brown greets me over the phone so warmly, she could be
mistaken for my best friend. "Hey!" she exclaims, with a
light Southern lilt. It's that friendly approachability, along
with a passion for getting to the heart of the news and some
seriously killer cheekbones, that has propelled Brown from the
field, where she's reported on the Iraq War, the Bush White
House and Hurricane Katrina, into the anchor chair on her own
eponymous news hour. (Campbell Brown airs weekdays at 8
p.m. on CNN.)
After taking a couple of months off following the birth of her second son, Asher, in April, Brown returned to the show in June with a renewed commitment to delivering more news and analysis, fewer soundbites, less shouting, and the sort of balanced take you'd expect from a program that was, until recently, subtitled, "No Bias, No Bull." "We pack in as much actual news as we can, rather than just giving one perspective," she says.
So how does she manage to tackle world issues on a daily primetime
news show and raise two very young children (her older son, Eli, is
just eighteen months old)? In the midst of a hectic workday, Babble
caught up with the Louisiana native, who lives in New York City
with her husband, Republican consultant Dan Senor, to discuss the
challenges and rewards of having two under two, her mixed response
to missed bedtimes, and why waking up with her baby at four a.m. is
"heaven." — Amy Reiter
Welcome back from maternity leave. Was it hard to come
back?
With two, everything's a little more challenging. My girlfriend
just had a baby and was complaining of exhaustion with one child,
and I was like, "Try two! You don't even know what it
means."
So it's been a big change, going from one to two?
"God bless technology for allowing me to be online and still
be with the kids." Absolutely. You go from a
zone defense to man-on-man. There's never a moment when you can
say, "Okay, we can relax." Two weekends ago, my sons were
both napping at the same time, which almost never happens. And my
husband and I looked at each other like, "Ah! We've got
twenty minutes to ourselves!"
And you probably spent it unloading the dishwasher.
That's the problem. When you get those moments, you never just
sit down and relax and appreciate them.
Have you restructured your work schedule to accommodate the new
demands at home?
I have a really supportive work environment. My morning conference
call is from home. And God bless technology for allowing me to be
online and checking in at home and still be with the kids. When I
come in, late morning, I'm gone for the rest of the day — I
don't get to put them to bed at night — so I try to take a
little extra time to be with them in the morning. Then my husband
gets his time with them in the evening, putting my older son down
to bed, giving him a bottle. The mornings are my time, having
breakfast and playing and watching Sesame Street; you
savor those moments. You really try to carve those out and protect
them. And when the baby goes down for his nap, that's when I
get on the phone or the computer and scramble.
Are you on call, too?
In the news business, you're always on call, because events are
so unpredictable.
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