Francis of Fox Business on covering politics like business

Kris Kitto of The Hill interviewed Fox Business Network anchor Melissa Francis on how covering the 2012 presidential campaign is a lot like covering business.

Here is an excerpt:

Q: You have a business-reporting background, but you’ve been doing campaign coverage for Fox Business. How do you like reporting on politics?

I love it. I think, with this election especially, there’s such an intersection between the economy and politics that it really helps to have an expertise in both.

One thing that I’ve been working on a lot is exit polling, and again and again they’re saying the issue that was weighing on them most heavily as they cast their vote is the economy, my wallet, gas prices — all things that are right in my wheelhouse.

Q: What are the differences and similarities between reporting on business and reporting on politics?

There’s a lot of similarity … When you look at it through the lens of economics or numbers or data, you can find the answers real clearly. It helps to sort through the numbers and get to what the truth is.

For instance, everybody’s talking about the price of gas, and it was $1.89 when Obama took office, and Gingrich has said he’ll get it down to $2.50. And having covered energy, I know that it’s a tall order. Right now it’s going to be pretty tough for a politician to control what the price of oil is.

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