Ed Henry

Background

In 1995, Henry graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from Siena College in Loudonville, New York. He began his career with Jack Anderson. In 2003, he began providing political analysis for the WMAL Morning News and The Chris Core Show, two local radio shows on WMAL, Washington, D.C.

He covered Capitol Hill for Roll Call for eight years, writing that newspaper’s Heard on the Hill column, and has been a contributing editor at Washingtonian. He was a 2011-12 member of the Siena College (his alma mater)'s Board of Associate Trustees.

CNN

Henry was the moderator of the CNN Inside Politics broadcast when Robert Novak stormed off the set, on August 4, 2005, during a live discussion with James Carville, about Florida Republican Representative Katherine Harris' just-announced 2006 bid for U.S. Senate. Henry carried on with just Carville for the remainder of the segment.

White House correspondent

After covering the White House for CNN since March 2006, Henry was elevated to a senior position in December 2008. He was one of three CNN correspondents at the White House, along with Dan Lothian and Brianna Keilar; Henry was the sole senior correspondent. One notable moment early in the presidency of Barack Obama, occurred during a White House news conference in March 2009. He asked a pointed follow-up to a question that Obama had previously ignored, about the AIG bonus payments controversy.

When Henry pressed the President on why he had taken so long to publicly express outrage about AIG, Obama answered, "It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak", provoking laughter in the briefing room. Henry later said of the incident, "I was doing my job – and he was doing his."

Courthouse shooting

Henry had been providing CNN with live reports about the Hawaiian vacations of President Barack Obama and Rush Limbaugh in December 2009 (including Limbaugh's hospitalization with chest pains on December 30). He ultimately took a red-eye flight to Las Vegas (where he owns a condo) arriving close to dawn on January 4, and by 8 a.m. was at the center of a breaking story by driving through Downtown Las Vegas: the 2010 Las Vegas courthouse shooting that left two dead and a deputy US Marshal wounded. Henry later covered this story live for CNN.

Move to Fox News

On June 20, 2011, it was announced that Henry was leaving CNN to become the Chief White House Correspondent for Fox News Channel. CNN insiders said that network management had already told Henry that his contract would not be renewed.

During an interview with Don Imus, however, Henry explained his departure from CNN by comparing the Fox News Channel to perennial baseball contenders. "I root for the Yankees, so I like to play for a first-place team. Now, technically the Yankees are not in first place right now, I have to admit, they're a game behind the Red Sox. But there's no doubt about where Fox is", making no mention of the non-renewal of his contract.

While covering the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Henry said he had no regrets about leaving CNN: "It is my first convention with Fox, and I am excited, the move has been great. I feel like I have so much freedom here, it is exciting and the numbers don’t lie. We are no longer competing with other cable networks, we are competing with big three and beating them." While covering the election, he expressed his opinion that Fox News was unfairly criticized by people in the news business (including some at CNN), saying: "It’s been a crutch [for CNN staffers] to say that Fox has done well due to the ideology. It’s an easy out to say, 'Oh, we’re not picking sides and that’s why we don’t have an audience.'"

On May 4, 2016, according to a Fox News spokeswoman, Henry was reported to be taking a temporary leave of absence following an alleged extramarital affair with a Las Vegas hostess. He returned to Fox News in late August 2016 as chief national correspondent.

Awards

Henry received the 2005 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress from the National Press Foundation. Henry provided breaking news coverage for CNN's “America Votes 2004”, as well as an exclusive March 2005 interview with Jeb Bush about the Florida governor's inability to intercede for Terri Schiavo. The NPF judges stated:

Ed submitted five clips that took the story out of the committee room and into the living room. When reporting about Senator Frist's support of stem cell research, he studied the Senator’s motivations not only from a political standpoint, but also as a scientist. It was a great piece of journalism that may have given us our first glimpse of Frist as his own man running for President.

In 2008, the White House Correspondents' Association presented Henry with the Merriman Smith Award (in the broadcast category) for presidential reporting under deadline pressure. Henry won for his February 14, 2007 news coverage of the Bush administration's irreconcilable assertions that Iranian officials were behind the authorization to send improvised explosive devices to Iraq. The panel of judges wrote that Ed Henry's reports on CNN “got better with each ensuing update throughout the day”.

Personal life

Henry married Shirley Hung, a CNN senior producer in June 2010 in Las Vegas. Among those attending at a Wynn Las Vegas chapel were Mike Emanuel of Fox News, Rao's co-owner, Frank Pellegrino, and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. The wedding reception at Society Café Encore Las Vegas included a 22-layer chocolate wedding cake with whipped cream frosting, that was an elaborate replica of the White House, weighing 70 pounds. A pre-wedding dinner party at Rao's featured a performance by Human Nature, who had previously entertained the couple after their February engagement.