Chris Stirewalt on avoiding partisan spin on NewsNation’s ‘The Hill Sunday:’ ‘Frankly, I’m spun out’

For Chris Stirewalt, the launch of a new Sunday morning public affairs show is serious business, saying the time slot “comes with a promise to the audience that you’re going to provide something that is good.”

“Not just that it’s good content, but that it helps them be better citizens, helps them be better Americans, better neighbors and fulfill their own obligations as American citizens,” Stirewalt said.

He said he’s facing a combination of intense excitement and sheer terror as he gears up for the launch of “The Hill Sunday” ahead of its Sunday premiere at 10 a.m. on NewsNation. 

The Hill and NewsNation are both owned by Nexstar Media Group. 

The weekend show, Stirewalt said, will feature an “impressive roster” of guests, including all-journalist panels and interviews with “newsmakers who are decision-makers and also people who are in the battle of ideas.”

But one thing viewers won’t find on “The Hill Sunday,” according to its host, are partisan screaming matches.

With the rise of social media, Stirewalt said, “Now, you can get that everywhere, right? You can scarcely avoid it. It is a river of spin, and cynical partisan posturing everywhere that you go.”

“Frankly, I’m spun out. I think that the political space on TV is way too much given over to talking point and posturing,” he said. 

The former Fox News political editor, who joined NewsNation in the same role in 2022, acknowledged that while on-air fireworks might draw eyeballs, his program is aiming higher.

“The quickest path to profits in television news — and we know it’s true — is to stoke resentment, to build animosity, to reinforce people’s pre-existing beliefs and to demonize the other,” Stirewalt said. 

“Habituating and addicting an audience to partisan rancor is the default business model for an unfortunate portion of the news business,” the 48-year-old West Virginia-born politics pro and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow said.

But his program and network, he said, is “doing it the hard way.”

“We could try to cut corners here and be the next partisan blowtorch, but we’re going to we’re going to take our time and do it in a way that we can be proud of.”

The new show, Stirewalt said, is an opportunity to do something that “lives up to a higher standard of what television news can do.”

Asked to predict how the rest of 2024 will shape up in the world of politics, data-loving Stirewalt told ITK, “I believe that the story of 2024 has only begun to be told.”

“Something in me says that in a moment where many Americans despair of a political world in which there are no surprises but somehow still disappointments, that this will be a consequential, surprising year.”

Since the “Broken News: How the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back and Every Man a King” author will soon be preaching politics on Sunday mornings, it meant some shuffling of at least one aspect of his personal life. 

“The idea of a Sunday show did interfere with a couple of things, including my preferred worship service. But fortunately, I found a good alternative,” Stirewalt said.

And while he couldn’t be more thrilled to kick off the new show, he’s not as pumped about the heap of speeding tickets he sees in his future.

“I typically go to church at 9 a.m. And now I have to go to the 11:15 service. So I just want the Virginia State Police to know that if they see a white Volkswagen speeding up I-395 at 11:14 a.m. on Sunday mornings, it’s for a good cause,” Stirewalt quipped.

“Just let me go.”