Brandon Pope joins Fox 32 as political reporter
WFLD continues to overhaul its newsroom
With the midterms and Chicago mayoral race looming in the next six months, Fox-owned WFLD announced Wednesday the hiring of Brandon Pope as the station’s new political editor.
“Chicago politics has plenty of power players. I want to focus on the people impacted by them,” Pope told Axios, which first reported this story. “I’m excited to join FOX 32 Chicago and bring curiosity, accountability and a people-first approach to one of the most fascinating political cities in America.”
An Emmy Award-winning journalist who covered local and national politics, Pope was previously at Weigel’s WCIU, where he hosted the now-canceled On The Block newsmagazine show. Pope also interviewed stars of CW programming for the station when WCIU was an affiliate. Pope also hosted Making, a WBEZ podcast from 2022-24 and is the president of the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Pope’s work has also been featured on WGN-AM, WVON, Ebony Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Pope is also producing a documentary of Chicago State’s first college football season, giving Chicago proper its first Division I team since 1939 (the person who wrote this article is a CSU alum, graduating in 1996.)
“Brandon brings a deep understanding of Chicago, a strong command of the political landscape and a real ability to connect policy decisions to the people they affect,” said WFLD VP of News Content and Programming Sean O’Heir. “His experience, perspective and commitment to thoughtful reporting make him a terrific addition to the Fox 32 team.”
Pope replaces Paris Schutz in the role, who left Fox 32 in April to join NBC 5 (WMAQ.) The station is in the process of overhauling its newsroom and its programming schedule, adding new faces and bringing its streaming-only shows on its Fox Local app to linear TV, such as Chicago Live. Taking a cue from what WGN-TV has done (with the exception of syndicated Judy Justice reruns at 3 p.m.), Fox 32 has dropped most syndictated programming from its daytime schedule, moving The Jennifer Hudson Show to its lower-rated Fox Chicago Plus outlet (WPWR), which this week replaced the canceled GMFB Overtime at noon. This comes as the syndicated marketplace for shows have dried up.
Fox Chicago Plus also added Battleground: Midterms, a new political show hosted by Bill Anderson and S.E. Cupp, with the latter hosting the first edition of the show in 2024 in the run up to the Presidential elections. It airs weekdays at 2:30 p.m. and also streams on Fox Local and USA Today’s streaming channel.
So what drew Pope to Fox 32? The station’s expansion of programming on multiple platforms, allowing him to tell his stories in more places as viewers are consuming content on more than just one platform. “What excites me most about Fox Chicago is their commitment to telling stories on multiple platforms, especially streaming and podcasting,” Pope said to Axios. “It’s a perfect fit for a jack-of-all-trades journalist like me.”