Courtney has been based in the Middle East for almost nine years. She has covered the political crises of Lebanon, Syria’s role in the region, as well as the Intifada, the fracturing of the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s response.

Since July 2005, Courtney has been reporting for Fox News in Baghdad. She has covered this story for all sides. She was at Saddam Hussein’s trials. She has documented the explosion of sectarian violence and the players involved. And she has been embedded repeatedly with US troops, charting the course of military strategy as the US Congress looks on. She knows the system well enough to get to the right places at the right times.

When not in Baghdad, she has gone on air for Fox from Jerusalem, London and New York both as a reporter and on air analyst.

She received her masters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

I’ve worked out of Rome for FOX since 9/11.

Not because of 9/11; I just happened to have changed jobs that September. I was actually on vacation in Sicily when the Twin Towers got hit. Having come to FOX from Time Magazine, I was new to television — but got a lot of help from Rome producer Mario Biasetti, who’s been working in TV longer than I’ve been alive. I also got sent quite often to our Jerusalem bureau, to give a hand covering the intifada — so that meant a lot of live television experience in a very short period of time.

I survived “Papal April”: the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict 16th in 2005, although it was actually a three-month ordeal, as John Paul first went into the hospital in February. I spent a lot of time in a wet and cold parking lot outside the Gemelli Hospital, and if it had lasted much longer I would have also ended up in the hospital. Keep Reading …

I cover Northern California, Nevada and Hawaii, but have been sent as far as Jerusalem to report for Fox News Channel.

Our bureau in San Francisco is small — just me, my producer Miranda Coykendall and our videographer / editor Tom Whittaker, which makes for a tight, streamlined crew that gets the job done fast and efficiently. We’ve had many interesting assignments, from features like the rise in popularity of miniature cattle, to breaking news like forest fires and floods.

We mainly cover “fair and balanced” stories, which in San Francisco, include recent efforts to reduce the presence of the U.S. military in public schools, and opposition to turning the historic battleship USS Iowa into a floating museum, to a year-long demonstration at UC Berkeley by a group of “tree sitters” to block the construction of a new sports facility on campus. We cover many legal stories, from the Scott Peterson trial, to the Michael Jackson case, to the scandal surrounding disgraced Democratic fundraiser, Norman Hsu.

I would say that one of my favorite memories working at FOX came during the time I was covering the Scott Peterson trial. I was doing nightly reports for “On The Record,” usually as the lead story. When Greta took vacation time, she supported the idea to have me fill in for her, which I did, and that was a thrill.

I treated the New York-based crew to an after party and enjoyed the moment.

“Gather together all your family and friends — anyone who will come — and get them here by 6 a.m.”

Those were my first instructions at FOX News. It was 1996. I was a junior at NYU, and a waitress at the CyberCafe in Soho. “FOX News Sunday” was making its debut, and wanted to use the — then novel — Internet cafe as a gathering place for a live audience to ask the in-studio guests questions via remote. If you caught that first show, that’s my step-uncle nervously asking about the latest in the Clinton vs. Dole race for the White House. And that’s my thumb holding the microphone.

Eleven years later, I’ve done everything from powdering guests to dodging katyushas while working for FOX News Channel. In just the past 3 days alone I’ve listened to a professor describe in detail how he beat his wife to death, interviewed a Boy Scout Troop leader about the organization’s stance on homosexuality, and walked some of the most dangerous streets of Philadelphia with volunteers who are trying to stop the violence. Every day is an adventure.

The Jay Leno show. Jimmy Kimmel Live. Face it, most of you out there will never appear on one of these shows. But I have the distinction, dubious in my case, of being on BOTH shows the same night. I can laugh about it all now. But I couldn’t at the time.

Rewind time here with me if you will to September of 2003. The network sent me to Virginia Beach, Virgina to cover Hurricane Isabel, which at one point, if my recollection serves me correctly, was classified as a major hurricane, exceeding category 3 strength. As Isabel approached land however, she quickly fell apart. And by the time the storm got to Virginia Beach, Isabel was barely at hurricane strength, with wind gusts hovering around seventy miles per hour. That said, a weak hurricane is still a HURRICANE, and I wanted to demonstrate the power of these storms to our viewers. So, I put some protection over my eyes in the form of goggles, and then ventured in between two buildings on live TV, informing the audience I was about to go into a wind tunnel, so that our viewers could see the strength of Isabel for themselves.

Keep Reading …

Hi all — I’m staff in the SE bureau located in Atlanta. I split duties between Sat truck/photog/field tec/field producer/ coffee maker! (I’m also in charge of the candy jar!)

We’re primarily a breaking news bureau and we stay pretty busy. Most of our time is spent in our region but we are sometimes sent to other areas depending crew/staffing needs. I’m exciting about blogging and letting you guys know the ins and outs of our “normal” life in the field!

I’ve had a front row seat to history for more than 20 years now, covering local news from South Carolina to Florida to Chicago, Boston, LA, and New York City, and national/international stories in more than 30 states and 20 countries from Aruba to Afghanistan.

I was there when the Twin Towers fell, I was there when the first shots were fired across the Iraq-Kuwait border, I was there when Katrina’s waves receded from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, I was there hours after the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis.

I’ve also been on the field for dozens of World Series games and watched Mark McGwire hit his record breaking home runs, before they were tainted by steroid rumors. I love seeing and listening and learning and conveying the sights and soundbites with intelligence, insight and humor … and I’m looking forward to my next assignment, wherever it is.

Hi All, I’m David MacDougall. I’m based at the FOX News Baghdad bureau, and spend about six months each year in Iraq. The first time I went to Iraq was after the initial invasion in 2003 – and I’ve been going there regularly ever since. I’d didn’t go to Iraq before the war, although I had done a fair amount of traveling round the Middle East, and lived in the region for two years when I worked as a diplomat.

The worst moment I had in front of the camera was also my first time live on TV for FOX – so I’m not likely to forget it! It was Thanksgiving 2004 in Mosul with cameraman Tommy Doig. I had just started interviewing some soldiers, and talking to the anchors back in New York when a couple of helicopters decided to land close by. Of course, the engine noise drowned out the questions, which meant I couldn’t hear a word the anchors were saying. I was convinced my first live report on FOX had been cursed. But the same thing happened to a reporter from CNN a couple of hours later, so I didn’t feel too bad in the end!

Earlier this year, I met three amazing children in Ramadi. Each one had a combat-related injury and little chance they’d get the medical help they needed any time soon. Nine year old Abdul lost his right eye after being shot in the face. Five year old Mustafa took a bullet through the throat. And 12 year old Ayad had all the bones in her legs crushed – as well as being horribly burned – in a roadside bomb attack. The spirit of resilience in these children was quite remarkable, and it was impossible not to be touched by their plight. Keep Reading …

When I first walked into FOX News Channel’s Los Angeles bureau, I didn’t know a white balance from white rice, a microwave truck from a microwave oven, and when editors said they were “crashing” I thought it was in reference to a sugar low.

But over the course of four years at FOX, I have not only increased my vocabulary with a glossary of terms from the television news industry — I have been given the opportunity to travel all over the country, and the world, producing news.

The Los Angeles bureau is my home base — but the enormity of the region it covers keeps all of us staffers regularly on the road. Ours is the “Western Region” — California, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and, yes, Hawaii (but please save your snickering — I have produced two big stories there and have never had a moment to lie on a beach or sip a Mai Tai. As our Coordinating Producer, Don Fair, is fond of saying, Hawaii has so little TV news technology, it’s like producing in a third world country).

I have also traveled overseas on assignment, and it is this type of travel that always makes me marvel at how cool my job is. I have been to Colombia, where our crew hiked through a jungle filled with guerilla insurgents, only to come across multiple cocaine labs; I have tracked drug smugglers in Mexico; I have lived in Israel for a month; I have been tear-gassed in Venezuela. It’s not always glamorous, but it’s always interesting.

If you watch the news, you know the stories. What you don’t know are the stories behind the stories … and in the next few months, you won’t believe some of what you’re going to read.

Hi! I’m Catherine Herridge and welcome to the blog! I’m guessing you watch FOX and know that I cover Homeland Security, terrorism and the intelligence community. In fact, I was the first TV reporter from any network assigned to the homeland beat after 9/11.

I left New York and came to Washington in the fall of 2001, after covering the World Trade Center attack. No one knew how long I would stay in D.C., so after a month the top brass at FOX let me go home to get more clothes and underwear.

Over the years, I’ve been given a nickname: “the Terror Pixie.” I don’t know if it’s the pixie haircut or the topics I cover, but somehow it has stuck. Although the issues I report on are very serious, there is a lighter side from time to time — and I’ll bring it to you whenever I can!