The Brian Sullivan Blog

  • December 30, 2008 02:09 PM EST by Brian Sullivan

    A Little Bit about the Author

    First off, thanks to everyone who reads my blog and particularly to those who take their time to write in with comments.    As you can see from the comments section, I post all that come in - both positive and negative - so long as they don't contain offensive language.

    The stories going on today in America generate passion on both sides.   Many of my entires on the automakers, government, taxes etc have compelled you to write in with your thoughts, both thanking me and telling me that I am an out of touch idiot.    To be honest, I'm fine with both because I know these are tough times and in this business you have to have a thick skin.

    Many of you have written in with your stories.    It's wonderful to hear from all parts of America.   As such, I would though like to take a minute to tell you something of my history.  It's far from a tale of the "media elite."

    I was born in Gardena, California.   It's a downtown, working class section of Los Angeles.    My mother left a difficult home situation in St Louis as a teenager, moving to California on her own to find a job, eventually finding work as a telephone operator for AT&T.   My father joined the Navy out of high school and was in the service for the 9 years.  After getting out of the Navy he stayed in California and found work at defense contractor TRW.     We moved when I was 3 to a small house in Torrance, California and my father went to college at night.   My mother worked for AT&T (and its subsidary, Pacific Telesis) for 30 years.    My dad ended up owning a gas station in La Habra, California during the gas crunch and I enjoyed working there with him when I was a kid (for no pay, of course).   Clint Eastwood came by to fill up once, which was cool.   We eventually moved to San Diego county just in time to see the economy slow and the real estate market tumble.

    That difficult California economy compelled us to leave California  when I was a teenager and move to Virginia, where my father is from originally.    It was a good move, though a forced one.    As many of you may have seen in our "My Hometown" series, my parents remain in our small Virginia town to this day.   Though they suffered economically over the next few years, they made it through and are doing well today.  My dad is 67 years old and is at his desk every morning by 7am.  He also volunteers at a Civil War battlefield memorial on many weekends.  My mother is 70 and still works hard, taking classes and doing taxes for a tax preparation company from January to April.   I am incredibly proud and humbled by the sacrifices they made over the years and how hard they continue to work.

    My wife's story is also one for the books.  Her father died of a heart attack when she was a junior in college and her mother passed away from breast cancer when she was just 21.    Though her parents were divorced and she has step-parents, she and her younger sister in many ways raised themselves.    They were far too young to lose both parents.   My wife today has a successful career, built in part because she moved five times to five cities in five years for her employer.    She is a role model for me and everyone who knows her.

    I attended public school my entire life.   I am the first person in my family to go to college out of high school, and chose Virginia Tech in part because it was an inexpensive state school that we could afford.    My parents did without nice cars to make sure I didn't have to take loans.   Once in New York I ended up putting myself through law school at night while trying to build a career in journalism.   Through some luck, and a lot of hard work and many sleepless nights things have gone well.   My parents remind me every time we talk to remember where I came from, what they went through, and to keep working hard.  I take nothing for granted.

    The point of this is merely to dispel some of the myths about those in my seat.    Many of the stories we talk about every day - real estate bubbles, job losses, tough times - have been lived through by many of us.   Perhaps I write about California more than other places because it will always be, in some ways, home.  It's sad to see it going through tough times.   Wherever the fault may ultimately lie good journalists know that at the beginning and end of every story is you; the people who are living through the headlines.  If we ever forget that please remind us.

    Thanks again for writing in and Happy New Year.

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Ron Shields

it's nice to see a Winchester boy doing well. Nice work Brian!

January 4, 2009 at 12:41 pm

Patrick Norton

By the way Mr. Sullivan, I think you do an excellent job of broadcasting. This economy problem does not effect me; I paid cash for my house and autos, refuse to have credit cards, and drive tractor trailers OTR. I understand that some have 25,000 sq ft houses and have to drive new cars with full coverage insurance rates. Those same people throw trash out their car windows declairing they are creating new jobs. Look at the big picture my friend; fair and balanced.

January 3, 2009 at 1:01 pm

Patrick Norton

I also grew up in California on the east side of Oakland in a neighborhood with a nickname of the killing zone. It still carries that name even to this day; 35 years later. On February 21, 1965, in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm X was gunned down. I was in Jr. High in the 8th grade as the Panthers marched on City Hall and riots erupted in our prison looking institution they called a school, and forced to drop out by my father, for safety reasons. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale on October 15, 1966 founded the organization Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and initially set forth a doctrine calling for the protection of African American neighborhoods from police brutality, in the interest of African-American justice. The group's political goals were overshadowed by their militant tactics, and by their suspicions of government agents. Being then a 16 year old Caucasian caught in the middle of a police department that was 98% white and militant African-Americans looking for Justice, when there was no Justice; I took off to Northern Minnesota to a Native American reservation boarder town. There, I experienced the sting of racism first hand as I heard of the Police and Federal Agents beating down the men and the women; or any Native American who dared leave those reservation lands. I met a group of Native Americans and we would write letters to the editor about the assults until I was caught and law enforcement; they crushed both of my hands in their parking lot.

January 3, 2009 at 3:18 am

Leosroar

Peter Drucker wrote, "the best way to predict the future is to create it." Your family created a positive future then took the necessary steps to realize it. Nowhere in your story did fear, despair, and doubt become prominent characters. These fools cannot exist alongside faith, hope, and confidence. Such people are like those who created this great nation as a land of opportunity. Certainly they realized the risks associated with their undertakings, but these great founders ignored them in favor of the greater rewards they sought. For them, and those like them today, the rewards of freedom far outweigh the risks in a world where there are no guarantees. Our nation can rise out of 2008's ashes, if we heed the lessons learned from people like the Sullivans. Dare to dream great things for oneself, one's family, and one's community and take deliberate, focused, individual action. For it is in the collective strength of free individuals, not the collectivist state or ambigious society, which builds great houses, towns, states, and nations.

January 2, 2009 at 9:34 am

Al

Brian, Glad you gave the readers the info about yourself. Knowing your background is important to me when I read what is being said. I'm a couple years older than your Dad. I retiredfrom GM after 31 years and I will survive this mess someway but for 2 of my 4 children that have worked nearly 20 years themselves and to see them lose their jobs, their homes and have grand children that I have to support and try to keep them in school is what hurts. It's not about me. What really hurts is the fact that so many writers take whatever they can get a story from and run like wildfire with it. Most writers aren't interested in getting the whole story. Anyway hope you have a good year ahead of you.

January 1, 2009 at 12:52 pm

earle

Out of humble beginnings, come great men, who learned early in life that belief in one's-self overcomes failure, which builds character. Character is the cornerstone that grounds great leaders in defeating all adversity! Bravo! Brian

December 31, 2008 at 6:17 pm

bob h

I am glad to know about your background. Your sense of humor is something I really enjoy!!

December 31, 2008 at 11:45 am

Shawn

Brian Your always good for laugh or two in the morning and I do like reading your take on the issues. Have a great New Year and keep the levity cause we will surely need it in 2009.

December 31, 2008 at 10:14 am

Andy K

Yes in deed you do sound like the guy next door. And so do most of the people that write in. You know its just baffling because most of the people I know are like the guy next door, so where do all the idiotic, moronic, and just plain stupid ideas and policies keep coming from. We all want to succeed, Live without fear of oppression, buy a house, raise a family, etc. Keep up the good work and keep telling the truth and the people will follow you.

December 31, 2008 at 9:04 am

moving

Living through hard times helps rid us of the sense of entitlement that has engulfed our society and makes us stronger on the other side...maybe the politicians will learn that as well some day.

December 31, 2008 at 8:34 am

Truman

A little about all of us though... We are all placed before opportunity of a lifetime, THE life, the time of the life. Indeed. I want to see Brian Sullivan move to politics ! Why ? Because - it's hard to find someone you can rely on, find accountable - and is responsible. Nothing beats the moments when you see Brian ask a guest - stone cold face - an EXCELLENT question, what I like to call an upstream fishing issue- that is, when you can find something upstream causally that renders all else moot. Brian Sullivan is an upstream fisher ! Upstream fishing in America ? he's in the book. Trout Fishing in America ? Nice cover, but I never got the rest. or maybe I got that backwards. Either way - I don't think Richard was not promoting well it gets tricky even with light analogy to the truth, for we understand so many deeply causal factors in our quantum modeled world go unknown. But it helps to hear someone promote - when cars are not selling - the point that without cars being sold - you really don't have a valid business model. Myself ? I want to know about DiTech and CountryWide and Fox and how GMAC's home mortgage unit DiTech was there to help spread these stinkbomb packages showing up on even the smallest of banks radar screens lately. I want to get more into that "You've got the Greenlight Baby" promotion using FCC airways.

December 31, 2008 at 2:29 am

Truman

I DO appreciate Brian, you do not bring any religious undertones, overtones. And I respect your privacy on religion there. Well done too.

December 31, 2008 at 12:42 am

Truman

Marion put it well - sometimes the good guy really does win. you certainly one of the good guys Brian. All I know is - I witness someone asking critical questions - in a stone cold face when interviewing with Brian Sullivan when asked a question... you either have an answer - or Brian just cut through some nonsense ! It's interesting to see good critical thinking come through - regardless of who you are interviewing - you are iron clad on integrity towards the truth I believe. The light is good - it is warm - and frankly - sunlight supports all life here on this planet. You seem to be after the metaphor for light, truth - that which fosters life. How else to put it. AND - I can't tell how old you are, but you still bring a wholeness forward in yourself with the child element - humor at the least ! Good stuff Brian - keep it coming. And I'm not fan of 'TV' bringing me anything that isn't well ironed out, slanted, cooked, baked, whatever - USUALLY by the time it's on TV - it's sub prime culture. You are an exception to that. Nothing beats when you reverently offer up to a guest who seems to have 'one' way of seeing things - a question which the answer is already known. As I said before - you'd make one helluva prosecutor if you ever go into law ! Indeed celebration for a new year, and of the last. I like the work you do with FBN - but I wonder at times if you leave them feeling aggrevated - you're pursuit of the truth is worth far more than any ad revenue.

December 31, 2008 at 12:39 am

Bob in Cali

God Bless you Brian. Thanks for having "thick skin". It is very refreshing that you do, in fact, post all comments, as long as they aren't offensive.

December 30, 2008 at 9:01 pm

Marion

Sometimes the good guy really does win

December 30, 2008 at 6:03 pm

Listening in Texas

Brian, You sound like the guy next door... not out of touch with reality and your background serves you well as it looks like you have been surrounded by wonderful people with great work ethics and personal ethics as well. It is good to read your columns and now to know a little about you. My parents are about the same age as yours and both have very similar type of background; that generation seems to have something to show us in the new generation of "let's have it all" -- I have to try and tell my kids of hard times... but to those who have never been around any hard times... they are in for a huge wake up call. It looks like you have your feet on the ground... may you keep them there and may God keep an eye out on you. Hope you have happy holidays and stay above water throughout this next year which will be very rough on many.

December 30, 2008 at 4:40 pm

Gary Driscoll

It is good to see that your background gives you a chance to understand real things. However, growing up in California, living in New York, and associating mostly (this is assumed on my part) with the media may well end up overcoming your good sense. :-)

December 30, 2008 at 3:47 pm

about this blog

  • Brian Sullivan joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in April 2008 as an anchor. He co-anchors the 10am-12pm ET hours of the FOX Business block. Prior to joining FBN, Sullivan served as an anchor for Bloomberg Television where he hosted the programs Morning Call and In Focus.

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