Adam Housley

Arthur Adam Housley (born August 13, 1971)^[1][2] is an Emmy and AP award-winning American journalist and former professional baseball player. He joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 2001 as a Los Angeles-based senior correspondent.

Housley has reported on international conflicts in the Middle East and Latin America, while also covering major events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2010 Copiapó mining accident, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Ferguson unrest, 2015 San Bernardino attack.

Career

Baseball

A graduate of Pepperdine University, Housley played on the 1992 National Champion College World Series Baseball Team and spent two summers playing for Harwich in the Cape Cod League.^[3] He was also a Junior Olympic All-American baseball player as a pitcher and hitter.^[4] He received a double bachelor degree in political science and telecommunications from Pepperdine University. He was a two-time media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.^[5] Prior to his career in television, Housley played professional baseball and was drafted by the Montreal Expos and played for both the Milwaukee Brewers and the Detroit Tigers minor league organizations, pitching in 97 games.

Journalism

Prior to joining FNC, Housley served as a reporter at KTXL-TV (Fox) in Sacramento, California from 1999 to 2001, where he received an array of awards including the 2001 Regional Associated Press Reporting Award and a Regional Emmy Award. In addition, he was the lead reporter for KFTY-TV, an independent station in Santa Rosa, California, from 1998 to 2000. Before that, Housley was a live reporter for KCPM-TV (NBC) in Chico, California from 1997 to 1998, where he won a California Department of Forestry Award for capturing a wanted 50,000 acre arsonist. Housley began his career as a reporter for KVON-KVYN radio in his native Napa, where he developed and produced newscasts.

Housley reported during the Iraq War from Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, and the Persian Gulf; and has spent time covering the War on Terror from Pakistan and in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He was on air in Kuwait when the first missiles and warning sirens began on March 20, 2003 and earlier that month boarded ships in the Persian Gulf along with U.S. Special Forces as they looked for illegal shipments of weapons into Iraq. His reports also came via video phone from the deck of the U.S.S. Milius, a United States destroyer that would eventually fire the first missiles into Iraq to begin the war.^[6][7]

During his tenure, Adam was also FNC's lead reporter for Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2003 campaign and has covered six hurricanes, including Katrina and Rita and filed more than 45 stories from Mexico and the southern border.^[8]

In December 2005, Housley was one of a few reporters selected to witness the execution of murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams at San Quentin.^[9]

Housley also reported live on the shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the suspension of New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and the aftermath of the deadly crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 live from the San Francisco Airport (SFO). Previously, he covered the 2012 wildfires in Waldo Canyon, Colorado ^[10] In April 2013, he secured an exclusive interview with a Special Operations whistle-blower who felt the government betrayed the four men who died in the Benghazi attacks on September 11.

Adam has reported in eight Latin American countries including Nicaragua, Venezuela, Guyana, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, and El Salvador reporting on the war against drugs and scoring an exclusive interview with Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega. He was also live on air when former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez shut down popular Latin American broadcaster RCTV and spent two weeks covering the unrest.^[11]

He received his MA in International Security from the University of Arizona in 2014. ^[12]

Notable coverings

Housley was one of the first correspondents on assignment in Haiti, covering the devastation left in the wake of the earthquake that struck it on January 12, 2010. He wound up using a plug-in mike he found at the Consumer Electronics show the week earlier to record reports shot on his iPhone. Housley and his cameraman, Eric Barnes, were able to turn rescue footage shot by Congressman Kendrick Meek (D-FL) into broadcast news.^[13]

Housley was one of the first Western journalists to provide extensive on-site coverage in the wake of the Southeast Asian tsunami. He reported on recovery efforts and the search for bodies along with his crew on location from Phuket, Patong Beach, Phi Phi Island and Khao Lak.^[14][15]

Housley was one of the first American reporters on scene in Japan to cover the devastation following the 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. He and his crew at one point got within 70 miles of the reactors, filming live streaming reports for Fox News before the nuclear threat forced them to return to Tokyo. His coverage was featured in, among others, The Los Angeles Times, Mediabistro and The Napa Register.^[16][17][18]

Fluent in Spanish, Housley covered the Chilean mining accident for Fox. He was on site and reporting on October 12–13, 2010, as each of the 33 miners, trapped for 69 days, was brought to the surface one at a time in a rescue capsule.^[1]

During the protests in August and November 2014, Housley was one of the reporters for Fox on the scene in Ferguson, Missouri. He reported live as the fires were still burning on Florissant Avenue, and some of his tweets prompted viewers to donate money to local businesses who lost everything due to looting and subsequent fires caused by arson.^[19][20]

Housley was one of the first reporters in the world on site for the terrorist attack in San Bernardino. He and his crew obtained exclusive video of the shootout that ended with the gunmen, Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed by police^[21] He also broke a number of major developments in the case, including the plan to charge an accomplice, Enrique Marquez Jr., with terror-related offenses,^[22] federal investigators looking for a missing hard drive,^[23] the FBI knew of terror connections early on,^[24] and Farook and Malik practiced at a local gun range.^[25]

Personal life

He married Sister, Sister actress and co-host of The Real Tamera Mowry on May 15, 2011. Housley is president of his family's Century Oak Winery in Lodi, California. The couple welcomed their first child, a son, named Aden John-Tanner Housley, on November 12, 2012.^[26] It was announced that they were expecting their second child in July 2015.^[27] The couple welcomed their second child, a daughter, named Ariah Talea Housley, on July 1, 2015.

The couple competed and won the 'Celebrity Cupcake Wars' on The Food Network in 2016. Their jalapeño cornbread, Chocolate Cabernet and Vanilla Port Cupcakes beat out three other teams for the title.^[28] The Housleys donated their winnings to the charity SnowballExpress.org which helps children of fallen U.S. military members.^[29]

Both Housley and his wife have received backlash on social media for their marriage, largely focusing on their interracial relationship and also because of his position at Fox News. He has aggressively defended his wife and family with some harsh words for those who levy racially charged insults. In one response, Housley said: "The fact that, in this day and age, we get attacked for our interracial relationship is beyond sad... it is pathetic. Yes I am white. Yes she is half black. Marrying a white man does not erase her color, and marrying a woman who is half black does not mean I am blinded. The problem isn't pigmentation... the problem is backwards, bigoted thought from people who should know better."^[30]

References