As America 250 approaches, the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence has industry figures thinking about how they’d cover history’s biggest stories if they’d had a press pass in 1776. Barrett Media posed a hypothetical to two of broadcasting’s sharpest interviewers: what would you ask the Founding Fathers if a modern-style press conference had followed the signing?
Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream and The Glenn Beck Program host Glenn Beck each took on the exercise. Bream has built a reputation as one of television news’s most incisive questioners, while Beck has spent decades as a news/talk radio fixture and self-described history obsessive. Both approached the assignment from very different angles.
Their answers reveal as much about how they view journalism today as they do about the nation’s founding. Bream focused on legacy and stewardship, while Beck leaned into the mechanics of power and the fragility of a republic.
Together, their responses paint a picture of two broadcasters who take the “founding” part of Founding Fathers seriously.
Bream’s Question About Future Americans
Bream’s hypothetical question centered less on the mechanics of revolution and more on what the founders hoped Americans would carry forward. “I think so much of this is captured in the Declaration,” said Bream. But she’d still want to hear it directly from them, and her line of questioning reflects that instinct.
“But what would your message be to Americans 10 generations from now about how they steward this?” the Fox News Sunday host said. “And how important this place in the world is that the United States of America — what would become the USA — occupies?”
She continued probing the weight of the American experiment.
“What obligations do we have? What’s going to be the hardest part of holding on to what you’ve crafted?” Bream asked. “And what would you say to encourage them to hold fast?”
Beck Wonders About Divine Providence and Courage
Glenn Beck took a decidedly different approach, starting with the sheer audacity of the moment itself. “I probably would have said, ‘What makes you think you can defeat the strongest army and navy the world has ever known? Are you insane?'” Beck said.
From there, his hypothetical interview shifted toward faith, since he’d also want to explore the founders’ repeated references to a higher power.
“I would have asked them about Divine Providence because they talked a lot about that,” Beck stated. That thread, he explained, connects directly to a moment he considers even more consequential than the signing itself — the exchange between Benjamin Franklin and a citizen outside the Constitutional Convention.
Beck Reflects on Franklin’s Warning About the Republic
Beck’s imagined interview quickly zeroed in on Franklin’s famous response when asked what type of government the delegates had created.
“If I could ask any of the founders anything that I think would be important today, it would have been right after the Constitutional Convention, when Franklin is walking down the street, and a woman says, ‘What did you give us, Mr. Franklin?’ And he said, ‘A republic, if you can keep it,'” said Beck. “I’d like to do an interview with Ben Franklin on that.”
Beck continued by sharing insight into his thought process.
“What does that mean? What should we look out for? And what does it mean to be a citizen of a republic? What does it mean to keep the government in check?” Beck questioned. “I would have asked him a lot of questions about that.”
From there, Beck pivoted to what he believes the founders didn’t foresee. “I will tell you, I think they saw everything, including our own apathy,” Beck stated. He pointed to Woodrow Wilson’s relationship with the press and Congress’s willingness to offload lawmaking to federal agencies as developments the founders likely never anticipated, since both run counter to a system built on distributed power.
Beck closed his answer by pushing back on modern criticism of the founders’ limitations. “People say, ‘They were just slave owners, and they couldn’t see the future,'” Beck said. He argued the amendment process itself proves otherwise, calling it evidence of humility rather than shortsightedness, and he pointed to Thomas Jefferson’s rejection of rule “from the grave” as proof the founders expected — and welcomed — future generations to change course.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
