Cheney "wouldn't have come to Brit Hume if he wanted a softball interview," he added, calling the criticism sour grapes. "Look, we're not the only news network in the country, and when you aren't getting the big interview and when you aren't winning, you have to think of a reason why."
Hume also dismissed the suggestion that politics played into Cheney's decision to speak with him. After airing the interview on his show, "Special Report With Brit Hume," Hume said that a rival network crew had approached him outside the White House earlier in the day and asked if Fox News got the exclusive because the channel is "associated with conservative causes."
"I said, nah, I didn't think that was the reason," Hume recounted on the air Wednesday evening. "I thought it was probably because he wanted to go with the news channel with the largest audience."
Indeed, for the last four years, Fox News' audience has outstripped that of second-place CNN, which now averages about 900,000 viewers in prime time to Fox News' 1.9 million, according to Nielsen Media Research. The top-rated channel still lags behind the broadcast networks, whose evening newscasts command 7 million to 10 million viewers a night. But on several recent occasions, Fox News has drawn audiences that rival those figures.
In 2004, the cable channel beat out all the other networks during the Republican National Convention and came close to matching third-ranked CBS News on election night. Last month, more than 6.4 million people tuned in to Fox News to watch President Bush's State of the Union address, the largest audience garnered by any cable show that week.
Fox News sought to make the most of its exclusive on Wednesday, airing excerpts of the interview throughout the afternoon. During an appearance on "Studio B With Shepard Smith," Hume previewed the highlights of Cheney's comments, even as he questioned whether the public was as upset as the White House press corps about the administration's handling of the incident.
"If my e-mail is any guide and the things I'm hearing from just people in the street that you talk to and people that you know, I don't think much of the nation feels particularly deprived that they found out about this on Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening instead of Saturday night or Sunday morning," Hume said.
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Times staff writer Martin Miller contributed to this report.
