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Mendham resident and tv business anchor Neil Cavuto talks market trends, media’s evolution, and the true value in living

by JENNIFER VIKSE

Ask Neil Cavuto about the most pressing issues facing the United States today, and in the straight-shooting tone that has become his television trademark, the FOX Business Network and FOX News Channel anchor barely pauses before offering a warning.

“It’s simply frightening how blatantly both the Republicans and Democrats absolutely ignore the country’s massive debt,” he opined recently during a phone interview from his office. “Imagine racking up massive bills on your Visa or Mastercard and paying the interest on the interest is the best that you can do. That’s exactly what we’re doing as a country. And instead of making this a centerpiece issue, we’re still spending money like we have it. The Grim Reaper has arrived and is walking us past our own financial graveyard. It may not be the sexiest or most defining issue and worry of our time, but I think it is the most devastating.”

With his signature booming TV voice, Cavuto has acquired a mystique for translating complicated topics for a layman audience. Breaking down the Dow Jones Industrials and defining the minutiae of other markets for the common American is how he built his 30-year media career, and certainly how he became the spirit behind FOX’s business network.

“I usually call my wife after each broadcast and ask her if she got it…if she picked up the points that I was trying to make, because if she did, then I know I did my job,” Cavuto said. “I’ve never been out to impress the brokers and CEOs; I love having them on my show, but my goal has always been to preach to Main Street, not Wall Street. There’s a reason why the show is called Your World. Business news shouldn’t be the litmus test for boredom. Money can be exciting…how to get it, the risks of losing it—so the news surrounding it should definitely be more mainstream. There are dramatic stories, but so many news agencies just slough them off.”

Cavuto, who took up journalism after graduating from New York’s St. Bonaventure University and interning at the White House during the Carter administration, explained that his initial interests strayed far from media outlets.

“I actually wanted to be a priest,” he said. “But I took up journalism and gravitated towards economics, politics, and business, probably because that’s what was spoon-fed by my father. I grew up in an Irish-Italian family where news and topics of the day just were naturally discussed at the kitchen table. Both my mother and father had very strong opinions, and even as kids we were encouraged to state our views. Dinners could actually be some grueling affairs.”

After earning his master’s degree from American University, Cavuto took a fellowship in Indiana working with The Indianapolis Star.

“It was my first exposure to the day to-day of print journalism,” he said. “I was working there when the Indy 500 rolled into town, and I was simply amazed by all of the businesses that convened. My interest in business just sort of mushroomed from there.”

The anchor took a stint at Investment Age magazine before earning his first on air broadcast job as a weekend anchor at a small station in Burlington, Vermont.

“I was not exactly Walter Cronkite, but it was a small market that gave me a chance,” he recalled.

A first opportunity on the national level came as producer and then correspondent for PBS’s Nightly Business Report. He then moved on to anchor and host live daily programming for CNBC and served as a contributor to The Today Show before making the move to FOX in 1996. Over that extended TV tenure, Cavuto said that the face of financial news has drastically changed.

“You have to understand, when I first started, we didn’t have the Internet. The only business offerings available, really, were on network news—CBS and NBC would simply mention the Dow’s numbers at the end of their broadcast.”

So, Cavuto built a career by offering his own perspective, and years of experience now guide every broadcast.

“I used to be the youngest in this business, but with all my years I kind of feel like the Yoda character—it’s just me, [Bill] O’Reilly, and maybe [Lou] Dobbs,” he said. “But I think with age comes the appreciation of history.”

When FOX recently did a retrospective for the anniversary of the 1987 market crash (which Cavuto covered for Nightly Business Report), “We focused on what everyone remembered from that October 19 event, but [also] what the real story was about what happened on October 20, 1987. The market came back and gained points. It still was a very volatile situation, I can’t sugar coat it, but within a little more than a year, we were back to market highs.”

For Cavuto, it was a valuable lesson learned.

“I have a chart in my office that marks the movement of the Dow over the last century,” he said. “When you’re sitting across the room, all you see is that the chart goes up. When you get close up you see there are these jagged punctuated points to mark moments like the [Great] Depression, the 1973 Oil Crisis, Watergate, and 9-11. But when you step way back—as painful, awful, and unfortunate as those moments were—that chart and the markets it represents do go up. In the moment it’s one hell of a moment, you think it’s unprecedented, but it’s really just a painful bump. Not to diminish the power of any crisis, but the way we’ve rebounded from some major events really speaks volumes about the greatness of this country.”

One of those defining moments was a very personal experience for Cavuto.

“There’s no doubt that 9-11 is the most monumental news story of my time, but it was also very personally devastating for me for no other reason than so many friends, colleagues, and guests of the show ending up dying in those attacks,” he said.

“Afterwards, we learned that Al-Qaeda deliberately attacked Manhattan because they believed it would be a big financial hit, but that was completely inconsequential. The monumental loss of human life that day was the real headline; it was a very personal, fundamentally moving event.”

Diagnosed with stage four Hodgkins lymphoma in 1987, Cavuto has experienced personal battles of his own. He fought the cancer and won, then years later doctors detected the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. He’s been told that the odds of contracting both diseases in the same lifetime are somewhere in the vicinity of two million to one.

“Being sick taught me humility,” Cavuto said. “Before, I was focused on my career and climbing the ladder. In a weird way these diseases have allowed me to focus on things that matter.”

Cavuto wrote a book about the experience entitled More Than Money: True Stories of People Who Learned Life’s Ultimate Lesson (William Morrow, 2004).

“At the time of my diagnosis, I was absorbed in my own pity, but then all of these calls and well wishes started coming in from people who chose to share their own hardships with me,” he recalled. Cavuto couldn’t even take many of the calls during that dark time, but his wife recorded the messages. He later compiled all of the encouragements into a volume that would eventually become a New York Times Bestseller.

“Friends and former guests called to say they had lost their wife, or their son, or endured the collapse of their business, but they survived,” he noted. “It reminded me that people with

“[More Than Money] has a message that there are many things that matter more than a spreadsheet or portfolio.”

money are just as prone to the fragility and vulnerabilities of life. We’re all human; we all deal with strife and hard times. It was a cathartic experience for me. The book is literally about more than money. It has an uplifting message that there are many things that matter a lot more than a spreadsheet or a portfolio.”

And while Cavuto was involved in a number of charitable causes before his diagnoses, his sickness spurred him to devote time and notoriety to even more. Catholic Charities, The United Negro College Fund, and The National Fatherhood Initiative are just a few of the causes near and dear to his heart.

“I don’t want to make my illness my central cause,” he said. “But I think it’s my obligation to help where I can.”

Cavuto, who lives with his wife Mary and three children in Mendham (he’s also resided in Nutley and Somerset), added that he’s learned a great many life lessons from both his illness and his profession.

“I’ve been very blessed in my career, very fortunate to have a wonderful family, and my own personal health issues have taught me to appreciate those things every day,” he concluded. “I focus on what matters now and consider myself extremely lucky to get up every morning and really love what I do.”