Fort Worth
NewsNation’s Markie Martin is returning to North Texas for a hometown show.
The Dallas native will host her show, “Morning in America”, at the State Fair of Texas from 5-8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 9. The three-hour morning weekday show gets viewers up to the date on the happenings of the day.
Martin joined NewsNation in 2020 as the network’s Dallas correspondent. Around three years later she joined “Morning in America” as co-anchor, and became the sole anchor in January 2024.
Ahead of the Dallas show, Martin, who is based in Chicago, spoke to the Star-Telegram about her journalism roots and history with the State Fair of Texas.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
🎬 In case you missed it:
Star-Telegram: Everybody has a story of why they wanted to pursue their chosen career. Do you remember what that moment was for you in journalism?
Markie Martin: I actually went to college, I went to the University of Richmond, to study medicine. My dad is a surgeon in Dallas, and I got to watch him at work. I liked that he did something different every day. I liked that there wasn’t monotony to it. I was like, “You know what? I think I’ll probably pursue plastics as well.” I got to school and I took that first collegiate chemistry course, and I knew that medicine was not going to be in the cards for me [laughs]. I was faced with this moment in college of like, “OK, well, where do I pivot next?”
I thought about all the things that I was good at and that really lit my fire and sparked my interest. I grew up watching the news and the Food Network. I was like, well, I love the news, and I’ve always been a fantastic writer, and said, “What about journalism?” But I never knew anybody in the industry, and when you don’t know anybody in that field, you don’t think of it as being something that you can really pursue yourself. It’s like, well, let me just pivot over to the journalism department and see how that goes for me. And it just clicked immediately. I loved the professors and the assignments really clicked. It didn’t feel like homework.
Part of my journalism degree was needing to get some sort of internship, so I interned with the local CBS affiliate in Richmond, Virginia. I knew in that first week that it was something that I was interested in. I was going out with the reporters, meeting all sorts of people and covering different stories every day. I was sitting with the anchors in studio, and I thought that was thrilling. I knew in that internship that it was an itch that I wanted to scratch.
Actually, the University of Richmond, we didn’t have broadcast news. I was print journalism. Because of my internship, I loved the on-camera aspect and because of that, I started our first on-campus student show out of the basement of our newspaper. I got a cheap green piece of paper and put it behind me. Me and one other girl hosted this weekly series that we called “What’s Up in the Web,” because we were the Richmond Spiders. We just did a preview every week of what was coming up on campus. It was that internship and those professors that really just were the catalyst for me. Then I just took it from there, and now I’m here.
S-T: Is the student show still going on?
MM: Actually, that’s a really good question. I am not aware that it is still ongoing. I should probably know that, but I don’t. But that was what I submitted as my first reel to my very first station that I applied to. It was a mix of that and a couple standups that I did at the internship. I got hired by my very first news director because he thought I was so conversational on this show that I just I made up in the basement at college [laughs]. It’s pretty wild to think back on now, but that’s the story.
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Dallas native Markie Martin hosts “Morning in America” for NewsNation. Courtesy of NewsNation
S-T: During this period of your life, did you have a pipe dream for what you wanted your career to like look as far as working for a local or national station?
MM: I think when anybody in my industry and TV news first starts, you always dream of like, “OK, I’ll work my way up, and then one day I’m going to make it to New York or Los Angeles.” That’s always kind of in the back of your mind. I completely fell in love with local news. I have a total adoration and complete respect for local news, and I did that for what seven years or so. My very last local station, I was the morning anchor at the ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City, KOCO-TV. I did five years there, and then it was time to make a move. My husband and I, at the time we weren’t married, but we did long distance for a decade so that we could both focus on our careers. Both being from Dallas, I said, “You know what? I don’t have any job prospects, but I’m going to bet on myself. I’m gonna leave local. Hopefully, get something locally in Dallas. But we’ll just take a leap of faith and see where life takes me.”
I took a bit of a “funemployment,” if you will, for four or five months. But in that time, I told my agent, “I have no interest in national news. I have no interest in cable news. It’s so divisive. You turn on any cable network now, and it’s literally just a panel of political guests that are screaming over one another. It does nobody any good, and nobody has their mind changed after tuning into any of this. Just don’t shop me out to anybody except for local Dallas stations.” I did the rounds at the local Dallas stations, and that wasn’t really panning out. As you know, those anchor seats are very few and far between. Once people land them, they hold on to them for a long time.
I was sitting at dinner one night with my husband and my agent called, I contemplated not answering it for a second. My husband goes, “Answer the call. All we’re going to talk about for the rest of dinner is what your agent has to say.” I pick up the phone and the first words out of his mouth were, “Hear me out.” It was the pitch for NewsNation, which hadn’t even come to fruition at the time. They were in the very early stages of getting ready to launch and putting their team together. I knew over the phone that I believed in the mission so wholeheartedly that viewers do need unbiased, down the middle news with decorum and respect and dignity. I believed in it so much that I pursued it from there through the interview process, and then I was one of the first correspondents that was hired for the network. I still believe in it. Obviously, I’ve transitioned from being a traveling correspondent to on the anchor desk for the morning show, but it’s an honor to be here. I think the mission of it is needed more than ever.
S-T: At its core, journalism is about being accurate and telling stories. To that end, what’s the biggest differences and similarities between working at a local station and NewsNation?
MM: Well, the biggest similarities for me, I haven’t changed my style all that much. I mean, to your point, I feel like at the core of what we do is telling the story, telling the facts of what we know so far, and letting viewers at home decide for themselves what they think about it. It is not my job to opine. At the end of every segment or at the end of every interview I ever do. One of my biggest goals and hopes is that when I toss it to commercial break and put that segment away, I want the viewer at home to be like, “Wow. Not only did I learn a lot, but I have no idea what she personally thinks about it.”
That didn’t really change all that much, if at all, for me. From local to network, I just think the audience is different, right? I’ve tried to stay true to who I am. I’ve tried to stay true to what I think, you know, the mission and the objective of journalism is. I really think the only thing that has changed is who’s on the other side of that camera. It’s now not just one community, it’s people who are tuning in from all over the country. That carries a bit more weight to it, I think, but the job itself is no different.
S-T: You’re based in Chicago. How often do you make it back to North Texas?
MM: Now that I have two littles. We did the whole two under 2 journey [laughs], so I now have two under 3. But we now make it home a handful of times a year. It’s a little bit harder with 2 and the routines of having babies. I have one who’s in the very beginning stages of school, so not as often as we would like. We’re at the stage where the grandparents are coming from Texas to Chicago more than we are going from Illinois to Texas. But we make it home as often as we can. Thanksgiving, Christmas and at least a summer trip always.
Dallas native Markie Martin hosts “Morning in America” for NewsNation. Amod Mahadik Courtesy of NewsNation
S-T: Being from Dallas, I can imagine the State Fair of Texas being a major thing for you. What’s your history with the fair?
MM: Grew up going every year. I mean, I don’t need to tell you this or anybody from Texas. It’s like a religious experience and tradition for a lot of Texans and for a lot of families. I mean, who go generation after generation. I grew up going every year, even to this day. On [Sept. 25] opening day, I was on the desk and my mom texted, “I’m heading out to opening day.” She does not miss an opening day. She is going to get her Fletcher’s corny dog. I grew up going with family. I grew up going with friends. I have beautiful childhood memories from going there, and career memories too. I mean, I’ve been at the Texas state fair with NewsNation on a couple different occasions. It’s an institution. I’ve never lived in another city, another state that celebrates its state fair like Texas does. It’s a tradition that I take a lot of pride in. I think Texans everywhere take a lot of pride in having that in their backyard.
S-T: Your show is going to be at the fair. How are you feeling about all this?
MM: Like a homecoming. I think it’s going to be thrilling. It’s going to be fantastic. I’ll have my family there. My kids will be going to the state fair for the first time ever. Like that’s going to be surreal for me to continue. My parents went when they were little, and then they took my sister and I. To bring my son and my daughter there for the first time will be great. My husband grew up in Dallas, so he understands just the importance and the excitement and the history. It’s such a storied state fair. To continue that with my own kids will be great. To have my show there and my team there, we’re gonna have fun.
Of course, we’re going to cover the fair and the fun food items, but also be there to cover the news of the day and sit down with big guests to talk about what Texans care about ahead of a very consequential midterm election. That’s going to be weighty too. I think it’s going to be a fantastic show. I hope a lot of people tune in because we’re going to have fun. It’ll still be the show where everybody can get up to speed on what’s going on, but we’re going to have a lot of fun too. I’m excited to showcase that part of Texas.
“Morning in America” airs weekdays from 5-8 a.m. on NewsNation.
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Brayden Garcia is the entertainment reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he mainly writes about how the film and TV industry impacts North Texas, from Taylor Sheridan shows to the Fort Worth Film Commission and everything in between.