Names and faces

■ Veter - an anchor Chris Wallace signed off his “Fox News Sunday” show after 18 years to join CNN, dealing a blow to Fox’s news operation at a time its opinion side has become preeminent. CNN announced shortly after his show ended Sunday that Wallace, 74, will join the streaming service CNN+ as an anchor. The service is due to debut sometime next year. “It is the last time, and I say this with real sadness, we will meet like this,” Wallace told his viewers. “Eighteen years ago, the bosses here at Fox promised me they would never interfere with a guest I booked or a question I asked. And they kept that promise.” Wallace was a veteran broadcast network newsman, working at both ABC and NBC News, before the late Roger Ailes lured him to Fox with the promise of his own Sunday show. Wallace — whose father was Mike Wallace, the legendary “60 Minutes” reporter — is known for methodical preparation and willingness to ask hard questions. He was the first Fox News personality to moderate a presidential debate, in 2016 and 2020. The debate he moderated last year went off the rails when then-President Donald Trump repeatedly interrupted challenger Joe Biden. Wallace generally co-existed with Fox’s opinion side and infrequently took it on publicly, although in 2017 he said it was “bad form” when opinion hosts bashed the media. “I have been free to report to the best of my ability, to cover the stories I think are important, to hold our country’s leaders to account,” Wallace said Sunday. “It’s been a great ride.”

■ Grammywinning musician Pharrell Williams told the newest graduates of a historically Black university in Virginia to act like “the emerging majority” and help develop the area’s businesses and culture. He gave the fall commencement speech Saturday at Norfolk State University, not far from where the producer and rapper grew up in Virginia Beach. “I can’t wait to see how far you amazing, impressive graduates of Norfolk State … how far you’ll go,” Williams said. He received an honorary doctorate and was also named an honorary member of the school’s marching band — which brought him to tears, The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported. Williams said the city of Norfolk will thrive because it recognizes how important it is to acknowledge past and local heroes: “Norfolk will not be the city that limits its peoples’ own potential, but instead, it will feed it.” He told listeners to do their part by spending money at local businesses that care, and by changing outdated language, like the word “minorities.” “We are the emerging majority,” he said. “Don’t wait until Election Day. Vote with your wallets today, tomorrow and the next day.”

Williams

Wallace