On the March 24, 2009 edition of America's Newsroom, Dagan McDowell sparked controversy by comparing the proposed tax on AIG executive bonuses to sexual abuse, saying, "You don’t want to think if you get in bed with Uncle Sam he is going to strip you naked, chain you to the bed, leave you there and then take nasty pictures of you and then put them on the Internet, because that is what has been happening."

On The Factor will Bill O’Reilly, Bill asked Fox Business Network anchors Cheryl Casone and Dagan McDowell to identify America's most villainous business leaders. Casone began with former Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld: "The guy who was running their commercial real estate business warned Fuld that real estate was heading south, so Dick Fuld fired him. But he has plenty of houses and tons of money." McDowell singled out former Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan: "He kept interest rates too low for too long and fueled the housing bubble." Casone moved on to former Citigroup exec Robert Rubin: "He pushed them into mortgage backed securities and risky stuff, and Citigroup is down 85%. But Rubin made almost a $500 million."

 

McDowell then named former Countrywide Financial boss Angelo Mozilo: "He turned it into the biggest mortgage lender in the country by making loans that turned out to be toxic, but he made a half-billion dollars over five years." Former Bear Sterns CEO Jimmy Cayne and notorious fund manager Bernie Madoff were also mentioned, after which The Factor summarized the gross malfeasance: "These guys hurt everybody by their incompetence and corruption, yet they took out baskets of money. We're going to deal with these guys."

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum discusses his work to reduce Medicaid fraud.

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This small Campbell County town was the home to a very prominent news reporter that most of us see everyday on Fox; Dagan McDowell resided in Brookneal for several years before becoming a well-known television correspondent.

McDowell, born and raised in Brookneal, is a news anchor for the Fox Business Network out of New York City, however she'll never forget the town she and her family grew up in.

"My parents still live here and grandparents lived in Brookneal and for the most part they grew up around town and are from the area," said McDowell. "It's a far back as the eye can see my family has lived in this part of Virginia."

Her parents, Joyce and Charles "Dowell" McDowell III ran the wholesale grocery business L.W. Roark and Company near the railroad tracks on Main Street for years. McDowell said her grandfather ran the store and the whole family worked in it. McDowell's grandfather, Manley "Bud" Holt, was also the mayor of Brookneal at one point, she said. Her grandmother's name was Bessie Holt. Her paternal grandparents were Charles, Jr. and Lib McDowell. Each set of her grandparents grew up in Brookneal, along with several generations.

"I remember always being surrounded by family," the aspiring reporter said. "It's an amazing feeling now that I live in New York City, being able to always have family near by and particularly my family working in a family business."

McDowell says that she remembers the security of living in a small town.

"On top of growing up in a small community, the community was your family as well," she said. "One of the things I remember the most was the safety and closeness of growing up in a small community, never growing up with crime and never worrying about something like that."

McDowell attended William Campbell and graduated from a boarding school in Richmond, Saint Catherine's School.

After she graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, NC with a degree in art history, McDowell said it was time for a change in her life.

"Right after college, I literally packed my bags and moved to Colorado for two years and lived out there doing a bunch of different things," she said. "I wanted to live out west and live where I wasn't on the east coast; I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, it was lovely."

After two years, McDowell literally drove back east and moved to New York City.

"I knew I could find a job there that I liked."

When she moved to New York in 1994, she worked for the Institutional Investor's newsletter division for three and a half years, as a personal finance writer and columnist for TheStreet.com and wrote for SmartMoney magazine for a year.

She then got her start as an on-air commentator on Fox News more than 7 years ago. She worked full-time for Fox News, and has worked five years for the Fox Business Network, which was launched just last fall.

"I started doing TV as a guest commenter more than 7 years ago on the Fox News channel and it eventually led to a full-time reporting job on Fox," she said. "I am lucky enough to be around people like Neil Cavuto, and lucky to know people like Neil who give me opportunities and a shot on TV."

She appears regularly on Your World with Neil Cavuto and every Saturday on Cavuto on Business, part of the Cost of Freedom business block that runs from 10 to noon eastern on Fox News Channel.

She also anchors from 10 to noon every day on Fox Business Network with Brian Sullivan.

"It is terrific and I love it, it changing minute by minute but everyone who works here is like family," she said. "We help create something new in terms of Business TV; it reaches so many more people as we cover business to make it interesting and relevant to everybody."

However, no matter where McDowell lives, she'll never forget her hometown roots.

"I try and get down there a couple times a year; I come home and see Mom and Dad as much as I can," she said. "I wish I got home more often; I miss the people, the atmosphere of the town and the food."

McDowell is married to her husband, Jonas Max Ferris. She met him on Fox News and he is still a contributor to Fox Business and Fox News. They used to appear on a show together for years.

She also has a brother, Landon, who lives in Scottsville with his wife, Sally and their three daughters, Acree, Phoebe, and Beatrix.

"I know I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't grown up where I did," McDowell ended. "Brookneal is a part of me and always will be."

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Last week, News Corp. made television history with the launch of a new 24-hour reality show in which a group of sexy young Wall Street types lives, laughs (a lot), eats (Money for Breakfast, starting at 6 a.m.), drinks (Happy Hour, at 5 p.m.), and loves together. They do so communally in a big house made to resemble a television-news set--home to something called the "Fox Business Network"--venturing out, trailed by cameras, to visit places like the NYSE trading floor. We've yet to glimpse their sleeping quarters, but rumor has it Fox will soon introduce an intimate, Internet-only "Fox Business After-Hours" Webcam view of the cast's side-by-side bunk beds.

So far, the show seems like a mash-up of Kid Nation, Big Brother, and--given the way the FBN housemates constantly sublimate their obvious desire for each other by constantly talking rather rapturously about food--any number of Food Network series. Who are these telegenic kids, and will any of them break out big like previous reality stars such as Omarosa from The Apprentice, Lauren from The Hills, Mario Batali from Iron Chef--or maybe even Anderson Cooper from The Mole?

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