Through his father, Hume is of part Scottish descent, descended from George Home (1698–1760), a son of the 10th Baron of Wedderburn exiled to Virginia in the aftermath of the First Jacobite Rebellion.

Anderson published a series of classified documents indicating the Nixon administration, contrary to its public pronouncements, had favored Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

The documents were revealed during President Gerald Ford's administration by congressional hearings and as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and the so-called 'Family Jewels' revelations.

[14] In 1973, Hume started working for ABC News as a consultant, and in 1976, he was offered a job as a correspondent, covering the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate for 11 years.

In 1979, Hume earned television's first Academy Award nomination for his work on The Killing Ground for ABC's Close-Up documentary program.

[7][13] At his last news conference as ABC's chief White House correspondent, President Clinton told him, "I think all of us think you have done an extraordinary, professional job under Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

[17] On December 23, 2008, he hosted his final episode as anchor of Special Report, announcing that Bret Baier, then the chief White House correspondent for Fox News, would be his replacement.

On January 3, 2010, Hume on Fox News Sunday, advised embattled golfer Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity to attempt to end his problems.

[19] Hume's first show as host of On the Record drew 2.4 million viewers, a double-digit increase over Van Susteren's average viewing audience in 2016.

[25] Their son, Sandy Hume, was a reporter for the newspaper The Hill and first publicized the story of the failed 1997 political attempt to replace Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

[8][26] Hume was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church[27] and has said that he committed his life to Jesus Christ "in a way that was very meaningful" to him in the aftermath of his son's suicide in 1998.