Burns was born and raised in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, a small steel town approximately 15 miles northwest of Pittsburgh on the Ohio River.
Assigned first to the network's Chicago bureau, he was then moved to New York, with occasional overseas postings in Europe and northern Africa.
On March 9, 2015, Eric, as a former Fox News Watch host, told CNN's Brian Stelter, “I’m saying that the people who watch Fox News are cult-ish," and that because of "their audience loyalty, ... O’Reilly, as the head of the cult, is not held to the same standards as Brian Williams.”[5] Burns is an author who has written fifteen books, two of which won the highest award given by the American Library Association for volumes published by a university press.
Burns has also written for a number of magazines, including Reader's Digest, The Weekly Standard, Family Circle, Spy, and the pre-Rupert Murdoch version of TV Guide.
His first play, Mid-Strut opened in February 2012 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, attracting three weeks of sold-out audiences and a favorable NPR review.