Over the last 23 years of its existence, Fox News has been subject to a wide and largely justified host of criticisms, from the philosophical—i.e., its existential goal of creating and normalizing widespread paranoia in the American right that it could then successfully profit from—to the personal—the culture of sexual harassment that has pervaded the network for years, starting from founder Roger Ailes and cropping up at almost every level of its organization—to the ridiculous. (That is, Sean Hannity, and before him Glenn Beck, and their collective and obsessive love of both goofball fashion accessories, and charts.) And yet, almost any comprehensive takedown of the cynical indulgences of America’s home for fair and balanced news (and the ironic scarequotes around said, frequently objectively untrue, motto) did often carry at least one caveat, buried deep somewhere near the end of it: “Well, Shep Smith’s basically okay.”
Indeed, Smith—formerly the network’s lead news anchor, the managing editor of its breaking news division, and a long-term host on Fox for a decade-plus at this point—has managed to maintain, over the years, a reputation as an actual journalist, rather than, say, a ratings-hungry partisan hack happy to forcefeed the President Of The United States a daily fast food buffet of all the things he both fears and want to hear. (Shout-out to our old & Friend, Steve Doocy! What’s up, The Dooce?!) Rather, Smith has always comported himself as someone who thinks it’s actually bad when baldfaced lies are transmitted to a national audience, and will challenge them when he sees them. This has not always been a popular move; incidents in which he told big names on the network’s bloated opinion team, like Hannity and Tucker Carlson, that they were talking out of their asses on topics like clandestine uranium ore deals—or even just noting to his viewers that climate change is real—have been frequently met with disgruntlement from the base. Even so, he stayed at it, demarcating and holding fast to the line between Fox’s often-rabid opinion coverage, and those using it as a vector for actual news. (Not that that makes him a saint or anything, but we’re pretty obviously grading on a curve.)
But not anymore, because Shepard Smith is fucking done, at last. Smith announced his departure from Fox News earlier today, bringing it up at the end of his regular broadcast of Shepard Smith Reporting. The sign-off is full of subtext for those looking to find it; at one point, he notes that “Even in our currently polarized nation, it’s my hope that the facts will win the day, that the truth will always matter, that journalists, and journalism, will thrive.” Meanwhile, his departure appears to have come as a shock to many of his colleagues, although The New York Times reports that Smith’s been contemplating it for at least the last few weeks. Said piece also highlights the intra-network sniping that’s happened of late between Smith and people like Carlson, even as Donald Trump has taken frequent excuses to take swipes at his most vocal critic on the network; there have been rumors circulating for weeks that the network has been pressuring Smith to lay off Carlson with his relentless insistence on fiddly little details like “facts,” which makes this all a little bit less of a shock.
Regardless of your feelings on Shepard Smith—the urge to lionize him as the “Good Fox News Guy” feels both seductive, and worth examining, given that he was taking something like $15 million a year to serve as the legitimate face of often illegitimate bullshit—it’s hard to question the idea that the network is lessened by his departure. (Even if his colleagues over in the dwindling world of Fox hard news are expected to pick up some of his slack.) He noted in his sign-off that he won’t be reporting anywhere else “at least in the near future,” but the Times piece quotes sources who say this departure isn’t intended to be a retirement. (Dear Shep: Please do not try to be Megyn Kelly 2.0; nobody needs that in their lives. Also: Spill the tea! Sincerely, your friends, The A.V. Club.)
72 Comments
If Shepard Smith was Fox News’ only anchor to reality, let’s hope the network will finally spiral down the toilet, and quickly.
the urge to lionize him as the “Good Fox News Guy” feels both seductive, I never feel like this and I’m baffled when people do. I also don’t think Mike Wallace is good, and I believe that W was just as bad a president as I did before Trump.
Wallace is one of the good ones when get past his shit eating grin
As far as W is concerned, I suppose you’ll have to argue all that with Ellen and Mrs. Obama.As far as Shep goes, maybe he can come over and bring back Splinter.
The late Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, or his Fox News-employed son, Chris Wallace?
Yes, Chris! Ugh. Thanks for catching that!
Sure thing. And you’re right; Chris Wallace isn’t a patch on his father, for all Mike’s many faults. He’s too much of a water carrier.
Shep was better than Chris Wallace. Shep was willing to criticize the GOP’s worst most heinous actions as unacceptable. (Katrina was probably his big moment). There were Hannity-level lows that Wallace, Brit Hume, etc weren’t willing to stoop to, but they were rarely willing to call out the GOP power structure. They are all about acting in an measured legitimate manner to make the GOP’s crap look legitimate. (Recent Critiques of Trump are probably because he is outside the traditional GOP power structure.) That said, we are praising Shep for having human decency at Fox News when decency should be expected of everyone. And eventually they all acted to normalize something that shouldn’t be normalized: FOX News’s mission itself.
Chris Wallace is water carrier most of the time, but I will say to his credit that when he looks at the water he’s carrying and sees a pile of shit in it, he’ll usually call it out. And at least he’s got enough scruples to not just sit there and let Stephen Miller spout his ridiculous shit. I think/hope he at least thinks from time to time about not dragging his dad’s name down into the mud.
Yeah, they chose to work at Foxnews so they aren’t good people.
I don’t think it’s that anybody seriously thinks better of Dubya’s record now, it’s just that now it has become distressingly clear that someone can do an even worse job.
And Dubya wasn’t a sociopath, even if he was far too comfortable employing them in his cabinet and on his campaign teams.
I dislike Dubya as much as the next guy, but anytime I hear someone start crying about how evil he was and how stupid people are for looking at him a bit more kindly now with Trump in office, I just think that person hasn’t actually thought about this issue much more than “conservative bad! liberal good!”. I’m very liberal but recognize there’s a difference between a shitty, conservative president like Dubya and an outright lunatic criminal fraudster like Trump. At the very least, Dubya would be a polite dinner guest…you just cannot ever say the same for Trump.
Aw, nuts! And Shep Smith was this close to tearing it down from the inside, too!
Ya don’t know that he still won’t. He probably lasted as long as he did because he knows where the bodies are buried.
I’ll bet there’s a drawer full of NDAs with his signature at the bottom over at Fox News.
Probably are, but when it comes to illegal doings, I understand that the judge can invalidate those NDAs? As far as other shady things that Fixed News heads have been up to, it’s probably best that they don’t really anger Shep. There are ‘ways’… mwa-hah-hah…
I was waiting for him to have a Howard Beale moment, but alas…
Lol, they’d probably would’ve cut his mike…as that seems to be their standard operating procedure when facing some conflicting viewpoints.
Maybe Shep and James Comey can do a “Saving democracy by helping to destroy it” tour or something.
Well, I don’t know about tearing it down, as that network programing seems to function like a prefabricating, acid spitting mythological hydra, but I was enjoying the tremors that infighting was causing to its infrastructure.
That ain’t happening. Shep Smith is so far down the sunken place and repressed he’s doing a loop.
He’s stepped over to the right side of history. What a mensch
…And then the murders began…
This is when Shep gets promoted to moral anti-hero
I hope he’s not retiring. He’ll wear out those True Blood DVDs in weeks.
this is really too bad b/c he was the only one giving fox “news” viewers the other side of the story – i.e. the facts. now their echo chamber is a hermetically sealed bubble.
He wasn’t though. The Trumpers that watch Fox News all day change the channel whenever his hour of coverage comes on for that very reason. He wasn’t just reading straight state news talking points, they didn’t like it, and would change the channel.
yes and no. Most would. but even if he opend the minds of 15% of those people…its still 15% less insane people. Now it will be all crazy ass hanity’s all the time.
He had the worst show on the channel. It wasn’t even mildly entertaining, which is the only reason people watch TV. Good riddance.
well, he might have gotten through to those whose remotes needed new batteries & were too lazy to get out of their recliners to change the channel manually.
Not the ones who fell asleep in front of the television and were slowly being brainwashed by Shep into hating MERICA’ and FREEDOM!
As someone with a largely Republican family who watch FoxNews as if it were the only thing keeping them alive, I can report that they switch over to Fox Business when Shep is on. As the saying goes, if Smith were on fire in their living room they wouldn’t piss him out.
“…now their echo chamber is a hermetically sealed bubble.”Yes, even moreso. I also think of a turning point in that development as the incarnations of Sean Hannity on that network. For more than 10 years he was on “Hannity & Colmes,” then in 2007 they added “Hannity’s America,” and then in 2009 they ended HA, fired Alan Colmes and simply (and symbolically) changed the main show to “Hannity,” which of course is still on. It’s like, it was already a widespread joke that Colmes was a milquetoast, passive counter to Hannity. So I remember wondering when HA came out, why is the show even needed? And then they fired Colmes and made the transition complete… but look at the timing. HA came out right as the Democrats won back both houses, and as Obama was ascending. Colmes was fired from the 13-year program that bore his name and given completely over to Hannity the month Obama became president. Point is, it’s like, at that time Fox News couldn’t even have a dissenting voice as timid as Colmes. THAT’S how far they were going to go in creating their own reality, and they knew it… so, yes, now with this Shep Smith development, Fox News is about to commence creating its own reality on a scale it hasn’t done before—a thought I almost can’t wrap my head around.
Effective propaganda has to offer the illusion of false choice, that its consumers are being offered a full range of information and not just the deceptive message of the propagandist. Smith and Wallace and Colmes and the rest of that lot are playing their part as much as Hannity and Carlson. They are not good people and we should not lower our standards of decency to wherever Fox News sets the bar.
So now we know why the Attorney General of the United States had a meeting with Rupert Murdoch the day after Fox published a poll showing Americans want Trump impeached and removed from office…
AKA a front. He’s the token journalist they can point at every time they’re exposed.
He was way too happy to have covered Columbine, Katrina, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and 9/11. That was weird, Shep. Weird.
It’s a damn shame I have to read this on AVClub and not Splinter.
https://boingboing.net/2019/10/11/splinter-news-shuttered-compa.html
Thanks for this I was wondering what happened.
THEY KILLED SPLIIIIINNNNTTTTEEEERRRRR!!!!!
… misread article (comment retracted).
Yeah, that move kind of stings, as it was my go to on the political front and prefered to save it for last in my viewing pleasure. Shame.
Strange moments from Shepard Smith
“and your kids die too”
on a serious note…
Maybe he was inspired by former co-worker Juliet Huddy:
https://www.insider.com/former-fox-news-host-juliet-huddy-hosts-lying-by-omission-2019-10
I can’t wait for his book explaining how he’s a hero for leaving the fascist propaganda network after only 23 years.
Im sure there’ll be a million articles from shitlib publications doing the same to tide you over until then.
kill yourself
I am sure his occasional comment on his 3pm weekday show was the last straw that’s going to bring all this shit crashing down.
He still has a chance to burn the studio in cleansing fire, give him a few days
So they must have picked Tucker over him. Shep, you should have known better. Even if Tucker is sucking it in the ratings department, he’s on brand.
Call in CSI, see if they can determine if he jumped or was pushed. This feels less like Smith quitting on principle and more like comrade Stalin doing away with critics among his own supporters. Why bother to kill the guy when all you have to do is gag him with a non-disclosure agreement? The results are the same.And on a similar vein, so long Splinter.
You don’t need forensics if the Director of the FBI himself is popping by for a chat with your boss…
She Smith out not too long after Attorney General Barr has a nice long meeting with Rupert Murdoch. Coincidence?
Damn, Shep Smith is out at FoxNews on Coming Out Day. Isn’t it ironic….dontcha’ think?!?
1: GOOD that Shep is finally bailing from the black plague-carrying schooner that is Faux News.B: Fuck Shep for having enabled fascist state TV propaganda for all these years!Also, there’s this:lol
He’s a replacement-level journo if he were anyone else (and better than some people I could name at other places), but at Fox News he was their best.This is the exact hemming-and-hawing compliment it sounds like.
Well no love or respect for Smith but he was no more a hypocrite than those who decried the Fox garbage factory while happily padding the Murdoch family wallets by tuning into “The X-Files,” “The Simpsons” and “Bob’s Burgers” all those years before Disney showed up.
He doesn’t exactly deserve a reward for being the best person at Fox News. Any praise towards him is basically Stockholm syndrome. Yup Carlson or Hannity are horrible, but this guy actually reports facts sometimes and no one has accused him of sexual assault!Throw him a fucking parade.
“Best person at Fox News” is literally the most backhanded compliment I’ve ever heard.
On a side note, the thought occurred to me that Smith might be a good replacement for Alex Trebek on Jeopardy if and when he steps down. He’s got the personality and the smarts. It might be a good fit for him.
I’m curious to see where he ends up landing when the non-compete clause runs out. In the meantime, I’m sure he can busy himself with writing a memoir about his time as one of the few voices of reason in the viper pit that is Fox News.
I think after the Megyn Kelly debacle, we’re done with seeing Fox News refugees getting amazing contracts elsewhere.Hopefully other news organizations have realized hiring ex-Fox people isn’t going to get the MAGA-items to change channels.
The Takeout, featured writer!
I’ve never felt the need to feel for the guy, given that he got paid a shitload of money to give a thin veneer of credibility to Fox News insanity. Even then, it’s not like a lot of Hannity or O’Reilly viewers took him all that seriously anyway.If he can’t get a job somewhere else (possible, given that people now realize that the only next job available for Fox News refugees is the White House), I am sure he’ll be able to hang out and enjoy his fortune. Thanks for doing your part to normalize shitty journalism, Shep.
I wonder if Fox News loses whatever semblance of legitimacy after this. I wonder how many people would continue to watch it nonstop if they get wiped out in the next election and the channel becomes universally derided as the propoganda network it is…
I’d rather kill myself than spend a minute with the TV tuned to the Goebbels Channel. Having said that, when MSNBC or whomever shows clips from American Hitler’s fave propaganda arm featuring Smith, I’d be shocked, yes shocked at how cogent Smith would be ripping AH and his groveling Repubs new assholes. I’m surprised Smith stuck it out this long.And when his apparent non-compete clause is done, if he can get an anchor job on MSNBC, that would be a good move for him.
In the spirit of “know thy enemy” i will flip over to “the five” on fox after work for a minute or two. Two of the hosts are the biggest smuggest bro’s I hate them so much they spew such vile lie filled garbage I am surprised Juan Williams dosn’t go postal on them.
While it’s perfectly fine for a.v.club to spread paranoia and lies to create a frenzy in the American left and profit from it. You still mad Joker made good history? Upset that your lies didn’t result in tragedy that you could write about for clicks and virtue signaling? Hypocrites trolling hypocrites. How droll.
To be fair to Shep, he never was that keen on stoking racial tensions like Megyn did. He never insisted Santa was white, claimed blackface is somehow okay or obsessing over new black panthers. Even Colbert only mocked him for his obsession with state dinner menu and Shep could actually take a joke. Shep laughed when Jon Stewart mocked his studio as “Apple Genius Bar having an orgasm” while Megyn cried and whined about Jon calling her out for straight up lying on air.
Shep for better or worse is a journalist whilst Meg was just taken to be one because she is a blonde, skinny, white right-wing barbie.
It’s unfortunate. Because now there’s pretty much a zero chance a Fox viewer will hear the news and accidentally get facts instead of an opinion.
While we can take shots at him for taking Fox’s dirty money, at least what he did was making some difference and reaching the people who needed that contrary opinion the most.And his career is pretty much over. There’s bound to be a no-compete clause in his contract, so he can’t work for another network or organisation. He can’t jump ship to CNN. He’ll be burning through savings for a couple years. Which makes this more of a surprise. He’s giving up financial security, but also likely benefits and health insurance for himself and his family. For a moral stance. That can’t be easy.
No mention of the Barr / Murdoch meeting that coincidentally immediately preceded this?