Let me preface by saying I rarely watch FOX {ahem} News. The station makes me want to retch and I swear I think I can feel the stupid through my TV…kind of like dogs smelling fear. Anyway, 20 minutes or so per week is all I can take of the constant bombardment of verbal splooge and inane expressions of insane hatred, so don’t count me as an expert on any of the personalities on the station. However, the few times I’ve seen Shepard Smith’s program, he seems to be an odd oasis of normal in a vast, shark-infested sea of crazy.
So, is it just me, or does it seem Shepard Smith is daring, begging, pleading to be fired from FOX News, and/or possibly accosted by FOX News viewers?
Here are a couple of video examples of Smith in the aftermath of today’s shooting in DC
Add these to his criticisms of FOX News personalities, and other denouncements of right wing idiocy and one wonders (a) if Smith has a death wish, and (b) what the Hell he’s doing on FOX News in the first place.
Well, props to him for saying the idiots saying “OBAMA IS A SECRET MUSLIM SOCIALIST FACIST COMMUNIST GOAT RAPIST ABORTIONIST POST IMPRESSIONIST ANTI-DENTITE” are nuts. That’s a significant portion of their viewership.
I can’t watch youtube from this computer, but if no ones linked to the clips of Shepard Smith making fun of Glenn Beck’s “fear bunker” yet, y’all should find it. It’s as funny a take-down of Beck as anything on The Daily Show, and better because you can see Wallace and Beck struggling to figure out they’re being made fun of yet.
According to wikipedia: “The Fox Report with Shepard Smith remains the top-rated newscast in cable news and is ranked third in the top programs in U.S. cable news.” So as long as he brings in the viewers, he can ruffle some feathers at Fox without worrying about getting canned. And while he and Beck share a network, I imagine the people who watch Smith are simply looking for a somewhat right-tilted news show, while the people who watch Beck are looking for pure rightwing crazy, and probably already think Smith is some fringe leftist for not devoting more of his news broadcast to revealing Obama’s Nazi connections.
Plus, getting free publicity from a “feud” with Limbaugh can’t hurt ratings. Also, the right-wing-but-not-insane market seems to be underserved at the moment.
I’m not going to give Fox News much credit for unbiased reporting, but I haven’t seen any evidence that they put ideological purity above ratings. If Shepard Smith delivers ratings, they keep him, no question.
Judging from The Times and The Sun in the UK, this is how Murdoch works. He’s right wing himself, and he knows that right-wing populism makes him money, but other tactics can work sometimes, too.
I first started liking Shep Smith after his smackdown of Sean Hannity during a report from the superdome during Katrina. he really is kind of the only oasis of sanity left on that network.
I guess he’s rumored to be gay (but does the Anderson Cooper thing where he basically just won’t answer the question), so I notice that comment sections on youtube and other sites are always replete with incisive rebuttals that he is a a “fag” or a “homo” who “takes it in the ass” every time he swerves away from the RNC talking points.
Just to add to the collection of links, here is a clip of Smith taking down Joe the Plumber (after his stupid “a vote for Obama is a vote for death to Israel” remark).
So you think Alan Colmes, Geraldo, Bob Beckel, Susan Estrich, Juan Williams,
Kirsten Powers, Greta, Mara Liasson, Geraldine Ferraro, Ellis Henican, Howard Wolfson, etc. are right wing loons? Granted, there are not a lot of liberal anchors on Fox just as there are few conservative anchors at MSNBC (are there any?). Fox does a fairly good job of having dissenting points of view on topics as opposed to being a right-wing circle jerk.
If you think having Alan Colmes lapping Sean Hannity’s ball-sack is a good job of presenting dissenting points of view, then you’re woefully unfamiliar with circle-jerks.
So, what’s his deal? He seems like a better fit for MSNBC.
