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Fox News' Man of Reason
by Lloyd Grove
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Shepard Smith has developed a tendency to make headlines—as he did this week by calling out a biased report about the NJ governor’s race. Lloyd Grove talks to media analysts from both sides of the aisle who explain why Fox News’ top anchor is the ultimate antidote to Obama’s war on the right-leaning channel.
President Obama is stretched thin prosecuting three wars at once. Not only is he battling violent insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, he’s also fighting the ruling regime at the Fox News Channel, where former Republican media strategist Roger Ailes—the journalistic equivalent of Mullah Omar—is commanding warlords Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity in an epic struggle for hearts and minds.
But then there’s Shepard Smith, Fox News’ resident contrarian.
Far from toeing the company line, Smith occasionally defends Obama and other Democrats, mocks and argues with his right-wing colleagues, and otherwise has positioned himself among anti-Fox liberals as a lone voice of reason behind enemy lines—the Fox News personality who truly is fair and balanced.
“When people criticize Fox, [Roger] Ailes can point to Shep as someone who is fair and balanced. The critics might be right 85 percent of the time, but Shep is the other 15 percent.”
Smith’s departures from the conservative media orthodoxy are legion—famously shouting his opposition to the use of torture on suspected terrorists, hotly defending the mainstream media against charges that they were in the tank for Obama, and severely scolding Joe the Plumber for claiming that Obama’s victory would mean “the death of Israel.” This week he played the iconoclast again, apologizing on the air Tuesday when correspondent Shannon Bream filed a report on the New Jersey governor’s race that featured a live interview with Republican challenger Chris Christie but nothing from Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine.
“When will you be interviewing Jon Corzine?” Smith demanded sternly.
"We have in multiple requests,” Bream answered meekly, “and when it comes in, we'll let you know."
Smith wasn’t satisfied—and he let viewers know it. “Wow. I didn't know that was about to happen. My apologies for the lack of balance there. If I'd had control, it wouldn't have happened.” The incident was celebrated on the Huffington Post among other progressive pit stops in the blogosphere.
“I think basically Shep is the only one who has any real connection with traditional journalism over there,” says Fox News critic Eric Boehlert, an analyst for the liberal media-monitoring organization, Media Matters. “He still thinks about fairness and accuracy… He sticks out like a sore thumb.”
• Watch Shep’s Famous Outburts
• Benjamin Sarlin: The Real War on Fox News But the 45-year-old Smith is no marginal player on Roger Ailes’ A-Team. He is Fox’s lead news anchor, reportedly embarking on the third year of a three-year contract paying him a superstar salary of at least $7 million annually for presiding over two highly rated hour-long weekday programs, Studio B with Shepard Smith at 3 p.m. and The Fox Report at 7 p.m. He’s also a large and active presence on Fox’s radio and online operations.
“Shep Smith has made news more than once by contradicting the party line,” says independent media critic Andrew Tyndall, who runs the respected online newscast analysis The Tyndall Report. “Fox News is very into message discipline, which became famous with the release of their internal talking points from [senior vice president and Ailes lieutenant John Moody]... Actually Shep is an advantage for Ailes, in the same way as the Fox News White House correspondent, Major Garrett. When people criticize Fox, Ailes can point to Shep as someone who is fair and balanced. The critics might be right 85 percent of the time, but Shep is the other 15 percent.”
Both Tyndall and Boston University journalism professor Robert Zelnick, a former ABC News correspondent and self-identified conservative, see Smith’s broadcast sensibility as driven less by ideology than by tabloid values. Smith, the son of a Mississippi cotton merchant and college dropout from Ole Miss, cut his teeth on local television news (where he developed a fondness for car chases) and the sometimes seamy syndicated show A Current Affair.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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RichardKiel
ARE YOU KIDDING ME you are going to judge a show on a petty review. Yeah Shep can do some "tabloid" similar stories but not half as much as any other anchor especially main stream. By no means am I a huge FOX supporter, I mostly watch for entertainment (Beck/Hannity). But Shep is truly a diamond in the rough and in my opinion the most "fair and balanced" in American news media. He easily has the most welcoming demeanor of any anchor as well as a constant barrage of pretty risque mumbles and Freudian screw ups (just youtube him). I owe this to FOX news because no matter what he says they wont fire him and for once in this case it is a good thing. I highly suggest you take a second look rather than just a one line review.
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osea65
"connie47" manages to tease us, but we don't need her to watch at all. Most people don't like fair and balanced anyway. They want to be politically correct and tell us that's what they're looking for, but it's not true. That's why Shep's numbers are not as high as Oreilly , Beck and Hannity.
winston1
Mother Superior you are the most stupid person on this blog you made a typo. How do you like it?
whipmawhopma
Sheppard Smith is OK in the context of The Fox Report, alas Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune are on at the same time, and these two are a family time thing.
I also liked his work during Katrina. Especially his anger at how the people of New Orleans were treated after the hurricane struck.
Lastly, Jim Angle is OK too.
As for the rest, aside from the token liberal\moderates like Juan Williams and Mora Liaison, I would just as soon take a pass.
Glenda1976
I'll trade Shep for Lou.
idicula1979
I know he comes from NPR but Juan Williams is anything but liberal and I don't know about Mora Laison I primarily watch MSNBC rarely do I watch fox Glen Beck Shaun Hannity and Bill O Riely can be described many ways but balanced is not one of them. But Sheppard Smith is alright also Brit Hum and Brett Beier are okay.
kscr14
Missing children is not news to you? Only issues you can debate?
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kscr14
connie47, A missing child can be found and a life can be saved by Amber alerts and anchors reporting of them. I am shocked that you a person that seems very smart would not want to know how many sexual predators lurk amongst us and kill children. The little girl Somer in Florida, killed last week by a predator. One hundred and sixty one sexual predators live in a five mile radius of her home. That is not "other people's tragedies". You surprised me.
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reardongalt
Connie, did I ever tell you you're an idiot? No?
Well, you're an idiot.
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reardongalt
Touce!
johnwr3
Shep is fair and balanced, entertaining and has a great sense of humor but there are many other programs on FOX News that are down the middle, too. Brett Baier's news program is fantastic has a format and keeps you plugged in for the entire hour. Greda Van Susteren's show is full of great interviews and gives you another side of the daily news without being to right or left. I watch MSNBC every day and I do enjoy Chris Mathews' show but Keith Olberman, who's ratings are way down and even lower than his protege Rachael Mattow, is unwatchable. He is the most extreme commentator, in the White House back pocket, partisian hack on TV today. Keith O. makes O'Reilly look like Mary Poppins. Rachael has tremendous potential. If only she could resist the school of Olbermann and transfer to the school of Cronkite. I think Rachael could be the way forward for MSNBC if only she could use her superior intellect to create insights that are less "crazy liberal" and more "Tim Russert". NBC needs you Rach...you're the only one who can pull this thing out. You impress me every night with your work ethic, your professional persona and your ability to distill down the info in an original and entertaining way. This CNN's Campbell Brown talked truth to power so give her a shot, too. Way to go Campbell.
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looier
You are OBVIOULS a FOX fan, I suspect you would find Olbermann more "unwatchable" than O'Reilly. Give us a break, you would not know the difference between REAL jouranlism and "punditry" if it slapped you in your fat face.
Genius.
reardongalt
Lou Dobbs called Rachel Maddow the "Teabagging Queen". I know what he means.
hithere3
connie, "tabloid" means something slightly different to journalists than to non-journalists, and actually, within journalism the word has two meanings.
here's the low-down on shep smith: he does what is arguably the most balanced news program on fox in that it has the least amount of slant. as a liberal, i would even go as far as to say smith does a good job.
the reason i don't watch his program is that his audience is stupid (no disrespect meant to smith), so his segments tend to be short and lacking in detail.
but it's because his audience is stupid that i am grateful to smith -- someone needs to be doing a better job of informing average americans, and he is helping to do just that.
looier
Yeah I guess you could say Shep Smith is better than nothing, huh?
For FOX, he would be condiered an "enlightened liberal."
Glenda1976
If you want lack of news try CNN.
MaliciousDisorder
Connie47- You whine about Fox and you never watch it ? How lame, ignorant and pathetic can you be. And you admit to it. Admitting it !
I'm not surprised. Sad..
flyoverland
I agree his tries to be objective, but sometimes he tries too hard. His rant at Bream was a cheap shot. When a candidate refuses to talk to you, what are you supposed to do, not cover the campaign? $7 million a year? Where's Kenneth Feinberg?
motrbotr
I believe, and i could be wrong, that he was being sarcastic there as he has been several times regarding the WH war on Fox. He has emphasized the word "news" when he says it. I think that just comment about where is the interview with the other canditate just fell flat. Of course its not the reporters fault. They had put in several requests. Shep tried to make a scarstic comment and it just fell flat. I watch Shep several times a week and i find him very fair for the most part with what he reports.
clevomon
I was torn on this. Usually what happens is that the reporter waits until they judge that enough time has been given for a response, at which point they say in the article or report "X did not reply to requests for comment," or something along those lines. However, the fact that the reporter said that they would let Smith know when they got a response gives me the sense that they may not have waited as long as they should have. However, this case was not an indicator of bias so much as impatience to air a story, if it indicates anything.
AlanD2
I have been impressed by Smith, something I cannot say about any other Fox News commentator.
reardongalt
Brit Hume, Bret Baier, Martha McCallum, Major Garrett, Jane Skinner, Jim Engel.
Oh and who wouldn't adore the gorgeous Cortney Friel.
flyoverland
I think its Jim Angle--he's top drawer.
reardongalt
Right, thank you.
whipmawhopma
I agree about Jim Angle. When he speaks I know I am getting the unvarnished truth, at least to the best of his ability. I was disappointed when he wasn't selected as the replacement for Brit Hume.
Shepard Smith is also one of the people I will listen on Fox, for much the same reason.
reardongalt
I like Martha. When she was on CNBC, I always thought she was one of the best people they had. As a news reporter, one can't help but view her as an honest young Mom just telling it like she sees it.
Beachman
During Katrina Shepard Smith was in New Orleans reporting on the chaos and the lack of response by the Bush administration. He was highly critical. After just a day or two he was yanked out of there and seemed to be off the air for several days. I always thought he was in Rupert and Roger's thought re-education camp.
rhonda1309
He was pulled cause he was crying like a baby and having a nervous break-down. He's from Mississippi and his mother was affected and well i think that was on top of his being drunk at another job he was on, well he's an emotional guy, some people like their news anchor crying like a baby and some don't!
looier
The gossip is that he is also gay, as is Glorai Vanderbilt's son, the one on CNN.
In any event, MAYBE he has a bit more feeling than the other scammers.
whipmawhopma
rhonda1309 - I know what you're saying about tears and tear-free. I prefer my news anchor tear-free, but with Shep in New Orleans for Katrina I completely understood his frustration. It was a humiliating moment for the nation. It seemed like we had joined the ranks of the third-world, not being able to help our fellows Americans.
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NHBill
Shep is a very attractive news reader.
kscr14
I hate Fox news, I do like Shep. He is usually fair. He is very human. I was tuned in when he made some blunders that I will never forget. He would be wise to move up . I think he is way to smart to be on such a crazy network.
rhonda1309
Move up, he has the #1 show (in his time slot) on the #1 Network, where does he move DOWN to?
reardongalt
There's no such thing as "moving up" from Fox news. One can only move: left, lefter and leftist.
Dimlah
So you admit then that Fox News has no room to move right?
alice--k
I think I finally figured out who killed Laura Palmer.
NightMoves
Let's not to forget to mention that Shepard Smith is a gay man, but works for a network that caters to a group of people that either hate gay people, fight to deny gay rights and/or want to keep as many of them in the closet as possible (often masquerading as gay-bashing Republican politicians). So, even though Smith contributes to the machine that leads the way for this, yeah for him for trying to be fair and balanced! Yeah right!
RogerOThornhill
That this idea even "deserves" an article undermines the point it tries to make.
The Thursday "Daily Show" was far more on target: the ravers provide the "some say" excuse for the newsers to venture into insanity.
Hate to say it, but the White House is right: FOX is NOT News!
It's opinion, and marginally insane opinion at that...
penscott
I watched Stewart's attack on Fox. It was lame, and could appeal only to its lefty acolytes. Stewart is even more bigoted than Keith Olberman. He is ideologically incapable of anything beyond the very mildest and softest criticism of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. If Fox is an arm of the RNC, then the Daily Show and the Colbert Report are tools of the DNC and Obama.
ThinkAgain
My guess is that Corzine refused the interview. He'd be wise to avoid any and all interviews with anyone other than MSNBC or one of the far leftwing websites. You have to be blinded by a win at all cost ideology to find him palatable.
clevomon
If so then they would have said that outright in the report. That's the standard practice in journalism, to prove that they did, indeed, attempt to get his say.
rhonda1309
lefty's have CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, MSNBC and they whine like babys cause we have Fox.
Reason
That's just it. Rhonda. Your statement, "lefty's have CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, MSNBC and they whine like babys cause we have Fox" exemplifies the root of the problem of devisiveness and polarism in this country.
The so called "MSM" has tried to maintain standards of real news consistent with objective journalistic ethics. When Murdoch created the right-wing FOX NEWS channel with a decidedly conservative slant and bought up 38% of the talk radio, the viewers and listeners who were predisposed to believe the conservatively biased point of view were indoctrinated into thinking that all other media was liberal. That is untrue, but it doen't matter to the right-wingers who put belief before truth.
AlanD2
Reason? With Rhonda? Good luck!
looier
"Lefties" have what? and who is WE?
You? So WHO are you?
An idiot obviously. Watcch FOX to get your news and REMAIN dumb, arrogant, and narrow-minded. Who needs you anyway?
ThinkAgain
The idea that the left listens to their media and the right listens to theirs is abhorent. We need to get the unbiased facts and at least occassionally listen to each other with an open mind.
Instead of a country of individuals with opinions of our own, we're all becoming party hacks. Refusing to expose ourselves to anything that doesn't reaffirm our side is the worst thing we can do. The country needs engaged, open, curious minds, not more political mush.
nickels1
I am liberal... to a fault maybe. Shep is my newsman though
looier
nickels1 says,
"Shep is my newsman though." Is THIS guy kidding?
A liberal? Calling Shep Smith, HIS "newsman?" Poor misguided "liberal."
Go Surf the net, check out the REAL NEWS NETWORK, or Democarcy NOW, or "Crooks and Liars," or...you name it.
Besides WHY would a "true liberal" wathc FOX?
You are a wanna-be which makes you just as bad as the RETHUGS>
nickels1
you are right (nickels1 typed sarcastically)
Mulderfoxx
Shep should do us all a favor and just come out as the fabulous gay man that we all know he is. That would shake things up at FauxNews.
borntoraisehogs
Not that you think there is anything wrong with that , of course .
looier
"Man of Reason?" GIVE us a break!!
He goes against the status quo, once or twice and NOW he is the "man of reason."
Maybe the fact that is supposedly gay has something to do with it? Maybe he is FINALLY sick of the "hate-mongering and lies," coming from FOX "news?"
Regardless, I think the REAL "reason," would require Mr Smith to go one step further.
Resign his position and find a job with a more moderate organization.
Ain't happening.
I am wondering, as was previously mentioned, IF this is not some trumped-up attempt to SUGGEST "fair-and-balanced?"
What a joke. "Mr. outspoken," Shep Smith, ha, ha!!
What a SILLY suggestion.
Thank you.
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