Person of Interest

Fox News' Iconoclast

Shepard Smith battles conservative dogmas.

Who knew that being Fox News’ voice of reason would be such a profitable schtick? Shepard Smith’s ratings are up 36 percent this year to almost two million viewers a night, and he has beaten the cable competition for 92 straight weeks. Smith earned praise recently for his denouncement of conservative extremism after the Holocaust Museum shooting, and the network’s top anchor, who has one-and-a-half years left on his contract, is said to have the support of the network’s president, Roger Ailes. Asked to comment on his colleagues Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity, Smith was a bit underhanded: “There’s a lot of money in opinion, and those guys are fascinating, terrific entertainers. This is a news organization. There can’t be a Fox News without news.”