Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/11/shepard-smith-quits-fox-news.html
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This Shep has sailed.
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Interesting timing, Shep.
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maybe that was it and shep just went into work like OH HELL NO
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His instant departure comes hours after Secretary of State William Barr met privately with Rupert Murdoch
Holy shitballs. This hardly blipped on the news.
Yeah, yeah, “Imagine if Obama had done it…”
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Trump’s US Tax Paid Attorney aka US Attorney General.
FoX is State Run TV.
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It was probably Barr telling Murdoch to purge the unreliable elements as impeachment looms, and Murdoch telling Smith via his minions that if he doesn’t resign he can look forward to taking over the 2-5AM time slot or being assigned a “special” long-term reporting project in Ameristan that approximates exile to Siberia.
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as likely as that scenario is, i would like to think that shep let his inner decency make the decision. he was a newsman once and mostly still is
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Could be both. Could be that Barr told Murdoch to reign the news division in and Shep resigned when they told him to stop saying mean (true) things about trump. Dunno.
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Don’t you hate it when you get to work and forget your job is propaganda?
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It occurs to me to wonder exactly what Fox’s lawyers can and can’t stop him saying. You can’t go to jail for violating an NDA, so it’s really just a question of whether he has sufficiently juicy gossip to make it financially worth the penalty.
I assume a similar argument would apply if he means to move to CNN or network news. It’d be interesting to see if his face could persuade the average Fox viewer* to watch relatively sane news once in a while, and what would happen to their brains.
* a pair of googly eyes attached to a damp facecloth
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Smith is a garbage person. That Fox employed him for so long is inexcusable.
During the 2000 election debacle in Florida, Smith intentionally and knowingly drove into a pedestrian in order to secure a parking spot so that he could go on air.
He wound up negotiating his way out of it, but there was doubt that he did it.
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As a public service, those hard working border agents should remind news people and journalists of that.
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It would be nice to see Shep working in a real news room for once. He seems like a decent guy, and was definitely out of place at Fox. I’m surprised it took this long.
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*a somewhat sentient jar of rancid mayonnaise
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I never understood why Shep Smith was at Fox News. Why he wanted to be there. Why Ailes/Murdoch wanted him there. He, unlike others, never conformed to the hive mind. He is an actual news person. Now, other normal news people – like Major Garrett, Chris Wallace, Juan Williams – have (to varying extents) been unable to resist the Fox mindset and parroted Fox News talking points. (Let’s not even mention full-blown hacks like Bret Baier, Brit Hume, and John Roberts who are fully coopted.)
But Smith never spun the GOP/Murdoch line, and his afternoon show was often diametrically opposed to the evening spin. And he wasn’t the weak token Fox keeps around because they have no traction (like Alan Colmes or Bob Beckel). How did he last so long??
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Recently I asked the company to allow me to leave Fox News
That seems a really weird way to say he resigned.
Does he have a very weird sense of duty, believing workers owe loyalty to their employers to the point that they have to ask for permission to quit?
Is there some distinction here I’m missing? Is he leaving Fox News (the show) but remaining employed by the network in a new role? Did he ask to be released from some early-termination penalty clause in his employment contract?
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