The speculation game is over. After an abrupt and dramatic exit from Fox News last year, veteran newsman Shepard Smith is set to join CNBC as anchor of an hourlong evening show, the network announced
Aidan McLaughlin at Mediaite:
The speculation game is over.
After an abrupt and dramatic exit from Fox News last year, veteran newsman Shepard Smith is set to join CNBC as anchor of an hourlong evening show, the network announced Wednesday.
The News with Shepard Smith, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is set to debut this fall.
According to a CNBC statement:
Smith will anchor a new one-hour evening news program titled The News with Shepard Smith, airing Monday through Friday at 7pm ET. The newscast, which will launch in the Fall, will cover the most significant news stories of the day and will feature the well-respected, fact-based storytelling that has been the hallmark of his 30-year career. Smith will also assume the new roles of CNBC’s Chief General News Anchor and Chief Breaking General News Anchor as well as Executive Editor of The News with Shepard Smith.
Smith’s departure from Fox News, a network he joined at its inception, sent shockwaves when it was abruptly announced on air in October.
The 3 p.m. hour, Shepard Smith Reporting, was a hallmark of Fox’s news operation, and often stood in stark contrast to pro-Trump opinion programming at the network. That led to clashes between not just Smith and the president, but also Smith and his colleagues.
Shepard Smith’s sudden departure from Fox News signaled that the drawbridge has effectively been raised, and all Trump nonbelievers belong on the other side of Rupert Murdoch's cable castle. No longer a place where any serious dissension—or Trump...
Eric Boehlert at Daily Kos (10.14.2019):
Shepard Smith’s sudden departure from Fox News signaled that the drawbridge has effectively been raised, and all Trump nonbelievers belong on the other side of Rupert Murdoch's cable castle. No longer a place where any serious dissension—or Trump fact-checking—is allowed, Fox News has embraced its core mission of disseminating propaganda. The move shouldn't be surprising given the state of today's cultish right-wing media, where devotion to Trump now dictates so much of the content. It's a conservative media movement that has never been concerned with facts and accuracy, but today has descended into something even more irresponsible.
That's why it’s not surprising Smith had to go. The idea that the conservative media would in any meaningful way ever stand up to Trump always struck me as pure fantasy. That's because most of the conservative press is in the same business as Trump: waging culture wars and hoisting up the banner of white nationalist victimhood.
Smith, of course, hadn't fit into Fox News' propaganda blueprint for a very long time, which meant he constantly created a buzz when he did what virtually nobody else at Fox News would do since Trump’s inauguration, which is to point out, subtly, that the president of the United States lies all the time about everything. Under Trump, Fox News voices are allowed to occasionally criticize White House policy, but nobody is allowed to announce the emperor has no clothes, and Smith often tiptoed right up to that line.
Meanwhile, Trump’s presidency continues to highlight just how shallow the ethics and guidelines are within the conservative media, as players scramble to make sure they remain on his good side. "Glenn Beck, the radio host who once called Mr. Trump ‘an immoral man who is absent decency or dignity,’ now says that his defeat in 2020 would mark ‘the end of the country as we know it,’" The New York Times noted last week in an article looking at how so many Never Trump conservative journalists (He's a "racist"! He's a "fascist"!) have morphed into Trump's most loyal defenders.
Fox News chief news anchor Shepard Smith’s shocking on-air resignation sends a clear and dismaying message: Fox’s vaunted “news” division has been routed. Its right-wing opinion hosts, loyal allies of President Donald Trump, stand unchallenged. And truth and accuracy have no place on the network’s airwaves.
[...]
Smith was willing to report the news honestly, even when it conflicted with the conspiracy theories and lies of Fox’s prime-time hosts. That gave him mainstream credibility and respect, even as it earned him the contempt of the network’s conservative fanbase, his right-wing colleagues, and Trump himself.
The anchor was one of the network's first hires in 1996.
Shepard Smith, the longtime Fox News anchor who also headed up the network’s breaking news division, has abruptly left the network after more than two decades, shocking even some of his close colleagues.
Smith’s final show aired Friday afternoon, when he bid his audience a surprise farewell after a particularly tumultuous period of reported infighting between the network’s hard news and opinion divisions. Fox confirmed Smith’s departure in a statement.
This afternoon, Fox “News” anchor Shepard Smith is departing the network after 23 years on his own terms. The show will continue with fill-in hosts until a new host is announced.
This afternoon, Fox “News” anchor Shepard Smith is departing the network after 23 years on his own terms. The show will continue with fill-in hosts until a new host is announced.
Smith has told the truth that most brainwashed FNC regular viewers didn’t want to hear. He has hosted breaking news coverage/news alert cut-ins on both Fox and FNC and shows such as Studio B, Fox Report’s weeknight edition, and most recently Shepard Smith Reporting.
”AG” William Barr met with News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch a couple of days ago, and that may have been the impetus for his departure.
Trump has criticized the anchor repeatedly in recent years because he wouldn’t grovel to 45’s BS talking points by fact-checking his lies.
[...]
From the 10.11.2019 edition of FNC’s Shepard Smith Reporting:
Full video: Shepard Smith's final sign off from Fox News pic.twitter.com/5fgyM81Gbj
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) October 11, 2019
Transcript, via MMFA:
SHEP SMITH (HOST): A personal moment now. Gathering and reporting the news has been my life’s work. 33 years, the past 23 right here, since the day we launched Fox News channel in 1996. The opportunities afforded this guy from small-town Mississippi have been many. Fox News has allowed me to travel the country and the world gathering the facts of the day for you. At Columbine, Katrina, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, 9/11, and every life-altering event along the way. I have met leaders, heroes, and victims of all stripes. I've witnessed and reported on the events that shaped our reality. Together with my colleagues we have written a first draft of history and endeavored to deliver it to you while speaking truth to power without fear, or favor, in context and with perspective. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity.
For handing me the breaking news reigns as managing editor, senior correspondent, and chief news anchor for this news network, I am thankful and humbled. I've worked with the most talented, dedicated, and focused professionals I've ever known. They sacrifice endlessly and tirelessly to get the news exactly right and I am so proud of them. I'm honored to have anchored their work each day. I'll miss them and our time together greatly and deeply. So recently I asked the company to allow me to leave Fox News after requesting that I stay they obliged.
Under our agreement, I won't be reporting elsewhere, at least in the near future, but I will be able to see more of Gio and Lucia and our friends and family and then we will see what comes along. This is my last newscast here. Thank you for watching today and over the decades as I traveled to many of your communities and anchored this program, Studio B, and Fox Report, plus endless marathon hours of breaking news. It's been an honor and my pleasure. Even in our currently polarized nation, it's my hope that the facts will win the day.
"Saudi Arabia agrees to let women drive" has been added to my site. Please visit for details. http://www.stocknewspaper.com/saudi-arabia-agrees-to-let-women-drive/
Shepard Smith & Fox News Deck Takes the #MannequinChallenge Shepard Smith and the crew of the Fox News Deck took part in the #MannequinChallenge at the beginning of Shepard Smith Reporting.
