It's easy to forget about a serious scandal — like hospitals employing the homeless to pretend to be patients so they could rip off Medicare — when Shep Smith uses the C-word on air.
But it's not like he's the only guy who's ever said naughty words during a live broadcast. CONTINUED »
Shep Smith looks cute when he's angry. Bickering with writer and feminist Noami Wolf, who can usually be seen battling against Internet porn, Smith grows tired of Fox News getting dumped on just because they ask questions. Questions, of course, that aren't loaded in the least.
Fox News veteran and anti-gossip Shepard Smith is walking gayly into a Thanksgiving holiday, thanks to his new 3-year deal that puts him somewhere between $7 and $8 million per annum.
But his spiked salary is already causing grumbling across the other networks. A mid-level producer at Anderson Cooper 360 was said to be arguing for the bossman, who's reportedly earning a cool $4-5 million per year, but, says Cooper's confidant, "is worth more … worth at least as much as Shep." (Sounds like a case of Stockholm's.)
Us? We're more interested in the recently-reupped Keith Olbermann's reaction, whose paltry $3 million-ish deal must be looking pretty miniscule.
Great news, FNC critics! Shepard Smith is running his mouth about reinventing cable news programming, which means when the whole notion goes down the crapper like your best blow during a raid, you'll have punchline fodder. Since rolling out his velvet-hued revamp in April, Shep has been concentrating on delivering the news in a different way — especially when it's a news item that doesn't have pretty video snippets or pictures to go along with.
AND, he's sticking to REAL news. Or at least he will, when his Fox Report unveils its real makeover next month. Says Shep (emphasis ours):
We’ve already given up the “coming up” teasing that we were known for in the early days. We’ve taken all of that time and put it into content. We did that because viewers said that’s what they wanted. Viewers have said, "Stop telling me for 45 seconds what you’re going to do in the next four minutes." So we have. We’re not going to do more crap. We’re not going to do more titillating [stories], Hollywood-movie reviews and jokes. We’re going to do less of that. There are other places that do that better than we do. I don’t make any apologies for the way we’ve done it in the past. There was an atmosphere where it was acceptable because people didn’t have so much of it. We need to do news.
So, um, does "the past" include what your show was looking like at the end of last month?
Video footage, after the jump.
Though he didn't mention his new pansy graphics package, Shep Smith did take some time on yesterday's show to trash his "Starship Enterprise" set. "It's a dump!" he says. Which also might be some sexual fetish we've got zero interest hearing more about.
Shepard Smith's Studio B is sporting a brand new look, reports TVNewser's Brian Stelter, with a whole new graphics package that "has a metallic look with a purple color scheme and flashy lower-thirds."
Nice going, Brian. We're just gonna say what he didn't: Shep's new look couldn't look any gayer than if he held up cocktail with an umbrella, wore a rainbow bandana, opened his show with "Heeeey, girl!" … and was Anderson Cooper.
We certainly don't mean to make light of the Virginia Tech tragedy. But when Shepard Smith goes on Fox News, gets all huffy, and threatens those who made the false bomb threat to the university with "a special place in hell" … well, it sort of makes you think about whether God loves the gays or not.
With Fox, CNN and – dare we say it? – MSNBC cashing in on Hurricane Katrina, we can't blame David Letterman for hoping to leverage a ratings bump from the coverage. Which is why his producers aimed their sights at both CNN's Anderson Cooper and Fox News' Shepard Smith, hoping their darts would hit at least one bullseye.
Turned out, producers missed. Cooper couldn't be bothered (he wanted to stay in New Orleans to report, or at least that's how CNN's publicity folks would like you to hear it) and Shep needed some Fox News hand wringing.
"Shep had to be convinced to do Letterman," a Fox News insider says. "Friday morning, he was scheduled to come back on Sunday. Things with Letterman were set up Friday afternoon."
More importantly, why is this being discussed at all? Aren't there more important things going on in the world?
Yes, like watching CNN Internet reporter (just weeks ago, we're certain it was "blog reporter") Jacki Schechner play Vanna White. After the jump, you'll see what we mean.
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