Shepard Smith Goes Nuclear Over Viewer's Email

Fox News' Shepard Smith was very upset over an email he received regarding his discussion of the potential bailout of the auto industry, and he was not afraid to show it. Smith read the whole email on the air, and then repeatedly insulted the man, starting off by acknowledging he mispronounced the emailer's name, but flatly declaring he "didn't care." Watch it.

Comments

[peachfuzz]

All I see is a goat... talking cheese.

[CactusTom]

Who to bailout is a real conundrum. But at least the e-mailer got one thing crystal clear; Fox News is a bunch of maggots.

[LemonMeringue]

But Fox is right on this one, if Spep represents them.

[Bocado]

I agree with Shepster.

The big 3 allowed themselves to crash.
They rested on their laurels for years, they didn't see where the market was headed (fuel efficient cars), or maybe they chose not to see it?
Honda and Toyota sales aren't struggling in North America are they?

If the big 3 want a dime, their executives shouldn't make more than what the U.S. President makes - as Chris Matthews put it last night.
Their should be heavy stipulations as to what direction they're going to take their auto manufacturing.
They dropped the ball and now they want help?
Only with some heavy stipulations would I even CONSIDER it.

I hope that the current President and President-elect Obama consider some serious limitation and stipulations as to what the big 3 can do with this money, sorry.

[mikehoius]

Actually they all had problem in October,
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QF-IMHLs8FU/SQ_hHcHDWeI/AAAAAAAAGnw/pC3s5xqIasA/s1600-h/October+2008+Auto+Sales.jpg

[Bocado]

Notice how the big 3 are in big double digit losses? :)

[MorallyChallenged]

Really nice analogy Shep. I'm sure your lawncare guy will take down a sizable portion of the U.S. economy when he goes under.

[JimboSlice]

Hey Shep its gotta be pretty sweet getting all high and mighty while you cash that $6 mill/yr paycheck of yours. I am sure that if you were on the assembly line you would be singing a different tune.

[Bocado]

The big 3 and the union folks dropped the ball on this one.

The workers shouldn't be praying for a bailout just because their lives depend on it.
They should be praying that their union workers and management get their acts together and build cars people want.
The big 3 haven't done so in 20 years and the imports came in and stole the market from under them.

While their sales have slowed down like all businesses have, Honda and Toyota in North America aren't struggling as badly.
Wonder why?

Honda Civic, Fit, Toyota Echo, Prius, etc...hmmm...

[BlackTom]

Are you saying that the union members have a say in what kind of cars are built?

I didn't think so.

Workers and all people will always pray for whatever their lives depend on. Why would they not?

The reason the 30-40% drop in auto sales isn't hurting the Japanese companies as badly, is because they don't pay retiree health plans. The cost of those plans have absolutely skyrocketed due to Health Ins. Companies and Big Pharma. That has nothing to do with unions, workers, or the types of cars that are made. Universal health insurance would actually end the need for a bailout.

[HPdevotee]

So true!

[surlybird]

Those assembly line people making 60k a year doing a 30k a year job? Making a good bit of cash for an unskilled laborer.

I am a Pipefitter and pretty bitter about the UAW unwilling too make concessions, you see I worked at a plant that made parts for the auto industry. I pay my dues and keep my license up too date, I take all the classes offered me and pay for them out of pocket. I also know if I wanted I could get a journalism degree and pursue a career like Sheps. I however don't like shaving.

[JimboSlice]

Unskilled labor, yet you need to take classes ... hmmm 2 and 2 don't add up to 4 in your book.

[katie0910]

agree agree agree! My husband is a union member, pays dues, takes classes and pays for them out of his pocket as well. He is a member of the Heavy Equipment Operators Union. That is a skill he has to keep up and take the classes required for his job as a crane operator. Maybe he was in the wrong field. He does not make what those assembly line folks do! Heck, I have a college education and don't make what they do! The UAW should take some concessions to keep the big 3 in business. They need to think about the whole part of the pie instead of just one piece!

[BPCentrisAmerican]

I find it interesting that the Southern power base is against this loan, not bail out, loan, could it be that Japanese and German auto makers have found homes in Southern states, could people like Shelby be in there pocket? Think about this, both Toyota and Nissan market a competitive product line to GM, Ford and Chrysler and the product area they have been trying to make inroads for years are light trucks. Toyota and Nissan make great products, but in the truck business they cannot compete with US made vehicles, not in option verity, price, or engine selection. Japanese builders do not offer a diesel option in there line up. If you need a truck to do real work, like towing an 11,000lb trailer or specify a custom setup, like a dumb body, Toyota and Nissan cannot help you. If you don't think this is important, try living, where I grew up, pickups are the family car; rural people use them for everything. In the little town I grew up in, the closest Toyota or Nissan dealer is 25 miles away, where Ford, GM and Jeep are just up the road, convenient for service and parts.

All of the auto manufactures, Germans, Japanese and South Koreans are taking a bath in this economy and are being supported by there governments, until this fiscal storm passes. They provide single payer healthcare, benefits etc. Republicans want to break the union’s period; they want to punish labor as usual.

[Bushwillresign]

Their pocket, their lineup, their governments. Republicans always vote against there own best interests, oops, their own best interests.

[surlybird]

While I don't like the Republicans so much I like the current Unions less. They are much too powerful and are in it for themselves and not the common worker. Their time is done and they need too lose some of that power.

My grandfather always said that unions and lawyers will take America down. Much too the chagrin of my other grandpa who was a union rep.

[katie0910]

When did they say they would pay this back? How did they say they would pay this back? I saw this and they had no answer for it. Just gave reasons on why government should bail them out! And as for the comment eluding to the Southern Power base...I am taking that as meaning Republicans don't want the big 3 to succeed because they are in bed with the foreign car makers. That is absurd! The foreign car plants here in the States are still working! Americans are buying the product because of gas mileage! I am a union backer but to say that the Republicans are against this so called loan (aka BAILOUT) is crazy. They are against it because what company is going to come in and ask next?????

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Americans are buying the product because of gas mileage, really, why isn't VW selling cars than, Toyota sales are down 36% for October. The German and Japanese partner with there industries, and pick up healthcare cost.

[nightsdoor]

Very well said and good perception. I had missed the geographical connection to import automakers.

I hope that as a government we do loan the big 3 the money it takes to stay afloat, then we can push them to make "greener" cars and frankly behave themselves better. Ford laid off 20,000 people a couple of years ago and then wondered why their sales went down. Could it be that many of us "vote with our dollars?" I wasn't going to reward those CEO's with stuffing their own pockets while leaving thousands jobless.

[RobinD]

These are the same people a few years back who were all about "buying American". They proudly were driving their GMC pickups with flags waving and a W04 sticker on the bumper. Now they're all proud to say they buy foreign and screw the American worker. Too funny for words.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Your right, in my home town there were McCain-Palin signs in front of every house and a US made vechical, at least one in every driveway, yet Republicans don't give a dam about there base, go figure.

[canucklivinginUSA]

Oh sweet irony. The southern people are full of it. Man, the more I live in GA, the more I hate it. I cannot even contain my contempt about them. F the bible belt

[Bushwillresign]

They still don't believe they lost the civil war!! Southerners I mean.

[mikehoius]

I live in the Detroit area and work for one of the suppliers. I also am sick of the Fox News BIAS on this whole situation. I watched Fox Business last night and they could not say anything good about the auto companies. I agree they made a lot of SUV's but they also made small cars to. Not a lot of people bought them thought until the gas prices went crazy this summer. Lets be honest they were making what the public was purchasing. The quality also wasn't the greatest 10 years ago but it has improved dramatically. Here is a link about some myths about the auto industry, http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008811170379.

Now to also be honest the Union needs to give some concessions. The one everyone in the Detroit are thinks is a joke that are not working in the union is the Jobs Bank. This forces the company to give the union members 80 or 85% of their pay when their plant is idle. The members get unemployment and the companies pay the difference. No other company I know does this and needs to be eliminated.

Now for the people saying I should give concessions. Trust me I have most of the people I know have taken a cut in pay over the past year. So if I can do it so can you.

[Budokan]

Miss Shep needs to take a course in economics before she starts spewing her talking points.

[Knute5]

Not really "Nuclear" (besides, at Fox it would be "Nookyoolur") but he did get pretty cranky...

[lefty247]

Shepster ain't to bright. As I recall the usa under CLINTON bailed out Chrysler---saved the peoples jobs, the Company.. and made a huge PROFIT....I drive a '02 Chrysler Concord...excellent car.

Shepster like most chickenwingnuts is one dimensional and just plain dumb....but no prob. to give out 20 billion for next month in IRAQ!

[deathwish]

ahhh, no . . . not Clinton, but Carter.

http://uspolitics.about.com/od/economy/a/chryslerBailout.htm

[fabhell]

It was the Carter Administration. The bailout resulted in the K-car, the Neon and the Mini-van. Also, Chrysler had to put up half the money, give the government premium stocks and design new, affordable cars and streamline the industry. it was no give away.

[kfdan]

Shepard Smith ~ just because you are afforded this position on a supposed news show does not mean you have the right to bring out an email from someone you regularly get emails from who insults you ! You are supposed to represent someone who resembles a journalist who's job is to present the news. It's clear you really are interested in being another Bill O'Reilly ... hell, why not ... Billo makes more money than you do, right !!!

[Bocado]

Shep defended Obama against JTPlumber's attack of Obama bringing death to Israel.
Cut Shep some slack, he's not the worst apple on Faux News.
Thankfully he's not Hannity.

[mathme]

He really looks like a creepy woman. That aside, the emailer is right. However, there are different motivations for denying the bailout/loan and I believe that busting unions is one of them.

Isn't the money coming from the pool that's already slated to be given away to the banks? Why not spread it around a little bit? Are we just going to become a nation of banks with no production whatsoever?

The airlines have been bailed out time and time again-- let's add that money up (and adjust for inflation) and see how much that turns out to be. The thing with the airlines, though, is that there are plenty of small(er) carriers who would expand to fill in the void left by the major airlines. They would need to hire the people and buy the aircraft, and where one gargantuan airline went down, it would probably take 3 small/regional airlines to expand and fill it.

But who is going to replace the auto industry? That one guy working on that experimental car for the last 20 years in his garage?

[JustSpeakingMyPeace]

WOW!! I've always said he looks like a really wierd woman trying to look like a really cool guy!

[Bocado]

The big 3 screwed themselves, sorry.

I hate to think that they should get some of that bailout pie, but if they do, it should be with extremely strong stipulations as to the kinds of cars they're going to build for the next 20+ years.

Honda and Toyota came along and swept the car sales from them.
They build better cars, more fuel efficient and stylish.
Something the big 3 didn't care to do and hence the predicament they're in now.

Fine, bail them out, but again, with HEAVY STIPULATIONS...
..as Chris Matthews said last night, the CEOs should get the same money the President gets.
Executives shouldn't get anything close to what they're getting now.

Want the cash?
Prove you're gonna build better, more fuel efficient cars that people these days WANT and NEED.

[kallisti7]

Japan and South Korea will fill the gap left by the Big Three. But that's just rhetoric. It' stupid to subsidize a failing industry. And as for the argument that it's a loan, well, we "loan" third world nations money and we have little chance of ever seeing it again. same issue here. It's only a loan if you have a reasonable chance of getting it back. If your brother came to you and said, "Listen, remember that buggy whip business I started? Well, it turns out no one wants or needs my product and I'm broke, but if you loan me some money I'm sure I can turn it around." You'd say no way. Why would you loan a broke man whose shown poor judgement more money?

As for the airlines, most countries have one nationalized airline, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, etc. Why? Because apparently it's not that profitable to run an airline so most countries, rather than continuously scrambling to come up with the cash for emergency bailouts, have decided to nationalize the industry and budget for its needs. I'm all for civil socialism, but not corporate socialism.

[dogcollar]

Just a comment as a visitor to your country. I'm from the UK and was appalled to find how little wages are in the US and how healthcare has to be provided for in such a complicated fashion. It baffles me that neither of the two presidential candidates had the balls to nationalise the health service and still give options for private healthcare (it works here) and that politicians the world over seem slow in offending those who make billions a year while many starve.

Bailing out institutions because of their greed when there are far more profitable causes out there is offensive in the least and a grotesque example of how a free-market economy has no regard for those at the bottom of the pyramid.

The situation will not get better until individuals begin realisng that presidential candidates should not be voted for on the strength of how much money they have, what great speakers they are, or for any reason other than that they want to make the world fairer and safer.

But those people never win. They all end up in heaven with the kids who starved because we ate all their food and used all their resources just so we could have air-conditioning in our cars.

Ahem.

[mathme]

You're right. That money would be better invested in green industries, that's for sure. Build more wind farms, tidal generators, etc. That would produce jobs and stimulate the economy, but I have a feeling that no matter what happens, that money is going to go to the banks who won't loan it out. The whole mess is ridiculous. The soon-to-be former auto workers could easily (I assume??) be retrained to work at plants assembling these new green machines.

And, yes, our health care is stupid. I have a student who was denied (for a while, anyway, probably until they were able to cover her on her parents' insurance) the tests necessary to determine if she has cancer! They thought she might, but wouldn't test her because her personal insurance wouldn't cover it. Those are just tests, why isn't there a right to that?

[OutsiderSA]

You are obviously basing this on GBP.

Just as an aside, when the world went decimal on currency, most countries that were pound based took the ten shillings and made that a "dollar", the UK however took the pound and divided it by 100 so you should devalue your current pound by 50% to take a real measure of equivalence when comparing to the US$ as at that time the US$ was roughly equal to 10 shillings.

Furthermore, the UK is also a consumer based culture as the UK cannot self sustain or likely not able to do so. Your motor manufactures have taken some serious hits too.

[Lizaxyz]

Every time someone puts forth anything about fixing our country's health care system, the Republicans pull the pacifiers from their mouths and shout "that's socialism!" The problem is the lobbyists for big insurance and drug companies control our health care system. So until their umbilicle cord is cut, it will never change. Also, it's funny how they talk about the doom and gloom of our social security running out of money, yet they pull this feather out of their hats to prop up the banks! This is OUR money and they behave like we have no say in how it is spent! We demand OUR money be spent on OUR people's healthcare and energy independence!!!

[instagladiator]

More BS from the "Never ending Spin Zone"!!

Poor ole Shep, he needs to get an education about where money comes from before spouting his crap!!

[HDR]

I'm sure that this has been brought up already but, didn't we bail out Chrysler back in the Iacoccca yrs? And didn't it pay off as in resurrecting that company and in the taxpayers getting their money back?