Esquire profiles Fox News anchor Shep Smith in its March issue, devoting over 4,000 words to the man Fox News execs describe as "the antianchor."
In the below excerpt from Tom Junod's article, Smith's image as Fox News' straight news anchor — one that has been covered before, and one that Smith repeatedly proves accurate (see below) — is discussed:
"There has to be news at a place called Fox News," he says, and he's not the only one. It's the mantra of the network, the fallback equation that -- until the recent entrance of Glenn Beck, anyway -- has enabled its employees to distinguish between the programming that takes place between nine in the morning and eight at night, which is called News, and the programming that takes over thereafter, which is called Opinion.
"I think we do a pretty good job of labeling it for the viewer," Shep says. "But we are under intense scrutiny because of our opinion shows. Are there people who want the news done a certain way? You bet there are, and some are in this building. But they don't affect what I do. The inner pressure and outer pressure that everyone thinks exists doesn't. When I hear people say that Fox News is right wing, I know that's not true, because I'm the one doing the news. It's my show, and there's no place for opinion on my show. It's uninteresting to me. I don't care what Sean Hannity thinks and I don't care what Alan Colmes thinks and I guarantee they don't care what I think and they don't know, either. You know what's interesting to me? What's interesting to me is that the thing people want to know about is the part on which I spend absolutely no time."
Read the full Esquire profile here, or read related links below:
- NPR: Shep Smith "Steers Away From Ideology"
- Fox's Shepard Smith Forced To Offer Disclaimer After Joe The Plumber Interview
- New York Times Editorial Praises Shep Smith For Joe The Plumber Smackdown
- Fox's Shepard Smith Disputes Idea That The Media Secured Win For Obama
- Shepard Smith Goes Nuclear Over Viewer's Email