Rachel Maddow Hails Shep Smith Over 9/11 First Responders Bill (VIDEO)

You read this correctly -- on Tuesday night's episode of her show, Rachel Maddow reached across the aisle to praise Fox News host Shepard Smith. Smith has recently been criticizing Republican senators' efforts to block a health care bill for 9/11 first responders.

"All hail Shep Smith at Fox News...and I'm not kidding," Maddow said. "Because Fox News can get callbacks from Republican senators, Shep Smith making a hullabaloo on his show about the Republicans who are not supporting health care for 9/11 first responders means that those Republicans might feel compelled to explain publicly why they don't support health care for 9/11 first responders."

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Comments

[jerryhattrick]

03:39 PM on 12/30/2010

of course Fox & Fiends hate 911 first responders -- they're blue collar middle class joes -- the very people the Republican party claims to love, but actually disdains.

[WarriorLemming]

03:01 AM on 12/28/2010

Everything Rachel does always rings true she's well grounded and speaks from the heart. A rare thing among those of her profession, indeed.

[cave mann35]

07:55 PM on 12/27/2010

We just love you Rachael!!! Keep on doing what you do!

[AgingLady]

01:12 PM on 12/27/2010

We need more of this -- recognition of the work of others. I watch FOX sometimes on the weekend if something is happening (rarely) because there is nothing live on the TRMS channel. Am sort of reduced to the weather channel most of the time!

[Guitarsandmore]

06:07 PM on 12/26/2010

MSNBC should receive the dunce award of the year for its lack of Christmas special opting instead to replay installments of "Lock-up", a totally inappropriate show for Christmas.

I may have to come out of retirement just to teach MSNBC what to do on Christmas. There are so many possible shows they could have done related to religion, politics, holidays, Americans at Christmas, music at Christmas, how to avoid christmas; I mean the possibilities stretch out like a long road in front of the open mind. But no, instead we get "Lock - up Raw", the same stupid show that airs every weekend of every week of every month of every year.

MSNBC, you have so many talented hosts, couldn't you have at least given us the best of Rachel Maddow or the Best of Ed Shultz or any one of the other great hosts you have? No, we get "Lock up, raw"

Unless you envision yourself as a prisoner of Christmas then my best advice is to change the channel or just turn the dam thing off and talk to your family.

[conservicide]

02:53 PM on 12/24/2010

Repuglicans hate 9/11 first responders.

Repuglicans are disgusting.

Tom Coburn is disgusting.

[Birdman]

10:58 AM on 12/24/2010

But Shep didn't name, names or even party ... Which keeps him clear of any problems because the average Fox news watcher doesn't know which people did not vote for the bill. simply because nowhere else on Fox was it reported. It has also been shown that the average Fox viewer does not read or watch any other news. So on the surface Shep chastising the senators for not voting for the 9/11 bill looks like a noble thing to do, but in reality the Fox viewers are all mumbling after his comments, damn democrats.

[AlexNYC]

03:49 PM on 12/24/2010

It was probably the most he could get away with at Fox without getting into big trouble.

[OldGabe]

01:34 AM on 12/25/2010

I agree. It is sad that folks feel like they have to look over their shoulders whenever they utter truth. Or not even then but in this day of corporate culture, getting along means going along. At least he had the temerity to step outside the mould. I wonder sometimes why more don't, especially on that particular network.

I guess back in the good old days when we actually had a lot of choices amongst talking heads many of them were actually journalists. Now it seems even a little bit odd when one of them (on either end of the political spectrum) speaks to a story and argues about the "right thing to do." It is a physical pain that I feel when I observe othewise intelligent (??) people working so hard to uphold some corporate stance on an issue just to "stay out of trouble" when they know in their heart of hearts that the good, beneficial thing to do runs counter to the culture.

At least he did say to whatever audience he has a thing that needed to be said and maybe it actually did some good. Don't look for him to get a contract renewal, however.

[jdmn17]

10:00 AM on 12/25/2010

He got 90% of it right. If it woke the people enough to check it out further the party of NO came pretty fast in the news cycle. We have to applaud him, those who watch baseball don't complain when a hitter only hits .400, the rejoice. So let's cut Shep a lot of slack here and say "well done"

[sixtoes]

05:31 AM on 12/24/2010

Shepard Smith is the only reasonable person on FOX. NBC ought to try and buy him away.

[Paul Easter]

10:57 PM on 12/23/2010

I love Rachel Maddow. Such a strong, witty, intelligent, and attractive woman.

[tuliehowller]

05:35 AM on 12/24/2010

..... yuck!

[conservicide]

02:56 PM on 12/24/2010

some people aren't attracted to those things (like tuliehowller)

[Niasia]

10:54 AM on 12/26/2010

You have anything else to share with the group today?

[Birdman]

11:05 AM on 12/24/2010

Well she slipped up on this one because if you look at the original rant by Sheppard smith at no time does he identify which senators or which party for that matter. Add to that the uninformed status of an average fox viewer and what do you have? You have a viewer probably blaming those unpatriotic democrats for voting against these heroes. I think if Shepard Smith actually tallied up who did and didn't vote for the bill he would deserve kudos and Rachel's praise would have been appropriate but he didn't. Therefore, the viewer has to make their own determination as to who did not vote for the bill and of course according to a Fox News viewer it can't be the patriotic country loving GOP.

[Cloball]

10:30 PM on 12/23/2010

I'm glad he did this, but it should of happened by some journalist before Jon Stewart addressed the issue on his entire show the Thursday before.

[Olivio]

09:35 PM on 12/23/2010

Nicole Wallace has complete weak arguments!

[tuliehowller]

07:55 PM on 12/26/2010

......grammatically this is an in...complete sentence.....

[we-r-stardust]

03:39 PM on 12/23/2010

HAPPY FESTIVUS

[criticalthinker2010]

01:58 PM on 12/23/2010

Not to be difficult, because I support this bill, and arguably I have not read the bill, just gleaned info from this site and others, but can someone answer a question. The first responders were almost all police and fire, mostly from NY. NY police and fire have some of the best benefits in the country, I am from MA and our police and fire have excellent health benefits as well. Either 100 or 90% paid for by the municipali­ty. Doesn't this bill just give money for medical expenses that the insurance companies are responsibl­e for? Isn't this another give away to insurance companies?

[Roger]

02:52 PM on 12/23/2010

Check out Jon Stewart's interview last week with some of the first responders. It explains everything.

[William Blomberg]

07:23 PM on 12/23/2010

I used to have great benefits, as well, working for my local/regional government. However, as time went on over the years, insurance companies continued to increase co-pays and other deductibles from us, while slowly decreasing benefits. Where do you think the insurance industry is getting these HUGE profits in their quarterly statements?

Anyway, things that used to be covered 100% for us in the government (at least speaking for me), is now covered 80 or 70, or sometimes 60% or less (depending on the particulars ... why do you think your insurance packets are sooo thick??). And, if that is true for little municipal like Yakima where I am, I can only imagine how the insurance companies are trying to save monies in New York. THAT is why this 9/11 responders bill is so important. To fill in those 40% (or more) gaps in the coverage (that everyone always assumes these people get).

[Birdman]

11:09 AM on 12/24/2010

Believe me this change over the years is not just government employees, but other industries too that used to have very good health care .. With all the holes in it today you could get sick be in the hospital and have to pay for most of it.

[AlexNYC]

03:53 PM on 12/24/2010

Health care reform did little to reel in the premium costs or how much insurance companies are required to cover. The big issue with health insurance has always been the cost, they only realy fixed the issue of who gets denied coverage.

[LynneSpreen]

11:03 AM on 12/23/2010

Nice to see bipartisan discussion done in a sporting, gracious way. Thanks, Rachel.
www.AnyShinyThing.com, A Blog for Smart Women of a Certain Age

[demshuff]

11:00 AM on 12/23/2010

A little off topic, but I thoroughly enjoyed RM's Y92 setting. It was somehow more appealing to have a live audience laugh with her when she nailed the thugs for what they are. Just sayin'.