With his elevation to $7 million salary level, Fox News reader Shepard Smith has now surpassed Campbell's Soup pitchman and Food Network producer Gordon Elliott as the most successful graduate of the tabloid television series A Current Affair reporting ranks.
He can also be seen as Fox News' answer to CNN's $5 million boy, Anderson Cooper ("DC" to their "AC?").
Both made their telegenic bones in 2005 during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Coop with his dewy-eyed reports and Shep, who just happened to be staying in a small hotel in the French Quarter at the time (days before New Orleans' annual Southern Decadence weekend), with his self-righteous (but right-on) Blanche DuBois hissyfits and tantrums.In the months to follow, Cooper made history as television's first openly-gay news anchorman-- a role that made him Tabloid Baby's 2005 Person of the Year. Smith kept his "soft Southern drawl" at bay, but for some reason found himself "outed" numerous times in recent years by various gay publications and websites (including regular "snarky" comments by the New York City media site Gawker).
And in today's New York Times there are numerous "double entendres" hinting that Roger Ailes is positioning his network for the more liberal Democratic White House years in the post-O'Reilly era.
From the Times:
Roger Ailes, the chairman of the Fox News Channel, calls Shepard Smith his “go-to guy”...
Though Mr. Smith’s program is down from his high-water mark in 2001, he has dominated ratings at the 7 p.m. hour, averaging about 1.4 million viewers and regularly doubling every challenger CNN has thrown against him...
“It’s fun to play who’s got what to offer,” Mr. Smith said in an interview in his Fox office...
...Mr. Dobbs... now goes head to head against Mr. Smith. So far, Mr. Dobbs has gained some viewers... but not at the expense of Mr. Smith, who is up as well.
What makes the face-off with Mr. Dobbs more intriguing is the seeming role reversal...
“Shep is hard news,” Mr. Ailes said.
On occasion, Mr. Smith has seemed to take positions that have raised hackles, especially on conservative Web blogs that otherwise strongly support Fox News...
Mr. Smith, who can speak in a soft drawl at one moment and then shift into a stentorian baritone the next, believes that he defies traditional anchor profiles...
“I come from a place where we feel like we’re not represented in the national media. Stories about us and where we come from and what issues are in our lives are not always told everywhere else”...
“His emotional style worked well to convey the distress; his Southern roots helped him convey the culture,” Mr. Tyndall said. “And he set himself apart from the reputation of FNC as adhering to top-down, ideological talking points”...
We say, "So what?" Shep Smith is a great newsreader. And we're proud to say, on behalf of all graduates of A Current Affair:
We're here!
We're tabloid!
Get used to it!
We're tabloid!
Get used to it!
5 comments:
Teebs, does this mean Shep will introduce a new Talking Pants segment?
First of all, Anderson is not "openly" gay. Second of all, you imply that Shep has been outed by many people by saying "numerous times". For the most part, it's just one guy that claims such over and over.
Sorry but spreading rumors is very rude...
"Sorry but spreading rumors is very rude..."
I find it vicious for gay Republicans to slander Shepard by assuming he is heterosexual (just as they have long assumed that Bush is hetero in his private bedroom lifestyle).
I'm sure Shepard Smith appreciates if other gay men assume he too is gay when he is cruising in a gay bar late at night. Only those who militantly wear their lifestyle on their sleeve would demand that Shepard stop appreciating the nude male physique.
Not a single Log Cabinette has documented proof that Bush is gay. Do any of you have a legal deposition or digital video of him in straight sex? Then I suggest you stop viciously assuming it. The militancy of gay Republicans to perpetuate a double standard on other gays is absurd. The values of Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Bob Allen, and Richard Curtis say it all.
My Republican mantra platform for the Christian Right, of which I am one, is to just appease the group. I think we are so bombarded on TV with Gay Scenes from the Liberal Hollywood that it has deteriorated all of us, regardless of views. I am conservative, Married 25 years, three kids, one Grandchild and All I know is I have many more things to deal with in life, so much more important that who is gay or not. Anderson Cooper is GAY, Shep is GAY, that is not a rumor, but a clear fact. SO WHAT! A rumor to you anonymous pansies is something that may be untrue or is unknown, both statements above are facts. That is not a rumor. Come on OUT and join the team Anonymous posters. If you are afraid to say who you are in 2009, you have many more problems than your sexuality or admitting you have any.
im mary tsr. omg i use to like shep til i found out abut his being gay n all.hes gross but sara and marcy still wanna bang him
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