Shep Smith Is Objective Because He Agrees With Left?

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Too often "objectivity in journalism" is code for agreeing with the left. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz demonstrated this sentiment in his profile of Fox News Channel's Shep Smith.

Kurtz lauded Smith as an "outspoken newsman at the network defined by high-decibel conservatives, a stance that has earned him respect even from some Fox-hating liberals."

But was it really his "newsman" status that has earned him this respect, or is it the numerous instances in which Smith has agreed with the left? Kurtz documents a number of such instances, intended to demonstrate Smith's purported objectivity.

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During the runup to the last presidential election, Smith berated Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher for accusing Obama of not taking a hard enough stance on Israel. "Barack Obama has said repeatedly and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend to the United States no matter what happens once he becomes president -- his words," Smith said.

Lest readers take Smith's defense of Obama's Israel policy as a show of objectivity, consider that only six percent of Israeli Jews consider Obama "pro-Israel," while half think he is "pro-Palestinian." Quality journalism must entail a critical look at a candidate's policies, not just a regurgitation of his talking points. But Kurtz still considers this quality reporting.

Smith has also toed the liberal line on health care. "Every vote against the public option is a vote for the insurance companies," he said in an October interview with Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Such hyperbole is hardly a hallmark of objectivity.

On detainee interrogation, Smith also sides with large swaths of the left. He erupted in a fit of rage during a Fox roundtable in April, screaming "We are America! I don't give a rat's a** if it helps. We are America! We do not f***ing torture!" Smith apparently is emotionally invested in many of the left's positions.

Smith has garnered praise from some of the left's most divisive commentators. New York Times columnist Frank Rich--who makes his living attacking Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and tea party protesters--lauded Smith for "refus[ing] to go along with the big hate." Praise from Frank Rich generally indicates a refusal to question the President or Democrats, as he is so quick to deride anybody who does.

All of the examples that Kurtz mentions demonstrate his standard for objective journalism: agreeing with the left. That a Fox News anchor opines for liberal policies does not make him objective. But when the mainstream media is dominated by liberals, a journalist espousing liberal opinion means he is doing his job.


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Shep is still on FNC ?

I never will forget Shep Smith standing on the Interstate bridge after Katrina, hit New Orleans, while he was broadcasting the 'horror of the folks down below. And then one day the camera panned behind him, and the interstate roadway was clear and water free. Never once did he mention those marooned people could have just climbed up the overpass side landscaping and walk away to safety.

All the crews vehicles were parked behind him as well. And why didn't he say to the people below, the road is clear from here, his vehicles made it to the perch. Why, because he wanted to keep the lies going.

And that is what qualifies as objective Shep journalism.

Smith is a plant.

His drama drags in a certain audience.

Shep is holding Lou Dobbs'

Shep is holding Lou Dobbs' spot on FOX NEWS for him.

"no matter how low you set the bar, liberals can never quite measure up." -Me

http://gjresult.com

 

Never watch Smith

ever since he pitched his little hissy fit while down in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. He was extremely critical of the Federals who were doing everything they could to get into the areas and hardly mentioned the local politicians who all but ignored the approaching storm. Nagan was seen partying in the French Qtr the night before. The Governor was AWOL as well. I was raised in the area so I know what the hell goes on "down on the bayou" and in N.O. in particular. It has been a cesspool of greed, graft and corruption for most of its existence.

I didn't watch him much before that. I have believed for years he is liberal and the only he tries to keep it under wraps is to keep what audience he has. Frankly, if you watch Bret right before Shepard you got all the news. Shepard just regurgitates what has been put out all damn day long from FoxNews, no need to get his version of it. 

off and on, now completely off

I had watched him off and on for a while, but like you, I saw that same b!tchfit he threw out there, while Mr Rivers was looking for someone to save, and that's when I decided he wasn't worth the time to watch anymore.  Anytime I flip to Fox and see him, I flip to something else. 

Same with Geraldo, I don't watch him anymore unless FNC sends him out to some stormy area, and then I watch to see if he gets knocked off his feet like that one time in Galveston.  Methinks they do that to give us entertainment.

But when I heard how he swore on that roundtable event, I knew he was long gone even though I thought he had wised up for a while.  Whoops, shame on me.

So if he left FNC, I wouldn't care.

-Jon

I had completely forgotten

about Hair All Doe being down in Nawlins after the hurricane. I remember watching that idiot and his cameraman wallking down into the a low spot right below one of the levees with tons of water slopping over the tops. I told my wife what an stupid thing to do. If the levee had burst they would have been killed almost instantly. If I had been his cameraman I would have told him to pack sand.

Shepard Smith is an odd

Shepard Smith is an odd ball. His antics and mannerisms are embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch. His style is more suited to the old syndicated tabloid news shows, like Hard Copy. I lump him, Geraldo, and Bill O'Reilly together as on-air personalities who are painful to endure.

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

Beware!

     As Dr Savage often says....beware the government media complex.  He recently had a critique of Shep Smith,  Smith was giving enormous praise to the government takeover of health care,  Savage described his commentary as an enormous lie, etc. 

 

Is Fox biased to the right,  yes for the most part.  But there are guys like Shep that you have to be very wary of.  Pay attention!! 

Uncomfortable to watch

I remember seeing him crack a joke or something with someone off camera about some snafu as he was reporting 'live' from Columbine in the aftermath of that shooting. He's a weirdo.

"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason

B O'Rs little fantasy girl,

B O'Rs little fantasy girl, Lis Weihl, drinks a lot of koolaid as well.

"no matter how low you set the bar, liberals can never quite measure up." -Me

http://gjresult.com

 

Shepard Smith is an annoying tool

I cannot watch him.  He is the kind of tool who believes he is the smartest and coolest guy in the room.  Nothing but an overpaid talking head.  When he does venture off the teleprompter he comes off as an idiot.  He could easily be replaced by Geraldo.

Angry White Dude

www.angrywhitedude.c...

can't read

It's not that he strays from his TelePrompter it's that he can't read. I quit watching him years ago because I couldn't stand that he sounds like a high school summer intern when he tries to read.

Shemp is Kurtz' type of

Shemp is Kurtz' type of "newsman"...When is CNN and WaPo going to stop this farce of calling Kurtz a "media critic"?

Put Shep Out to Pasture

Most conservatives I know can't stand this metrosexual lightweight. Why not put Dobbs in his time slot and send Shep and Whore-aldo to CNN as the players to be named later?

 BW222

Shep Smith

Shep lost me during hurricane Katrina... With his whining about people who are safe on a bridge, while the Coast Guard is working its a$$ off rescuing tens of thousands of people off of roof tops who are in real danger.  Hanging out on a bridge is not exactly immediate danger.  

There was so much misinformation during that whole disaster, even today. 

"Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink."  P.J.O'Rourke

dasher... Same here, I

dasher...

Same here, I was furious with both he and Geraldo...they did their best with their pity-party stories daily to incite a riot towards the end.

I emailed and called Fox, I hadn't ever been that mad or disgusted with Fox before or since.

What was insult to injury is after they both were back in NY the network put both of them on shows like BOR, H&C etc defending these guys....ad nauseam....as if we were just supposed to accept what they did.

Don't think so....never have, never will.

'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart

Not a Shep fan

Not a Shep fan either...

---------------

PS:  When I was driving this AM, I saw a window sticker on a Honda eco-box that said "Latte drinking Liberal Elitist."   Proud of being an elitist... figures.  Was a white yonger guy with "hip" facial hair.  I am not impressed by these socialists.  So I pay $8000/yr for major medical w/ a $6200 deductible, yet under the Obamy plan I hear I will be paying over $15,000/yr with a $5000 deductible.  Oh the joy.  What am I missing???

PSS: Dasher - My wife heard PJ O'Rourke speak.  Very good & got his autograph on his book.  M-B

Maximus...Unbelieveable...

That bumper sticker just astounds me, but also illustrates the galloping, in-your-face arrogance of the left...

I would love to find a bumper sticker that says "Plain coffee-drinking Conservative Heartland Resident"... I'd be proud to place that on my car...Right now, we have a "Don't Tread on Me" sticker on our car, and are beginning to see more of those around the town where I live. We are attending a Tea Party Wednesday evening here, and I can't wait!!

"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan

Hey Sky... I envy

Hey Sky...

I envy you...be sure and fill us in!

'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart

Hi bt! You betcha!!

I sure will! I can't wait...This is the first Tea Party to be held in our town, so I am really psyched for this... It's Wednesday evening, so I'll try to post about when we get home.

Excited to read Sarah's new book, too. We ordered it through Amazon, so it'll be shipped to us. Can't wait! 

"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan

Plano Tea party experience

Tea Parties are very moving...  I went to the Plano Texas TAX day tea party after finishing off my return and mailing it.  Lots of support from the cars going by honking and showing support... makes you proud of our country.  Maybe there is hope!  M-B

Maximus...About hope...

I think there is, but only if people continue to speak out and show up at the polls to put that "hope" into action...

350 days till election day 2010 (Nov. 2), and 1085 days till election day 2012 (Nov. 6)...  

"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan

"yet under the Obamy plan I

"yet under the Obamy plan I hear I will be paying over $15,000/yr with a $5000 deductible. "

That would be an additional $15,000/yr on top of what you're already paying, bringing your total to $23,000/yr,  which a lot of people seemed to miss.

Shep Smith is not a commentator...

nor is he on Fox for opinion journalism, although more and more over the last year especially, that is what he seems to be doing. He has the most infuriating, and often snide way of inserting bits of his opinion (usually left-leaning) into whatever news story he is talking about at the time. Someone needs to remind Smith that he is there to give us the news, fair and balanced, and not to give us his take on it.

I have run hot and cold over Shep in the past, although his antics and comments have worn extremely thin, and he has about worn out his welcome. If I want to listen to left-leaning news, I'll watch MSNBC or CNN...I watch Fox News specifically to escape all that, as do millions of others, and the powers-that-be at Fox need to remember that.    

"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan

PS

  I agree with you 100%, that habit of his is getting really old . I quit watching him after the Blago affair when he kept interjecting HIMSELF into the story. Totally inappropriate and I was embarssed just watching!

 

 

 

 

 

           Proud HillBilly from NNY

Prairie

Shep reminds me of a gay version of my father.

Not good, on sooooo many levels.

 

I hope he fails, too.

 

 

Blonde...Welll...

Hmmm...Not sure how to respond to that...lol!

Shep is an interesting case...Given how he seems to think politically, it must just drive him nuts to work at Fox with all those fair and balanced, intelligent, logical non-liberals around! :) 

"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan

Shep is an 8 million

Shep is an 8 million dollar a year college drop out (what a country eh!) He is also a Bimbo without the "Bim". But you gotta give the guy a break, he's an airhead making seven figures! I wish I was that dumb!

"The bureaucracy is growing to meet the needs of the growing bureaucracy"

 

MM... When's the left

MM...

When's the left going to demand caps on pay to the talking heads?

Of course they would only do that to talking heads on Fox and conservative radio, after-all if they can't get the Fairness Doctrine, this will be a start until they can.

'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart

Shep and Kurtz

Shepard Smith and Howard Kurtz are nothing more than puppets of their MSM masters. I think the following quote says it all:

“There is no such thing as an independent press in America, unless it is in the country towns. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print”.

I am paid $150.00 a week for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing similar things. If I should permit honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, like Othello, before twenty-four hours, my occupation would be gone.

The business of the New York journalist is to destroy truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon; to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. We are the tools and vessels for rich men behind the scenes. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
John Swinton, editor of the New York Tribune.

I've never liked this guy. Something about his...

style irritates the hell out of me.  My DVR, unfortunately, picks up the ending of his show just before O'Reilly comes on.  He always has something stupid to say as he signs off his show.  He thinks he's clever, but he's not.  I'm not surprised he leans left.  It probably explains why I don't like him.  Jim Webster

Fox News...pleeeez replace

Fox News...pleeeez replace this tool with Mr. Dobbs.

One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.

But he's too "purty"

With HD and widescreen it's all about "looks & youth" and not substance...sadly! 

"The bureaucracy is growing to meet the needs of the growing bureaucracy"

 

Shep Smith, Geraldo Rivera, and now add Judge Andrew Napolitano

to the liberals on FoxNews I won't watch.

For those who missed the Bill O'Reilly show today, O'Reilly had Judge Andrew Napolitano as a guest. Napolitano believes that those at Quantanamo should be tried in a civilian court because we are not at war with terrorist.

Here are excerpts from this exchange:

O'Reilly: Was 9/11 an act of war in your opinion?

Napolitano: Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration can answer that because both tried people or planned to try people in military court and in civilian court so the government doesn't know the answer to that question.

O'Reilly:  But in your opinion was it an act of war?

Napolitano: No, it was not an act of war.

O'Reilly: Was Pearl Harbor an act of war?

Napolitano: Yes, Pearl Harbor was an act of war, because it was government against government.

A minute later came this outlandish answer from Napolitano to this question:

O'Reilly: 9/11 was a terrorist act was it not?

Napolitano: (hesitating) It was an act in which individual people not a government slaughtered innocence in America.

O'Reilly:  Was it a terrorist act? Was it designed to terrorize the American population?

After being pressed by O'Reilly, Napolitano finally admits

Napolitano:  Yes, of course it was.

----------------

There is something about the liberal mindset of those like Smith, Rivera, and Napolitano, who have difficulty calling a terrorist a terrorist or a war a war. 

Unfortunately, the current political leader of the United States has the same mindset.

Jim Clonts,writing at Military.com, summarized liberals in a piece titled The Liberal Mindset:

Understanding the American liberal mindset is far more difficult. Liberals speak of patriotism and love of country, but they actively undermine nearly everything our government has done in the War on Terror. They seem to believe it is their duty to represent a counterview in American policy. Although they feel it is imperative to voice the minority opinion in matters of national policy, they go so far as voicing the foreign opinion; aligning themselves against the best interests of the United States.

-------------------------------------------------

"They are actively promoting the decline of America." ~ Rush Limbaugh on liberals

Hey Rush fan..

Altho I agree with you a 100%, I still get in arguements with a Canadian friend of mine about Bush not declaring war. Bush should have. But I'm afraid the judge is right. We don't have a declared war on these terrorists. I know they're not from a 'country' but we should have declared war nonethelessl.

I agree, Rush fan,except---

I have seen the Judge many times on TV, and have never observed even the slightest lean towards liberalism.

He is flat all over the current administrations' a** on numerous items.

Not saying you're incorrect,  just that I have'nt personally seen any left wing leanings on Andrew Napolitanos' part.

Now, if you wanna talk about Janet, -----

MD

"There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress."

Mark Twain (1835-1910)