Smith says he’s unbothered by the divergence between his reporting and Fox’s opinion slate. “We serve different masters. We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion. I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming. I’m busy.” He laughs, enigmatic punctuation that may indicate he’d been trying for a bon mot, or might just be a Mississippi-nice way of indicating he’s said what he’s going to say, bless my heart.
.........
Unlike some portion of the audience that reflexively switches on Fox News, Smith is disengaged by politics. “I get it,” he says, “that some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining. I get that. I don’t work there. I wouldn’t work there. I don’t want to sit around and yell at each other and talk about your philosophy and my philosophy. That sounds horrible to me.”
So to sum up, much of Fox News broadcasting is there simply to entertain, there are no real rules on the opinions side of things, and yet this is Donald Trump's go to source for news and policy advice.
Do you remember that 2012 study which found that people who watched Fox News were less informed than people who did not watch any news at all?
Well apparently that's not a bug.
It's a feature.
And now it features into how the president makes decisions which effect this country, and our world.
P.S. By the way since this story came out suddenly we are learning that Smith is going on a "previously planned vacation."
Thea last time I heard that phrase was when it was used to explain why Bill O'Reilly was not showing up to do his show after those sexual harassment allegations became public.
I hope that is not the case here as Shep is probably the last remaining actual journalist currently working at Fox News.
P.P.S. Here was Hannity's response.
I think Hannity is confusing "breaks news" with "pulls conspiracy theories out of my ass."While Shep is a friend with political views I do not share, and great at breaking news, he is clueless about what we do every day. Hannity breaks news daily-Warrant on a Trump assoc, the unmasking scandal, leaking intel, Fisa abuse, HRC lawbreaking, dossier and more REAL NEWS! 9p https://t.co/zJpnnyFTtP— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) March 16, 2018
Source http://ift.tt/2DzRf7s
