Once again, Shepard Smith has injected his personal opinion into a news program which is supposed to be, according to Fox News' own well-known standards, "Fair and Balanced."
NewsBusters reports:
FNC's Shep Smith: 'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day' Is 'National Day of Intolerance'
Full link:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2012/08/01/subtle-dig-colleague-mike-huckabee-fncs-shep-smith-slams-chick-fil-app
Shortened link: http://goo.gl/Zij65
The report includes a video clip of the incident along with a link to an MP3.
NewsBusters pointedly mentions that Shepard Smith went out of his way to egregiously insult all of the thousands of people who participated in the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day:
"Smith's comment came completely out of the blue. Smith was not even discussing the Chick-fil-A controversy just before the ad break nor anytime during the August 1 edition of Studio B."
In my opinion, it's time for Shep to go! This is far from his first offense. He has been doing this sort of thing for years, has been repeatedly warned, yet seemingly cannot help himself. He fails to meet the high standards which Fox News has set for its anchors.
Obviously, some other people agree with me, because one of them posted this to FaceBook:
WRITE TO ureport@foxnews.com to be heard on this!!
Here is sample text that you may copy-and-paste, or add your own words.
"Dear Fox News,
Shepard Smith's personal beliefs are increasingly becoming a personal agenda.
If Fox will continue to be different (Fair & Balanced) from the rest of media, this behavior is out of line and must cease immediately.
I believe the station has been keeping the leash long, in an effort to retain a fine news anchor. His wanderings into his personal beliefs are becoming more and more frequent, exposing his own personal prejudices.
Shepard Smith is NOT entitled to his own opinion when he is representing Fox News to the nation. If he were being interviewed on, or hosting his own Opinion show, then this behavior would be perfectly acceptable.
Unless you want to see a mass exodus of viewers from your "#1 in Cable News for the last 14 years" network, either insist that Shepard Smith "Cease & Desist" immediately and for all time, or have him removed as host & anchor.
If Fox News FAILS to correct this increasingly problematic behavior, WE, your viewers, will TUNE OUT!
Best Regards,"
If you agree that it's long past time for Fox News to remove Shepard Smith from his anchor position, then please write to them and tell them what you think. The above message is a good starting point, but I don't agree with the author's invitation to copy-and-paste. Each of us should send a unique message written in our own words. Companies such as Fox News can easily recognize organized campaigns in which they are deluged with thousands of copies of identical messages, and give them far less weight than messages which are written in the sender's own language.
Mort Goldberg
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