Shep Smith: “There Can’t Be a Fox News Without News”

The NYTimes’ Bill Carter writes about Fox Newsman Shepard Smith and the comments he made about some of the emails he received in the wake of the Holocaust Museum shooting – comments that drew the ire of leading conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh. He tells Carter those emails mostly said, “You don’t belong there,” adding, “I do belong here.”

While Mr. Smith does not draw the same attention as other evening anchors on the channel, his 7 p.m. show, “The Fox Report,” is having its best year, up 36 percent to almost two million viewers a night. He has beaten his cable news channel competition for 92 straight months. His coverage of the museum killing beat CNN and MSNBC combined.

So why do some Fox viewers believe he does not belong? Maybe because Mr. Smith has established a record that seems antithetical to the image Fox has earned as a purveyor of conservative orthodoxy. The channel has become the “voice of the opposition on some issues,” according to Bill Shine, Fox’s senior vice president for programming.

Of colleagues like Mr. Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, Mr. Smith said, “There’s a lot of money in opinion, and those guys are fascinating, terrific entertainers. This is a news organization. There can’t be a Fox News without news.”

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.