Fox News isn’t what it used to be…at least that’s the message that President Donald Trump has been touting over the course of the last few weeks.
While Fox is certainly a good antithesis to the far left slant of CNN or MSNBC, the fair and balanced network is still a piece of the big machine known as the mainstream media. They can be only be as conservative as the infotainment industry dictates, after all, and they too have been prone to severe bouts of sensationalism from time to time.
Then, of course, there are the stories and polls that they publish that appear unflattering toward President Trump. The Commander in Chief seems not to miss a single one, often singling them out via Twitter when he is displeased.
Such was the case earlier this week after Fox released a poll showing that 51% of Americans would like to see Trump both impeached and removed from office. Trump let Fox know, again, via Twitter, what he thought of their pollster: “They suck!”.
On Friday, things took a sudden turn at the network, however, as longtime Trump critic and founding member of the Fox News family Shep Smith announced his resignation.
In a moving statement at the end of his Friday show, Smith announced the news, and said it would be his last broadcast.
“Even in our currently polarized nation, it’s my hope that the facts will win the day, that the truth will always matter, that journalism and journalist will thrive,” Smith said.
In recent years, Smith has been something of a heretic at the ratings-dominant and broadly pro-Trump network. He has often provided critical coverage of President Donald Trump, end even feuded with Fox News opinion hosts.
The Fox News anchor, hired to join the network at its inception in 1996, said his agreement with Fox meant he would not be reporting elsewhere in the near future.
Shep admitted that he won’t be on television again anytime soon.
“So recently I asked the company to allow me to leave Fox News, after requesting that I stay, they obliged,” Smith said. “Under our agreement I won’t be reporting elsewhere, at least in the near future, but I will be able to see more of Geo and Lucia, and our friends and family, and then we will see what comes along.”
“This is my last newscast here. Thank you for watching today and over the decades as I traveled to many of your communities and anchored this program, studio B, and Fox Report, plus endless marathon hours of breaking news. It’s been an honor and my pleasure.”
Fox has said that they will rotate a number of anchors through Smith’s 3pm time slot until such a time as they hire a suitable replacement.
