https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJLKG6MWEo
On Friday, Shepard Smith resigned from Fox News after helping to launch the network in 1996. Many people wondered who would be the voice of reason over the news channel without his presence at the channel. Yesterday, we learned who was stepping into his huge shoes.
Neil Cavuto ripped Donald Trump such a huge one, even I am having problems sitting just thinking about the scathing pain. Well, that and I am giving Cavuto a standing ovation.
He started off his Common Sense segment by telling Donald Trump the press is not making up stuff that the president himself said. Then the anchor told him, “Fake is when it is wrong, Mr. President. Not when it is unpleasant.”
Then he explained to him, “You’re entitled to your own point of view, Mr. President, but you are not entitled to your own set of facts.”
Cavuto made sure to remind him that the people at Fox News do not work for him even though he thinks they do. Finally, it was time for him to finish his nearly two and a half minute rant. He concluded by saying, “Hard as it is to fathom, Mr. President, just because you are president of the free world, doesn’t entitle you to a free pass. Unfortunately just a Free Press.” With that every mic at Fox News, that doesn’t belong to the ass kissers at the network, hit the floor with resounding glee.
Everyone has wanted to put Trump in his place for years, and Neil Cavuto did it so brilliantly. Which makes me think that Shepard Smith wrote it.
Many of you know Shep as the former voice of reason at Fox News, but I know him as someone I worked with at WSVN. When I first started there, fresh out of college, I hated him. He demanded perfection from everyone and he was not the nicest until he got it. It was his way of teaching you to be a great a newsperson like him. Then, a few months after I started there, I called in late to work because I got into a minor fender on the way in. I called the desk and they posted it on our notes. As soon as I walked in, he was the first person to ask me how I was doing. After that I no longer hated him. That and I was learning a lot from him.
He lives, breathes and eats news. Never did I see it more than the one day when we got alert that a building in Oklahoma was missing a 1/3 of its facade. Within five minutes, he was back in the newsroom with a suit and declared he was ready to go. That was the last time I saw him in person for months because he covered the bombing for us nonstop. In fact, he earned so much respect from the locals there, he was the only non-local reporter that was able to go inside the building before they blew it up.
About a year after he left Miami and was working for the Fox news feed, he came for a visit. I asked him what it was like going inside that building. He told me that he could still smell it. At the moment, I knew I worked with greatness. This was before my time at CNN and I still see Shep as one of the greatest newspeople of our generation.
He cares a lot about the news and reporting it accurately. When he started at Fox News, it was not what it is today. He is not the original I know that worked there and I watched a few help launch the network. None of whom were conservative nuts. They were working for the Fox feed that helped share the news with the Fox affiliates.
I digress, anytime I would see Shep on the TV, a warmth would come over me. That warmth is respect. I am a better newsperson because I worked with Shep. Therefore, anytime Trump would go off on him, I wanted to yell at him and tell him, “Shep is a more of man than he will ever be.” Fox News’ loss will be someone else’s gain. I cannot wait to see where he winds up. Hopefully, they will treat him with the respect he deserves. And he deserves it.
