Shep Smith Has Been Off Fox For About Five Minutes — Now CNN Wants Him

Shep Smith (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)
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CNN’s Jeff Zucker said Thursday that he’d be interesting in hiring the “very talented” Shep Smith just as soon as his pesky Fox News contract lets him work again.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Zucker also defended more generally his love of hiring pro-Trump talking heads at a conference in New York.

“It’s my belief that we should represent those out there who support Trump, what they think,” said Zucker. “It is hard to find people who will come on and support the president’s view. We need those voices, and I think there’s a place for them.”

Smith’s abrupt departure from Fox News is still shrouded in mystery. Earlier this month, he concluded his show with a farewell, clearly a huge shock to host Neil Cavuto whose show came on right after. Smith said that, due to his contract, he wouldn’t be able to report for a bit. The exact reasons for his departure are still unclear.

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  1. Why? He’s a right-wing rat who stood out at Fox only because once every few months he’d pipe up with something that sounded almost normal, before going back to the day-to-day garbage.

  2. said Zucker. “It is hard to find people who will come on and support the president’s view. We need those voices,…"

    Yes, there’s too damned little of accusing people of being scum on the airwaves. CNN needs to find a way to make such messaging more widespread.

  3. O/T: Nice to see that we can leave the Kurds to be slaughtered and surrender them to russia and assad, but by golly we’ll send in tanks to defend the oil fields.

    Pretty sure that if Trump had been in charge of liberating Concentration Camps he’d have ignored all of the people in them and focused on finding where their stolen valuables had been taken…

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-focus-on-protecting-oil-in-syria-highlights-an-evolving-us-mission/2019/10/24/fbb91f3e-f68d-11e9-829d-87b12c2f85dd_story.html

  4. Smith alluded to a “non-compete” clause in his contract that would preclude him from assuming in the near future a role similar to the one he had at Fox. It will be interesting to see whether Fox holds him to it.

    He would be an interesting figure on CNN. I disagree with Zucker’s contention that they want more of these guys: they lie and make stuff up so often their contribution is mainly to make the truth more difficult to discern.

  5. I think there’s a place for them.

    Used to be that place was on a street corner. Now it’s on prime time TV.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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