Howard Kurtz published a fascinating update on Shep Smith this morning, taking note of Shep's 10 years in the anchorman post--a period during which his show has been mostly # in his timeslot.
Here's the good stuff:
Seated in his Sixth Avenue office with an erect posture that matches his caffeinated style, Smith says he was unaware that correspondent Shannon Bream had grabbed Christie on the fly. "I came off looking condescending," he says. "I handled it poorly." But the on-air rebuke underscored Smith's status as an outspoken newsman at the network defined by high-decibel conservatives, a stance that has earned him respect even from some Fox-hating liberals.
Kurtz, adds some deets about The FOX Report’s new sponsorship deal with Verizon: Verizon recently launched a multimillion-dollar arrangement to be the sole sponsor of TFR on the first Monday of each month, providing more minutes for news.
Heres more:
Michael Clemente, Fox's senior vice president, says Smith's greatest asset is his passion. "He sort of wakes up with the curiosity to find out what's going on and brings that energy home to the viewer," Clemente says. "He gets very excited about car chases. . . . He happens to be a nice-looking guy as well -- good pipes, he's got the whole tool kit."
Instead, he says he is proud to work for a cable channel that has stuck with the 7 p.m. "Fox Report," where Smith just celebrated his 10th anniversary as anchor. "Think of the ratings difference if they were to put opinion in" at that hour, he says. Not that Smith's ratings are anemic. He has drawn an impressive 1.87 million viewers this year, up 18 percent over 2008, while his chief rivals were losing audience share. Lou Dobbs, who abruptly quit CNN last week, had been drawing 759,000 viewers, while MSNBC's Chris Matthews is averaging 714,000 for a rerun of "Hardball." As for some of the more inflammatory rhetoric heard on Fox, Smith deflects a question about Beck calling Barack Obama a racist, saying he always uses the terms "President" and "Mr." At the same time, he credits his pugnaciously conservative colleagues for his own sizable budget. "Our newscast is better because our opinion programs are successful," he says.
PS: Shep has a nifty website, too--Fox seems to be overhauling its whole website.
