Shepard Smith Out At Fox News

Just happened live on Fox at the end of Shep's show.

I hate to say it, but I actually applauded. I use to be a fan of his, but I have watched his Trump-hate negatively impact his news reporting more and more in the past couple of years, probably hitting the breaking point when Trump went to Iraq to visit the troops back during Christmas.

Trump told the troops that "before I got here, you hadn't had a raise in ten years, and I got you one", he said it was a ten percent raise. CNN and MSNBC seized on that, calling Trump a liar, pointing out that they had been getting about 1% increases every year for several years(basically to keep up with wages and inflation increases, not much of a real 'raise', prior to that they had been getting 3%-4% a year) and that they had gotten larger, about 2.5% increases the past couple of years. That Trump had not just secured them a ten percent raise before landing in Iraq. Shep at Fox was making the very same comments, I literally lost count of how many times he said "The President is a liar", and assorted variations, when reporting the news and leading discussions with opinion guests.

There's just one problem... Trump routinely says 'before I got here' to refer to before he took office as President. Anyone who has covered much of Trump's speeches would surely know that... including all those journalists falling all over themselves to willfully, if not deliberately, misunderstand what he was saying. After taking office, Trump did get them a 10% raise, the first 'real' raise they had had in almost ten years(it was 8), to be phased in over four years. The increase in pay the last couple of years that reporters were citing, including Shep, as PROOF the resident was MASSIVELY lying were part of that.

You also had Shep and others opining that Trump must have decided to go to Iraq at the last minute to distract from negative press he was getting(over the government shutdown) despite the fact that Trump had said a month earlier back at Thanksgiving on Fox when asked about the possibility of him visiting the Troops that they were working out the details and it would be happening 'soon'. It was later revealed that it had been in the planning for about six weeks prior to him going.

It doesn't do much good to have 'fair and balanced' opinion journalism when your news coverage is at times almost as biased and consequently inaccurate as CNN and MSNBC.