Posted on 06/20/2005 8:49:36 AM PDT by pissant
Slipping into a tracking booth to record headlines for his 7 p.m. national newscast, Shepard Smith bellows: "Bus meets semi in Florida, children critically injured."
Why is Smith trumpeting a local accident as his third major story, before the FBI's blunders in failing to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers?
"Good pictures, and kids are involved," he says.
They call him the anti-anchor here in the Fox News building, the sometimes smirking man from Holly Springs, Miss., whom nobody would confuse with Bob Schieffer or Brian Williams. Smith presides over a breathless, mile-a-minute, graphics-laden, video-saturated program that careens from war to missing women to what Smith calls "goofy things."
"It won't kill us to give 20 seconds of cute dogs," he says.
When he took over the "Fox Report" in 1999, Smith says, "I wanted to do it faster and not waste people's time. If it's only worth 15 seconds, it's only 15 seconds. 'Stocks are up today,' boom, next. . . . Our theory was simple: Give it to me rat-a-tat-tat. Have a little fun. Everything doesn't have to be in-depth."
Indeed, by barreling through 60 to 70 stories in an hour, many of them 20 or 25 seconds each, Smith clearly sacrifices depth. He runs a few of the taped packages that are a mainstay of network newscasts -- which he dismisses as "formulaic" -- but the program is basically Smith as NASCAR driver, racing through the news at breakneck speed.
The 41-year-old college dropout not only hogs the airtime, he uses slang-filled, stripped-down language that he likens to storytelling on Mississippi front porches. Smith's "smart-aleck" style helps to "puncture the pomposity" of news, says media analyst Andrew Tyndall.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Imagine, graphics and video on television. In a related story, the Washington post is supposedly word-laden and print saturated.
Hey Howie you idiot, the "FBI blunders" story is 4 years old!
He's a news anchor. It's the same thing.
Shep's from my hometown of Holly Springs MS. Me went to the same private school, myself three years his junior.
This article is funny.
Always nice to see a fellow college drop-out make good.
He keeps an eye on the CBS, NBC and ABC newscasts before he goes on, "but I could not care less what they lead with. I could not care less what's above the fold in The Washington Post or New York Times or Washington Times or New York Post."
Like "Curb jobs"???
Each of which begins with, "You are looking Live at....". In fact, I think FNC must've passed a memo around to every anchor reporting on a live story that that exact phrase must be spoken.
Didn't they steal that line from Brent Mussberger?
He spoke at the 2004 Marshall Academy graduation. He even arrived at the graduation with an armed guard.
You are Looking Live at a thread about Shep Smith.
Last summer Shepard Smith called John O'Neill and the Swiftboat Vets "liars". I never heard him retract that statement or apologise. Consequently, I have absolutely no use for him.
Personally, I don't know why anyone watches any tv news on any channel, except for a big breaking story like a shuttle crash or an earthquake.
Where you majored in English? :-)
LOL! I saw that one live, and about fell off of my couch laughing. A true classic. I have a vidclip of that around here somewhere. I looked for an online link, couldn't find one, for those who don't know what we're talking about.
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