Shepard Smith

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Shepard Smith

David Shepard "Shep" Smith, Jr. (born January 14, 1964 in Holly Springs , Marshall County , Mississippi ) is an American news presenter. He is best known as the host of the daily newscasts Fox Report with Shepard Smith and Studio B on cable news network Fox News .

Life

Smith was born to cotton merchant David Shepard Smith Sr. and Dora Ellen Anderson, an English teacher. In his youth, he attended Marshall Academy , a private school in Holly Springs, but completed his final year in Florida , where he had moved with his brother and mother after his parents separated. He then studied at the University of Mississippi , which he left without a degree. Nonetheless, on May 10, 2008, he gave the annual speech at the beginning of the academic year at his former university.

In 1987, Smith married Virginia Donald, a fellow student at the University of Mississippi. The marriage was divorced in 1993 without children.

Work as a journalist

Smith began working as a journalist in the 1980s. He got his first job as a reporter at the station WJHG-TV in Panama City Beach . In 1985 he became a reporter for the broadcaster WCJB-TV in Gainesville , a reporter for the broadcaster WBBH-TV in Fort Myers and a reporter for the broadcasters WSVN in Miami and WCPX-TV in Orlando . He later became a correspondent for A Current Affair in Los Angeles .

With the founding of the conservative news broadcaster Fox News Channel in 1996, Smith was hired as a reporter and news correspondent. In this capacity he reported on numerous events, e.g. B. about the US presidential campaigns and elections in 2000, 2004 and 2008 and about the funeral of Princess Diana (1997). In November 2000 he reported on the controversial recounting of votes in the state of Florida, which had become necessary after the initial counting of votes showed that the voting shares of the two top candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush were so close that no clear winner could be determined . In 2001 he attended the execution of Timothy McVeigh in Terre Haute , Indiana, and in 2005 he reported from New Orleans, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina .

The news program The Fox Report with Shepard Smith , presented by Smith, was for several years the most popular news program on US cable television and the third most successful program on US cable news television (after the opinion shows by Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity ). In a poll conducted by the television guide TV Guide , Smith, along with Dan Rather and Peter Jennings , was ranked second in the news presenter category, which the poll respondents would place the most trust in. On November 19, 2007, according to the New York Times , Smith signed a three-year contract that guaranteed him an annual salary of seven to eight million dollars for the further moderation of his show. In terms of salary, he was roughly on par with the news presenters on the regular (i.e. non-cable) television stations NBC and ABC , Brian Williams and Charles Gibson .

In September 2013, Smith and Fox News announced that Smith's role at Fox would change with a multi-year contract extension. He took over as presenter of the program Shepard Smith Reporting at 3:00 p.m. and at the same time became the managing editor of the breaking news department. The programs Studio B and The Fox Report ran out.

In February 2017, he caused a stir with a criticism of US President Donald Trump .

In October 2017, he clarified that the rumors of the Uranium One sale spread by his own broadcaster are false and misleading.

On October 11, 2019, at the end of his broadcast, Shepard announced that he would be leaving Fox News with immediate effect.

further activities

Smith appeared in a supporting role as himself in the film Volcano . He can also be seen in a sequence from the documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 by the filmmaker Michael Moore , in which a Smith's report on the first moments of the Iraq war in March 2003 is used. In 2009, Smith, played by Bill Hader , was used as a character in a skit on the comedy show Saturday Night Live that satirized his home network .

Web links

Commons : Shepard Smith  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amanda Kondolojy: FOX News Channel's Shepard Smith to Lead New Breaking News Division as Managing Editor and Chief News Anchor . In: TV by the Numbers , September 12, 2013. 
  2. ↑ hk / jj (dpa, afp, nyt): "It's completely crazy" - horror after Trump's "historic" press conference. In: dw.com. February 17, 2017, accessed June 1, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Oliver Darcy, Brian Stelter: Shepard Smith makes shocking announcement that he is leaving Fox News , CNN Business, October 11, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Shepard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, David Shepard Jr .; Smith, Shep
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American news presenter
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Holly Springs , Mississippi