Fox News’ Shepard Smith landed on the cover of the latest American Journalism Review this month. Sherry Ricchiardi penned the latest profile which describes Smith as both the “anti-anchor” and “the golden boy of Fox’s news division”:
Shepard Smith is the antithesis of the “voice of God” anchor (think the late Walter Cronkite). He is a maverick, a hyperkinetic anchor with a folksy, aw-shucks delivery that distinguishes him from more staid broadcasters such as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Bill O’Reilly tells Ricchiardi, “He gets upset sometimes when he sees injustice. I like that. I think that’s needed… Basically, he is very accessible to the folks. The folks believe he’s one of them, not some anchorman from Mount Olympus.”
As for his career, Smith says he’s unsure of what will happen next:
“I don’t have any idea. I have been thinking about that sort of thing a lot lately. I’ve been doing this for a long time,” he says. He has about 18 months left on his contract; after that, “I don’t know what the company will want or what I will want. I don’t know what opportunities might be out there.”