Fox News anchor Shepard Smith took time this week to remember the man who gave him his first job as a reporter, WJHG news director Joe Moore, who died this week at 72. “He was a great man, inspiring, gave me a chance when nobody else would,” said Smith.
Smith had just graduated from Ole Miss University in 1988 and was looking for his first job. Moore took a chance, and hired Smith as a bureau reporter for WJHG, based in Panama City Beach, Florida. “Joe would always say, tell the story from the perspective of the people,” Smith reflected. “Joe taught me local media is important, and he instilled in me every day you’re working for the people, never those in charge.”
Smith’s rise would take him to stations in Ft. Myers, Miami, Orlando and Los Angeles before arriving at Fox News in 1996.