Bill Carter, a media analyst for CNN, covered the television industry for The New York Times for 25 years, and has written four books on TV, including The Late Shift and The War for Late Night. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own.

Shepard Smith always stood out at Fox News. Now he's out of Fox News.

Smith made his name at the network being the odd man out by speaking truth to conservative power, which he did to wide critical acclaim during his passionate coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when he challenged a president, George W. Bush, who was the ideological champion Fox rallied behind in that era.

Smith made his exit this week after pushing forward the same challenges to a different administration, one even more exalted in the daily coverage on Fox. But this time, the endless scandals surrounding President Donald Trump turned out to be an even bigger hurricane. One with gale force winds that apparently became too powerful for Smith to continue to withstand.

Accounts generally agree that Smith was the one to abruptly pull the plug on his Fox career. But that decision only came after months of being fragged in public by others in Fox uniform: prime time stars like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. They frequently could not abide Smith's insistence on holding the Trump administration accountable for its actions and its disassociation from — and apparent disdain for — the truth. "Lie after lie after lie," is how Smith put it in one especially aroused newscast.

He had other enemies, mainly among Fox News viewers, many of whom did not enjoy seeing any disruption in the daily affirmation of their views. For them, Smith was like having Debbie Downer on the field refusing to do cartwheels like the rest of the cheerleading squad.