Shep Smith (YouTube)

For a long time, I’ve been wondering how Shep Smith, one of the few functioning journalists on FOX News, managed to keep his job. Last week that job came to an end when Smith resigned live on air. The move left his co-workers and the media world aghast. But we should have seen this coming.

Smith was always an odd fit on the conservative propaganda network known as FOX News. He wasn’t a far-right fascist, he was gay and even dated a black man (who he wasn’t allowed to bring to a company event.) And more importantly, he stuck to journalistic ethics and believed in telling the truth. Some media critics have suggested that Smith was kept on board because he added an air of legitimacy to FOX News. They could always point to him and say, well at least we’re trying to be objective. Liberal news watchdog Media Matters also echoed this point.

“Smith’s willingness to push back against the misinformation rampant elsewhere on the network had made him extremely valuable to Fox. It provided the network’s executives with a fig leaf they could wave whenever critics argued that Fox was nothing more than a propaganda apparatus on behalf of the president and his allies. That fig leaf is gone. Fox belongs to the Seans Hannity and Lous Dobbs. And now, everyone knows it,” said Media Matters.

The details about Smith’s departure are murky. CNN’s media critic Brian Stelter said Smith had been trying to negotiate his way out of his contract, so obviously he wanted to leave. Stelter said that Smith’s departure was not related to Attorney General Bill Barr’s recent meeting with FOX News owner Rupert Murdoch. But the fact that a high-ranking government official met with a news outlet disliked by the president is disturbing. It wouldn’t be the first time President Donald Trump has attempted to use the powers of the presidency to target his enemies.

However, Smith’s departure is likely related to criticism and pressure from Trump who has been bashing the network for daring to tell the truth. FOX News has recently run polls showing Trump lags behind several Democrats. Since Trump doesn’t understand the rules of media, much the way he doesn’t understand how to operate a government, he thinks that FOX News is supposed to praise him at all times. The president was livid at the polls and he has been complaining that “FOX News is no longer on our side.”

But news media, real news not FOX News, isn’t supposed to be on anyone’s side. It’s supposed to be on the side of the truth and tell stories objectively. That’s the reason why most media outlets eventually run afoul of both sides of the aisles. Most presidents usually end up criticizing the press, because the media’s job is to hold them accountable. The media is supposed to cover their successes and failures and ask them tough questions.

What likely happened is FOX News executives told Smith to stop criticizing Carlson, even when he was spouting lies and conspiracy theories. They told him to stop telling the truth. So when push came to shove, FOX backed the neo-Nazi propagandist over the journalist.

But that’s not what many of the people on FOX News do. They are firmly on Trump’s side. When he’s ranting incoherently, they claim he’s more eloquent than Morgan Freeman. When polls show America’s standing is falling around the world, they say we’re respected again. It’s the opposite of the truth.

As I’ve said before, FOX News is bizarro world news. It’s not designed to educate people, but to misinform people and keep them ignorant. A much-quoted Fairleigh Dickinson University study showed that people who watch FOX News regularly actually knew less about world events than people who didn’t watch any news. And is it any wonder? FOX News reports about Obama being born in Kenya, Hillary’s emails and the Deep State. It’s anti-news propaganda.

Smith didn’t want to abide by that. He wanted to say that Trump is an insane conspiracy theorist who lies to the American public daily. His stance put him in direct opposition with neo-Nazi Tucker Carlson, who’s a rabid Trump cultist. In Carlson’s eyes, Trump can do no wrong and should be on Mount Rushmore. On CNN, Salon political writer Amanda Marcotte said FOX News viewers prefer Trump’s dishonesty.

What likely happened is FOX News executives told Smith to stop criticizing Carlson, even when he was spouting lies and conspiracy theories. They told him to stop telling the truth. So when push came to shove, FOX News backed the neo-Nazi propagandist over the journalist. Truth does indeed have a liberal bias. But Smith’s departure also confirmed another ugly fact, you can lose your job for telling the truth.