Shepard Smith has carved out a niche as the least Fox News-y personality at Fox News. While the rest of the network is largely dedicated to covering for Donald Trump, supplying both him and his apologists with talking points, Smith often casts himself in a more adversarial role.

This is far outside the typical Fox News strategy of both defending and placating Trump. But Smith seems uninterested in catering to either the president or his base, which might explain the blunt response he gave to the news that ABC had canceled the reboot of Roseanne: "Racism is not funny and Roseanne Barr is a racist. Now her show is canceled."

While other Fox hosts are quick to brush off accusations of racism, and some like Tucker Carlson try to pass off naked white nationalism as reporting and commentary, Smith cleared the relatively low bar for decency by calling Roseanne Barr's racist tweet what it was. But that wasn't the last bear he poked on Tuesday.

Fox has been preoccupied lately with trying to spin Trump's "SPYGATE" into...well, into something that exists. Jay Willis broke down for GQ how the faux-scandal escalated into full-blown conspiracy theory thanks to help from myriad Fox News characters, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and the interchangeable PEZ dispensers on Fox & Friends. Smith historically doesn't follow the Fox line of pushing insane conspiracy theories, such as when the network got foaming angry over the Uranium One deal in November. On Tuesday, Smith broke ranks again. While he didn't address his colleagues, he did respond directly to Trump's tweets describing how it "could be one of the biggest political scandals in history." Smith went point by point through the president's claims, disproving every one.

This is the kind of non-nonsense directness he usually reserves for eclipses.