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Gawker's Shep Smith report is full of holes

A Gawker report alleging that Fox News chief Roger Ailes prohibited host Shep Smith from coming out as gay contains multiple factual inaccuracies, according to Fox News sources.

The report, which Fox News calls "a complete fabrication," states that Ailes told Smith he was not allowed to come out because Fox News viewers would not tolerate a gay news anchor. The report states that the exchange took place during Smith's contract negotiations, and that these negotiations took place after a July party at which executive vice president Bill Shine "flipped out" when Smith showed up with his boyfriend.

POLITICO has learned that Shine was not in attendance at the party cited in Gawker's report, but rather in Charleston, South Carolina, with his family. Moreover, the party in question took place on July 4, after Smith renewed his contract with the network in June -- which means the contract negotiations were over by the time Gawker's alleged exchange would have taken place. Though as a Fox News spokesperson told POLITICO, “No such meeting ever took place in regard to Shep, nor would it ever.”

Max Read, Gawker's editor-in-chief, said Wednesday afternoon that the story had been updated to note that Shine was not at the party. "Otherwise we stand by our reporting," he said.

In the original report, Gawker's J.K. Trotter wrote, "A few weeks before approaching Ailes about coming out, Smith surprised Fox staffers by bringing his boyfriend, a 26-year-old Fox producer named Gio Graziano, to a company picnic at Ailes’s compound in Garrison, New York. ... According to multiple sources with knowledge of the picnic... Shine 'flipped out,' one source said, when Smith introduced Graziano to attendees."

Several Fox News sources told POLITICO that Shine was in Charleston on July 4 and did not attend the party, a fact that was confimed by a network spokesperson, who said, “Bill Shine wasn't even at the Ailes July 4th party -- he was in Charleston, South Carolina on vacation with his family."

It was after this party, according to Trotter's report, that "Shine called a meeting among high-level executives to discuss a plan of action regarding Smith."

"With Ailes’ approval, Shine quickly choreographed Smith’s move from Fox’s 7 p.m. block, where he anchored The Fox Report, to the 3 p.m. block, where he currently runs Shepard Smith Reporting," Trotter reports. "Anticipating Smith’s desire to come out, Shine also coached Ailes on what to say when Smith finally approached him."

By July, however, Smith had already renewed his contract with Fox News. He had re-upped on June 7 with the expanded role of managing editor. Sources also told POLITICO that Ailes and Smith began discussing the aforementioned programming changes in the Spring of 2013. As previously reported, Ailes and Smith had dinner together -- at the Four Seasons -- in April, at which point Ailes told Smith he wanted to make Smith the face of a new breaking-news division. Smith would leave primetime to do more work in the field, but would continue to host at 3 p.m.

It's also worth noting that Shine oversees primetime and opinion, not news, and thus does not deal with Smith directly. News programming is overseen by executive vice president Michael Clemente while Smith's program is managed by senior vice president Jay Wallace.

Trotter also reports that Shine "carries a reputation for insensitivity toward gay people," and cited one source who calls him a "major, major homophobe." Sources at Fox News pointed out that Shine's apparent homophobia was not on display when he attended the wedding of Fox News analyst Ellen Ratner and Cholene Espinoza in 2004.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Ailes and Smith called Trotter's report "100% false and a complete fabrication. As colleagues and close friends at Fox News for 18 years, our relationship has always been rooted in a mutual respect, deep admiration, loyalty, trust, and full support both professionally and personally."

In a separate statement, Shine said, "Over the past 18 years, we’ve had the privilege of working with Shepard Smith throughout his incredible rise from a field reporter to chief news anchor and his recent promotion to managing editor. Throughout his entire career here, Roger Ailes and I have fully supported him in both a professional and personal capacity. We have never asked Shep to discuss or not discuss his private life, and the notion of us having an issue with anyone’s sexuality is not only insulting, but pure fiction. We renewed his contract in June 2013 based on this full support as well as his exemplary journalism. He’s the gold standard of this profession and we’re extremely proud to call him the face of our news division.”