Longtime Fox News anchor Shep Smith is leaving the conservative cable news channel immediately. As chief news anchor and managing editor, Smith on Friday hosted his final show.
“This afternoon’s edition of ‘Shepard Smith Reporting’ was Mr. Smith’s final show,” Fox News Media president Jay Wallace said in a statement.
Smith says he asked the network to allow him “to leave FOX News and begin a new chapter.”
Two days ago Attorney General Bill Barr held a secret meeting with Fox News parent corporation founder Rupert Murdoch.
One day ago President Trump personally attacked Smith by name, and Fox News on Twitter:
Smith has grown increasingly critical of the Trump administration, and received condemnation from the right recently when he reported just one week ago Trump “may have broken federal law.”
On Thursday, October 3, Smith reported: “The president asked Ukraine and China to investigate his political rival on television for all the world to hear. Fox News knows of no federal investigation of his rival for any violations of any American law. If it is determined that the president made that request to help his campaign for reelection, President Trump may have violated federal law. It is illegal to ask a foreign national or foreign country for any political assistance. To our knowledge, no president before President Trump in American history has publicly asked an adversary in to investigate a rival.”
This report has been updated to include President Trump’s attack on Smith.
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