This is very strange. Smith threw to correspondent Shannon Bream, who conducted a live interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie in New Jersey. She asked Christie some fairly innocuous questions, and when she tossed back to Smith, he asked, "When will you be interviewing Jon Corzine?"—the governor of New Jersey and Christie's Democratic opponent. Grimacing, Bream replied, "We have multiple requests, and when it comes through, we'll let you know."

Then Smith went off the reservation: "Wow. I didn't know that was about to happen. My apologies for the lack of balance there. If I had had control, it wouldn't have happened."

We're not really sure what Smith is so exercised about. It's certainly not unheard of for news organizations to interview one political candidate without immediately turning to his opponent for a response, so for him to decide at that moment that an interview with Christie was unbalanced enough to merit an apology—as opposed to, say, everything that's ever been on Fox News, ever—is very strange.

Before throwing to Bream, Smith actually did get a little unbalanced himself, remarking off the cuff that it looked like, according to polls, Corzine is going to win. He may have been apologizing for that remark, although that doesn't explain how things would be different if he had "had control." The funny thing is, while Smith was offering his analysis of polls showing Christie dead in the water, this is what his graphic said: "NJ GOV CANDIDATES LOCKED IN DEAD HEAT."

We're starting to suspect that Smith has been given the go ahead to become the in-house leftie at Fox News, and that his ever-more-frequent outbursts are encouraged by Roger Ailes to provide cover to the whole organization, not to mention generate the sort of drama that gets written about on blogs.

Here's a classic little detail from one of those profiles that basically tells you lots of things you already knew, like "Shep Smith is from the South and right-wing bloggers don't like him," but throws in a couple fun new anecdotes to keep you reading them:

Smith does spout strong opinions throughout the day, but they tend to be directed at LSU - the rival of his alma mater, Ole Miss - or at the Red Sox, eternal foes of his beloved New York Yankees. Trash talk comes with the territory; in the main newsroom at Fox News's Sixth Avenue headquarters, a fan on his desk bears the brand name "Boston," and underneath it, Smith has scrawled the word "Sucks."

Hah. This is from a profile in The Boston Globe, too.

In the event you're somehow unaware of why the word "falafel" is an unholy profanity at Fox News, it dates back to the Andrea Mackris' sexual harassment suit against Bill O'Reilly in 2004, the one he settled out of court for what was rumored to be millions of dollars. Included in the court documents was the transcript of a phone call between O'Reilly and Mackris where he confused "falafel" for "loofah" in the course of sharing his shower fantasy with her.

So anyway I'd be rubbing your big boobs and getting your nipples really hard, kinda' kissing your neck from behind...and then I would take the other hand with the falafel thing and I'd just put it on your p***y but you'd have to do it really light, just kind of a tease business...

Then again, Shep's shown quite a rebellious streak of late, so maybe all of this was planned.

Shep was doing a segment on Wal-Mart with Major Garrett reporting from the White House when things went haywire. For a moment it looked as though he might explode into a Bill O'Reilly-esque "We'll do it live!" moment, but he maintained his composure (sort of) and just sat there looking exacerbated and making mean faces at people off camera before finally noting that the whole show was "coming off the rails."

So, today, we went live to the Dallas area, for exciting off-ramp jumping and an eventual horrific affident. And here is a full ten minutes of kick-ass car chase coverage by Shep Smith.

Shep's insistence on being entertaining, even when taking umbrage, make him perfect for Fox. It's only his equally strong insistence on, you know, reporting actual facts and not allowing bullshit to go unremarked on that makes people think he is a secret liberal infiltrator. Who knows (or cares!) what his personal He is a newsman!

But Fox viewers—specifically the subset of Fox viewers who spew torrents of death threats and hate mail to anyone Bill O'Reilly calls names—do not like Shep, because he calls them crazy. They are crazy, of course, but they don't want to hear this from a guy on the only network that truly understands what it is to be crazy. What a weird sensation it must be, to have your craziness coddled and encouraged by Glenn Beck and then to be told you are an unbalanced lunatic by this Shep character on the same channel.

So the Times asked Shep to explain this weird contradiction. And he is polite. Because he is southern!

He said he was trying to counter "an ideological base" that argues: "The president is illegitimate. The country is off the rails. It's been hijacked."

Some of those points seem consistent with the message delivered nightly by Mr. Beck. Mr. Smith said he had a warm relationship with Mr. Beck. "He's about the nicest guy in the building," he said.

Anyway, yes, he gets this hate mail. But his ratings are good and he gets very nice press from people like us so his job is in no danger, even though the wingnuts are all pissed at him. Because Fox is primarily about entertainment and secondarily about destroying the discourse, and Shep is very entertaining, as the above clip, from earlier this month, illustrates!

Reporting yesterday after the shooting at the Holocaust Museum, Smith credited the accuracy of a recent Homeland Security warning about violent, right-wing hate groups on the rise. He also mentioned an influx of nutty emails being sent into Fox. For this, he has drawn scorn.

Media Matters points out that a number of anti-Shep diatribes have emerged, not the least of which came from de facto Republican leader Rush Limbaugh.

During his June 11 radio program, Rush Limbaugh said of Smith's remarks: "For liberals to now claim that the atmosphere is somehow more violently anti-Obama is simply preposterous." Limbaugh also said Smith was "whining and moaning and complaining about emails." After stating that he, too, got "vile, sick emails," Limbaugh said, "Shep, you got nothing on anybody out there."

The conservative blog Atlas Shrugs went all the way in calling for Shep's head in a post titled, "Please Shepard Smith Out the Door"

Shepard Smith is scolding us for the 89 year old Nazi Von Brunn — a nut case who served six years in federal prison in the 1980s. Von Brunn had walked into the headquarters of the Federal Reserve System with two guns, a package he said contained dynamite, and a desire to improve the nation's economy, D.C. police said. A certifiable sicko.

How amusing that Shepard feels the need to take this opportunity to scold us for doing the job the Shepardsmithmug media and schmucks like him won't do. He also took the opportunity to vouch for the DHS report on right wing extremism. You know, the one that targeted vets, tea party attendees, Jewish extremists — as the real threats to the country. The 89 year old Nazi Von Brunn served in World War II — are those the new terror threats? WW2 vets? Scary stupidity.

FOX could do so much better than this pompous elitist. If Beck proved anything, it's that if you are halfway talented, your numbers will go through the roof. Beating the competition when you're on FOX is no biggie. The competition of CNN, MSNBC et al drives people to FOX. Leading the leftwing media asshats is not the bar to beat. FOX numbers are the bar. I am sure, for example, if FOX dropped Beck into Greta's spot, he would increase their numbers at 10pm by 30%.

But Shep sucks. And Shep has always sucked, and it's time to get rid of the deadwood.

And World Net Daily, the most widely-read conservative site online, launched a blistering attack, essentially insinuating that Shepard Smith is a closet crazy person capable of snapping just like James von Brunn did:

Smith made numerous references to a Department of Homeland Security report warning of potential violence from "right-wing extremists," and said he's been personally disturbed by an increase in e-mail to him from people "who are way out there on a limb ... out there in a scary place."

He read what he called a representative message that asked, "How dare you tell us to get over the birth certificate ... ?"

Ironically, Smith himself allegedly engaged in activity some might deem questionable.

As WND previously reported, during the presidential election fiasco in November 2000, Smith was arrested at the Florida Capitol for allegedly driving his Mazda Millenia into another reporter who was standing in a parking space she attempted to save for a friend. The victim, freelance journalist Maureen Walsh of Tallahassee, was hospitalized and released later the same day with bruises on her knees and legs.

The St. Petersburg Times reported Capitol Police Sgt. Edwin Maxwell said Smith drove up and "shouted some profanities at her and basically just struck her, striking her at the knees, which threw her up on the car."

According to NewsBlues, a witness to the incident said Smith "intentionally ran into her with his car to try and get her to move from the parking spot. She was thrown onto the hood of the car and ended up on the ground. Smith then parked the car, turned off the engine, turned to the crews assisting the reporter and said "f—- you" and walked into the state capital. Police and paramedics were called."

"When arrested on the street outside the capital, Smith said he couldn't understand why this was happening ... they then handcuffed him."

Meanwhile, Smith talked by phone to an ex-wife of James von Brunn on his show today, who said that his hatred for Jews and blacks began "in New York, when he worked there at an advertising agency." Very fitting.

Broderick is just a lowly news writer at the news network, but his dangerous alleged antics last week hardly constitute the first time that a Fox Newser has exhibited difficulty keeping the lid of civility on his barely restrained rage. From Shepard Smith's eerily similar tale of ramming a pedestrian with his car to Bill O'Reilly's legendary outbursts to Geraldo Rivera's pugilistic streak, a common thread runs through the network's mostly white staff. Maybe it's due to the stress of working for Roger Ailes, a maniacal militarist who demands total loyalty and perfection. Maybe it's because Fox News' aggrieved, rage-fomenting editorial stance attracts aggrieved, rage-filled people. Maybe it's because Ailes likes to hire entitled jackasses who think its OK to run people over when they are inconvenienced. Whatever it is, bitter and barely hinged people who really liked Michael Douglas' performance in Falling Down are overrepresented at Fox News. Here are some of them.

Bill O'Reilly
What can you say? There's the mic-cutting, there's the time he fucked it and did it live, there's the time he called us "despicable, slimy, and scummy," there was the time he threatened to hit Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and break their fingers off, and—jesus, just watch this.

Glenn Beck
He's angry, and sad, and laughing all at the same time. Which is clinical. Doesn't he remind you of Susan Powter?

Brian Wilson
In 2005, when he was the network's congressional correspondent, the "bizarrely angry" questions Wilson was barking out during a Howard Dean photo op caused the Washington Post's Mark Leibovich to wonder if Wilson—whom he didn't recognize—was a GOP staffer. When Leibovich asked Wilson who he was, the Fox Newser shouted back: "Who the fuck are you?" Then he stalked down a Senate hallway shouting obscenities.

Shepard Smith
Recently, Shep has been the sole voice of reason on Fox. But back in 2000, while covering the Florida recount battle, Smith rammed his car into a fellow reporter who was attempting to reserve a parking spot for her colleague. He "shouted some profanities at her and basically just struck her, striking her at the knees, which threw her up on the car," a Tallahassee cop told the St. Petersburg Times. He was charged with aggravated battery with a motor vehicle; the charges were later dropped.

Geraldo Rivera
He's not white, but he's still angry! He's said he would spit on Michelle Malkin if he saw her, and challenged Ketih Olbermann to a fight, calling him a "pussy" and threatening to "make a pizza out of him" (pizza?).

Russell Rhodes
The morning anchor for Tampa Bay's Fox affiliate doesn't technically work for Fox News, but he does work for Roger Ailes, who runs Fox's stations. So we consider it relevant to the matter at hand that in January, Rhodes was pulled over in a parking garage for driving recklessly. When he got out of the car, his pants were undone, and he tried to run away from the cop three times and refused to hand over the keys, forcing the officer to "take him to the ground." He was arrested for DUI and resisting arrest.

Aaron Bruns
Trafficking in the depraved sexual abuse of children is angry, right? Aaron Bruns, a Fox News producer who was "embedded" with the Hillary Clinton campaign last year, was arrested in February on charges of possession of child pornography. Just about 10 years after he was arrested in Michigan for distributing child pornography.

Well, he basically likened her to a stripper, which is a form of macking. Also he made fun of Glenn Beck, which really comes naturally for him. Now Martha is married, but we have, uh, reason to believe that her husband need not feel threatened by Shep, even though Shep is probably way more awesome than him.

The video is at left. All we'll add is that each of Smith's heated on-air outbursts only makes us want to "Fox on" him, as his quarterback, in a piano bar even more.

Video via marcaeld on YouTube.

Well, as far as we know, only Neil Cavuto of Fox News was even at the Sacramento rally, so they were probably just "playing" to him. (Glenn Beck, meanwhile, is at The Alamo, where his mic is hooked into the rally's PA system, because Fox is of course merely covering these grassroots protests like they'd cover any other protest. Oh, now he's hanging out with Ted Nugent. Soon they will be off the basement, to look for Glenn's bike.)

Shep Smith spent his hour talking about pirates, the economy, and other actual news, but even he had to go live to Neil in Sacramento. He was not interested in the rally so much as he was just delighted to have an excuse to make fun of how Susan Roesgen got yelled at after asking a TEA PARTIER what the hell he was actually protesting.

Glenn is a straight-up nutjob, and it's good to see that Shep recognizes—and in fact celebrates—this fact. We are not sure what Glenn's "We Surround Them, You Are Not Alone" super-special episode is about, today, but it involves a giant satellite dish and a call from Glenn in "the fear chamber."

Oh my god Glenn is completely insane. More here, and an uncomfortable interview with Glenn here. It gets increasingly, more obviously bitchy and wonderful.

*All six of both groups, obv.

I'm gonna go ahead and say friend, if only because his going rogue at Fox and deciding to mostly just report the news objectively (albeit while yelling) is a noble (if pointless) effort to steer the cable news net back toward the gummy middle. Plus he's fiery and angry enough while defending his supposed non-bias that he's still got a streak of the occasionally-fun Fox crazy running through him:

"But we are under intense scrutiny because of our opinion shows. Are there people who want the news done a certain way? You bet there are, and some are in this building. But they don't affect what I do. The inner pressure and outer pressure that everyone thinks exists doesn't. When I hear people say that Fox News is right wing, I know that's not true, because I'm the one doing the news. It's my show, and there's no place for opinion on my show. It's uninteresting to me. I don't care what Sean Hannity thinks and I don't care what Alan Colmes thinks and I guarantee they don't care what I think and they don't know, either. You know what's interesting to me? What's interesting to me is that the thing people want to know about is the part on which I spend absolutely no time."

Because They Hate Shepard Smith and They Want Him to Fail [Esquire]

"This is gross." –Shepard Smith, Television News Anchor. Hah.

Very professional, Shep!

He just keeps going! "Helllooo, Blago, can we talk about the Senate seat?" They're just talking over him now! Him and Major Garret. We have no idea what Blago is saying and we can't tell you the details because now Shepard is talking about college football.

"Where's that journalist from Iraq who threw a shoe at the president? Is he available?" Blago is maybe talking about children with cancer. OMG wait he says he got some cancer kid lifesaving treatment, "IS THAT AN IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE?"

MORE POETRY FROM BLAGO! "Oh, goody," says Shep. He was going to quote a British poet but he's talking about sacrifices for kids or something, or his parents.

Ha ha Tennyson! The end!

"What a waste of 34 minutes." -Shep Smith. God bless him.

Shep tells (unpatriotic) Esquire:

We've come 180 degrees from a life where Barack Obama, in another time, would have been a slave potentially. That's bigger than Barack Obama, and it's bigger than my observations. He won the capital of the Confederacy.

We're not quite sure how to interpret that, honestly, but Shep's from Mississippi and people down there are always talking about the Civil War, so we assume this is meant as a compliment to Obama. Shockingly, he follows it up with THIS:

Oh, I don't talk about God.

You know who else doesn't talk about God? Satan. And whores. We're getting worried about you, Shep.
[More pinko statements from him in Esquire]

Smith's line is that he's just a news reporter standing up for objective truth, and that this doesn't put him at odds with orthodox conservative pundits like Hannity. "I know what I do, I do the news," Smith told O'Reilly.

That's often true! But he's also sometimes a bit of a pundit, albeit in a fun, appropriate and satisfying way. The newsman wasn't above letting some contempt show through, for example, when he scolded Nader for using the term "Uncle Tom" in reference to Obama. A disgruntled musing on Joe the Plumber was opinionated enough to close out an editorial at the Times (Fox's conservative peanut gallery must have loved that).

And as Smith bares his teeth like that more often, and as the right-wing punditocracy continues to implode, as reports surface that his right-wing boss Roger Ailes is on Rupert Murdoch's bad side, viewers are naturally going to wonder if Shep Smith is an harbinger of bigger things to come at Fox News. Or at least of more entertaining things.

(Video up top.)

Profiles of Smith from the Observer and New York magazine have hinted at his sexuality in the past, but they've both been reluctant to come right out and say he's gay. But the anchor's new profile on Cityfile sums it up thusly:

Smith has repeatedly dodged the question of his sexuality, but in 2005 he was outed in a column in the Washington Blade. Kevin Naff, the managing editor of the gay weekly, said that Smith "chatted me up in a New York City gay piano bar, bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place." He lives in a two-bedroom West Village loft that he purchased for $1.87 million in 2004. Fashion designer (and fellow gay) Michael Kors lives in the same building.

Fox News has, essentially, a ready-made conservative counterpart for Anderson Cooper just waiting to be promoted correctly. Having Smith as the face of the network could go a long way towards imbuing it with a slightly more open image—a hint of progressivism, with all the staid respectability that the middle American audience expects in its newsmen. And once Obama is elected and the backlash against the Bush years begins in earnest, Fox News will need someone less harsh than Bill O'Reilly to make peace with the national mood.

It is, in all seriousness, a fine idea. Fox News should give it some consideration.

[Huffpo, CityFile, Previously]