Fox News: Kicking ‘em when they’re down
Steve Safran October 20th, 2006
Totally editorial here. I have to say, I have kind of enjoyed Fox News’s good-natured taunts at CNN. They’re kind of funny and clever some times, and it’s usually a fair fight. But there is absolutely no place for Shep Smith’s gloating over the troubles at 30 Rock. Pride goes before a fall, Shep. Here’s what he said about the NBC changes:
SHEP: Man alive, the craziness happening across the river! What in the world is going on at NBC? We’re expanding here, you may have noticed. Expansion here. But NBC says it plans to slash about 700 jobs, or 5% of its workforce. That includes cuts in the news division. So if you’re a terrific producer, or a great writer, and think you understand fair and balanced, would like to work over here where we’re expanding, send me an email…. The move follows three years of falling profits and problems at that MSNBC; they’re struggling over there. They will move some of their operations to NBC headquarters in New York’s Rockefeller Center, also another NBC facility in Northern New Jersey. Our friends over there, we wish them very much well.
Smug, sarcastic, insincere and smacking of the schoolyard bully. Viewers look at our business as a whole. This kind of gloating continues to tar everyone. We can’t very well take politicians to task for “hurting America” if we’re doing the same. Knock it off. (Transcript via Inside Cable News)
18 Comments Add your own
1. invitedmedia | October 20th, 2006 at 7:33 am
never cared much for shep.
curly was always my favorite.
2. Cory | October 20th, 2006 at 9:08 am
Well said.
3. Anonymous | October 20th, 2006 at 9:27 am
Happily, your readers here can always balance your critical rebuke of Shep’s mean-spirited and gloating comments with the fawning, man-crush posts on Shep which may be found on another news industry blog…
4. Zakk | October 20th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Like MSNBC wouldn’t have a ticker parade if FOX were having problems. Come on, you know the kids at CNN would have round the clock coverage if there were problems at FOX. Does anyone remember the O’Reily incident from a few years back. Round The Clock.
5. Eddie Daroza | October 20th, 2006 at 10:12 am
I disagree with you on this one Steve. Generally you are spot on, but c’mon, Shep is a goofball. He’s joking.
6. Anonymous | October 20th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Eddie is right, Shep was making a joke, a snappy, winking 10 sentence joke. Or perhaps it was a skit.
Safran just has no sense of humor.
7. gerry | October 20th, 2006 at 10:30 am
Zakk/Eddie/Anonymous…we’re talking about real people losing their jobs “over there”….a tad different situation than O’Reilly’s phone sex..any one of you three ever been laid off?
Regarding no sense of humor…Safran did mention that he usually enjoys the tit-for-tat between Fox and CNN..
Shep scored for his hard work on Katrina and the Israel-Hezbollah war…he fouled out on this one..
8. Anonymous | October 20th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Gerry, for the record, I don’t think Shep was joking. And I don’t think FOX PR is ever joking when they issue mean spirited, venal attacks on competitors like CNN. It is their culture.
And, I am sure Safran has a sense of humor. After all, have you seen his haircut?
9. Safran | October 20th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I do generally have the worst-behaved hair in television. But I like to think that the six years of writing here have proven I have a sense of humor. (After all, Nancy Grace is my favorite cartoon show.) But Gerry hit this one: his competitors are going to have to terminate the work of 700 employees. I’m hard pressed to find the humor.
If it helps, I’ll laugh heartily the day Shep gets the axe for a dip in his ratings. Ask not for whom the bell tolls…
10. Eddie Daroza | October 20th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Steve, I KNOW you have sense of humor. That’s part of the reason I come back to your site everyday. Getting laid off sucks horribly. I work freelance in reality televison and sports programming. I get laid off every three months or so. The fact is, whether it’s music, news or movies, creating content is not a secure job. But yeah, I agree, making fun of a job loss probably is in poor taste. Still, I think Shep is a decent guy.
11. Bob Jones | October 20th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Firstly, Fox News expanding is relevant to the story - without it people might believe the full cable news industry is falling - Fox News is hiring more and earning more, MSNBC is clearly not - full disclosure people.
As for the quip about coming to get a job at Fox, just a silly joke.
12. Maxx | October 20th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
I watch Shep every day and other than his never ending Yankee fanboyism he is a good guy. Perhaps he didnt think about the people getting laid off but he was just playing. The other networks pound on Fox every chance they get and are not half as playfull about it as Shep was.
13. Vinny | October 20th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Who the hell does think of the victims in their stories? I mean, can you honestly say the local news vultures swarming around a crime scene and shoving mics in the face of mourning family members are considering the gravity of the situation?
Of course not.
The truth is the media as a whole (Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and every local affiliate) is out to entertain, not inform. Once you stop the idealism and start the realism, you start realizing that, when viewed on equal footing, they’re all the same.
Hell, CNN is gonna air a special that features the murder of a US Soldier. Is that respectful also?
Enough of the high-mindedness folks. It’s all a circus.
14. Hairy | October 20th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Look at the head of fnc, Roger Ailes, a republican political strategist. He runs FNC just like that, a political party.
15. El Dangeroso | October 20th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
I’ve worked for a Fox affiliate and an NBC affiliate. The entire Fox organization is a joke. I’m loving my gig at NBC, provided I get to keep it.
Has anyone mentioned Jeff Zucker made this announcement to the company while wearing a black suit and brown shoes? That’s the kind of decision-maker I want wielding the axe.
16. bethT | October 23rd, 2006 at 9:27 am
I don’t know how much of Shep’s joke was a joke. I can tell you fitrst hand, because it happened to me, that when Roger Ailes left his post at NBC (America’s Talking) to start the FNC, he told us that when we got sick of AT (then becoming MSNBC) we had a job at Fox. Especially because he was so extraordinarly competitive and vitriolic.
17. mew | October 23rd, 2006 at 2:06 pm
How silly. NBC has been around since the late 1940’s. Fox is a teenager. That Shep Smith “Bitch-Slapped” NBC was appropriate. The legacy networks deserve to be shaken. They are the past. Fox (like em or not) is the future in Cable TV news.
(From a 26 year veteran of NBC News)
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