He's grown on me. I didn't like him at first. Him or Cooper Anderson. They represent a new type of reporter. Touchy-feely. Walking around in t-shirts and jeans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina feigning empathy with the underclasses. But that's what the public wants. And FNC and CNN really have one goal, right? They're businesses, and like any business, they want to profit. I can respect that. And if you watch these Shepard types they're not so bad, after all. You almost believe they care about people. Who needs objectivity?
Now, as for this clip, don't misrepresent him. He merely asked Catherine Herridge whether any reporting is focusing on the fact that this operation was illegal. He talked about competing narratives. Here, he's playing the newsman's newsman. Like Jim Pinkerton on Fox News Watch, sort of, but he's also talking about what officials are saying. (Incidentally, Herridge took the interview in an interesting direction. She said it was an excellent question, but she hadn't heard anything about that yet, then she segueways into how the terrorists, Muhammed, Patek, Osama, etc., were all hiding in or near major urban centers. In plain sight. So this is troubling. It speaks to the real US-Pakistan relationship. "It undercuts the narrative that Pakistan has been providing strong intelligence." No kidding? You almost want to laugh. It's not exactly news to say that we shouldn't trust the Pakis. No offense, but really, Obama knows all this. And so it gets reported.) But the legality question was perfectly legit. Smith simply wanted to know about whether any officials or news reporters were doing that angle. It was a good interview. Not the touch-feely Shepard Smith you usually get. Here, he was the hard-hitting reporter asking the good questions.
