Shep Smith: News Reports for Ultra-Short Attentions

NYTIMES ^ | 03/28/04 | WARREN ST. JOHN

[martin_fierro]

Er...what were we talking about?

[martin_fierro]

The New York Times: The newspaper for inveterate liar Metrosexuals.

[Pikamax]

http://www.cablenewser.com/archive/2004_03_01_archive.htm#108033891465575211

Less Than Half a Million Viewers For Cooper & Zahn
Is the loss of two senior CNN producers having an impact? It's been a busy news week, but last night Anderson Cooper managed only a 0.4 (349,000 households/430,000 viewers) and Paula Zahn scored only a 0.5 (448,000 households/515,000 viewers), a source tells CableNewser Those numbers are down from last month's averages. (By contrast, Shep had 1.3, and O'Reilly had 2.2.) "Olbermann beat Paula Zahn last night," an anonymous e-mailer adds. "It's becoming a fairly frequent event." 5:07:10 PM

[End Times Sentinel]

I love Shep, and obviously don't have the patience to read this entire article.

Owl_Eagle

”Unleash the Hogs of Peace.”
P.J. O'Rourke Parliament of Whores

[A. Morgan]

What is this? News-speak?

[arasina]

What is it with all the "Mr." Smiths? Trying to take away the younger audience by painting Shep as unhip?

[mrsmith]

Entertainment Tonight had a segment on Shep too.
He's an up and coming ball of fire.

[mountaineer]

Mr. Smith goes head to head at 7 p.m. with the CNN host Anderson Cooper, the shy-seeming, salt-and-pepper-haired son of Gloria Vanderbilt, who has become something of a news media darling in New York recently, and trounces him. Mr. Smith's "Fox Report" regularly pulls in around 1.5 million viewers, three times as many as Mr. Cooper — who does interviews and speaks in full sentences, complete with verbs.

I'd guess Mr. Cooper's status as media darling has something to do with widespread rumors of his non-hetero lifestyle.

[TexasCajun]

I didn't care too much for Shep at first, but I changed my mind about him after he ran over that 'Rat in his car while on assignment in Florida covering the re-re-recounts.

[BenLurkin]

He's 40 years old.

Dude, that's ancient!

[martin_fierro]

Occasionally, the high-speed train of "Fox Report" actually hops the tracks.

Yup, accidentally. As opposed to intentionally.

[mwyounce]

So you need it Shepified!

5:30 p.m. Monday, Shepard Smith, "Fox Report," host hunching over his computer in Midtown headquarters, poring the script for his evening broadcast, searching for verbs. Mr. Smith not liking verbs. Whenever he finds one, crinkling his brow in disgust like a man discovering a dribble of food on his tie. Tapping furiously at his keyboard, moving the cursor to the offending word and deleting it, or else adding "ing," turning the verb into a participle and his script into the strange shorthand passing for English these days on cable news

Better? :-)

[syriacus]

FoxNews, Smith included, is smart enough to realize that the people it attracts are busy doing things at the same time they are listening to FoxNews programs. The "Punch and Pithiness" of the programming is very attractive to folks who are not holding still.

My guess is that people who listen to CNN are more sedentary and sit in front of the TV the whole time.

If I want to be sedentary, I watch C-Span.

[Seruzawa]

Mr. Smith, let it be known, does not like verbs. What wrong that? Good idea. Less time. I store now. Smokes, beer.

[angkor]

The NYT starts out with a knife and ends up doing a fairly complimentary piece. Interesting.

The first time Shep appeared on the screen, I said "Eh? What this?" and started laughing. What a bizarre news delivery. It takes a few viewings to get used to him, then it all seems right. Also it helps that Shep doesn't take himself too seriously (I'd guess his tongue-twisters get him at least once every other show, not just "sometimes", and he usually pokes fun at himself when it happens).

That Anderson Cooper fellow is an extreme turnoff. Once he did a hairraising editorial piece, saying - and I am not kidding - that "we're all Marilyn Monroe" (or was it Jackie Onassis?), and hammering on that bizarre theme for the entire editorial. Extremely, very creepy.

[Ken H]

In true Shep fashion, one night he signed off with, "All your base belong to us", leaving out "are".

Don't ever change, Shep!

[mrsmith]

"Mr. Smith, let it be known, does not like verbs."

Hey Shep, here's some silliness off the net I always get a kick out of:
"First they came for the verbs and I said nothing, for verbing weirds language.
Then they arrival for the nouns and I speech nothing, for I no verbs. -Peter Ellis"

[RoseofTexas]

"Entertainment Tonight had a segment on Shep too.
He's an up and coming ball of fire."

You are absolutely RIGHT! I never really cared for shep, but my 20 year old college son, who by the way KINDA leans left, says a lot of college kids DIG shep! I didn't know Smith was that popular with the younger generation! THERE'S still hope!

[spetznaz]

Anderson Cooper, the shy-seeming, salt-and-pepper-haired son of Gloria Vanderbilt

THE Vanderbilt?