Fox News, Shepard Smith sign multiyear contract

Fox News chief news anchor Shepard Smith and his employer share an odd relationship.

The broadcaster is an openly gay man at a network that espouses Christian conservative values. He reports the news — quite well, by most accounts — instead of shouting hysterical rhetoric to the choir as per his colleague Sean Hannity. He has a history of angering viewers when he dismantles pet conspiracy theories, and he openly criticizes the network. During a speech last year he called Fox “the craziest conservative network on Earth” and “the freaky place where I’m working right now.”

Nonetheless, Fox News re-signed Smith to a new multiyear contract, the network said on Thursday. It did not specify how many years.

“Shepard Smith is an exemplary journalist whose skill in anchoring breaking news is unrivaled. His powerful storytelling on both television and digital platforms has elevated our entire news gathering process,” Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch said in a news release announcing the deal.

Smith, 54, grew up in the small town of Holly Springs, Miss., and studied journalism at the University of Mississippi’s Meek School of Journalism and New Media, where he was quickly pegged as a rising star.

The late Jim Pratt, who taught broadcast journalism at Ole Miss, “immediately identified Shep as this young guy who would have a great future,” Meek School Dean Will Norton Jr. told the Clarion-Ledger.

But Smith never graduated. He left for an internship in Florida during his junior year and decided to stay there and not return to school, according to the newspaper.

When Norton found out, he said, “my immediate response was, ‘Well, he’ll never amount to anything.'”

He’s been with the network since it was founded in 1996 — and he staunchly defends its news coverage.

“I am incredibly proud to be part of a group of journalists who helped build the FOX news division from scratch 22 years ago and extremely thankful for the opportunity to continue to lead our breaking news coverage for years to come,” he said in a news release. “Our team’s commitment to delivering facts to our loyal viewers in context and with perspective, without fear or favor, is unwavering.”