When Fox News anchor Shepard Smith walked up to the podium to give a speech at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), he never intended to open up quite as much as he did.
At an earlier discussion at the “It Starts with MEek” conference (which promotes diversity), Smith came to the conclusion his prepared speech simply didn’t match up with the overall vibe of the event.
Related: 10 GIFs That Sum Up Our Response To Shepard Smith Coming Out Of His Glass Closet
According to The Clarion-Ledger, Smith decided to improvise and speak from the heart:
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“It wasn’t until seven, or eight, or nine years ago, I started living my truth. I grew up in Holly Springs. I went to the First Methodist Church. I went to Ole Miss. I was also trying to avoid what having a normal social life is. I didn’t need to go home and find my girlfriend or boyfriend. I just cut it off (and said), ‘Where do you want me? Next plane?’”
After dropping out of Ole Miss in ’87, Smith snared his first television job in Florida.
Related: Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith Comes Out, Says Roger Ailes Always Treated Him Fair And Balanced
For the next ten years, his new job kept him on the move. He was married for 6 of those years, and thinks that coming out simply wasn’t a possibility:
“A. You’re going to hell for it. B. You’ll never have any friends again. C. What are you going to tell your family? And by the way, you’re on television on the craziest conservative network on Earth. That will probably put you in front of a brick wall and mow you down. Of course none of that was true, but that’s how it felt.”
Related: WATCH: When Fox News is furious with Trump, you know times are strange
“I don’t think about it,” he says, choosing instead to focus on his career. “It’s not a thing. I go to work. I manage a lot of people. I cover the news. I deal with holy hell around me. I go home to the man I’m in love with.”
Later on, he took questions from students, including: “What’s your best advice for getting a job in New York City?”
“Get a job somewhere else first,” he said. “We operate faster, and we speak different. And if you’re real polite, (they) hate you, because it gets in the way. There’s no time for it.”
Watch:
lester_lasa
About time ya thought you were gay
He BGB
It’s a wonder he wasn’t burned at the stake at Ole Miss or tarred and feathered and run out of town. I guess working at the Republican news network helped.
mhoffman953
“And by the way, you’re on television on the craziest conservative network on Earth…Of course none of that was true, but that’s how it felt.”
Even though FOX News leans right and conservative, they still give those who aren’t as conservative and those who even lean left their own shows and voices as on-air regulars. You put on CNN, MSNBC, or ABC and you don’t see 1 conservative or right leaning voice with their own show or as a major on-air talent. So much for a news room of diverse opinion
kiriakis1
Clearly, you are unfamiliar with the MSNBC that exists in 2017. Please do your research. In this case, research would consist of simply tuning in for less than two hours to those networks you claim do not express conservative viewpoints.
film2212
Really
CNN Alisyn Camerota ,jake tapper ,erin burnett
MSNBC hugh hewitt greta joe scarborough
everyone there except for rachel maddow and joy reid both who have the highest ratings but the shortest timeslots
ABC marta raddatz ,jon karl
fox has two liberals who alternate and share one spot as cohost with 4 other conservatives on the show the FIVE at fox
Donston
I haven’t bothered with cable news since they all started to hype and troll Trump for the sake of ratings in 2015, which is primarily what led to him being the Republican candidate. I haven’t taken any of them seriously for years before that. However, even I know there’s about these Conservative anchors.
The problem with all these news channels is that not the political opinions of the commentators, it’s that the reporting is deeply hurt by pandering, trolling, hyperbolic’s and desperate attempts at ratings.
mhoffman953
@film2212 Are you saying people like Alisyn Camerota, Jake Tapper, Martha Raddatz, and Jon Karl are Republicans?
Ditamo
@mhoffman953 Is it news to you that Alisyn Camerota is a Republican? Or that many of the anchors in CNN lean conservative, especially the female anchors?
Mo Bro
@film2212:
Seems like you just pulled some TV-journo’s names out of a hat and declared them “conservative.” Jake Tapper, Jon Karl, Martha Radditz and Erin Burnette are conservatives? That’s just stupid.
Here are some liberals on Fox to make you feel appropriately uninformed:
Juan Williams, Bob Beckel, Eboni Williams, Alan Colmes (until his recent death), Kirsten Powers, Julie Roginsky, Gillian Turner, Marie Harf . . . and countless elected Democrats and other politicos from the left who pop up daily.
mhoffman953
@Ditamo
“many of the anchors in CNN lean conservative, especially the female anchors”
That would be news to me. I’m looking at their political staff right now: http://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/politics-our-team
According to Gallup polls, the composite of the nation of Republicans and Democrats are roughly tied with the number of Americans who share those ideologies.
Yet looking at the CNN political team, I’m having a hard time finding equal representation of conservatives. It’s like trying to find Waldo
justyouandi
You suggested that Shep called Fox the “craziest conservative network on Earth” without adding that he immediately followed up by saying it wasn’t true. I watch both CNN and Fox and I definitely learn more from Fox.
Deal with it!
Kieran
Gay or straight he’s still a prick.
Donston
Considering he was hired when he was closeted, has spent the majority of his television career closeted, aligns perfectly with Fox’s “agenda”, has made sure to not speak on any lgbt topics on his show and is generally unpleasant to watch- there’s really no reason to care about any of it.
DCguy
So the two right wingers don’t like Smith. And I also love the claim that he never speaks about LGBT issues. That’s funny, since after the Supreme Court decision, FOX’s website had the headline “A War on Marriage” and on Smith’s show he said that the Supreme Court was on the right side of history and FOX Scrambled to pull down and change the site because one of their highest rated folks went that direction.
But please, tell us again about how he’s never spoken about it?
frankcar1965
He always looks like he has pancake make-up on or something.
Bob LaBlah
Lord, I ask you. What ever happened to the days when a person watched the news to be informed about what was going on in their local community and the world while not having to give one damn about the reporters sexual orientation? To this day I don’t understand why Robin Roberts felt obligated to tell the world what we had already suspected (and didn’t give one damn about overall); that she was gay and had a lover.
I watched Outnumbered this morning for all of five minutes and simply couldn’t stomach those women who clearly make any man, gay or strait, feel as though he has entered a brothel featuring a bimbo for whatever fetish he may have. That dress Harris Faulkner wore this morning was so far up her butt it left little for the imagination. And lets not even go into ol’ Dolly Parton-cloned Megan McCain. Fox News didn’t start off that way but once it decided to cater to white trash thats exactly what it itself became, a white trash network. I have ran across a few other gay former Reagan Democrats like myself who feel the same way, locked out of everything we once held sacred. And the news was one of the things we held sacred.
Richard 55
Shepard chooses to work at Fox News. He probably doesn’t mind so long as he gets paid well.
dre23222
He always look like a plastic but case. No one feels sympathy for this ignorant moron.
Stilinski26
If Americans think Fox news is “craziest conservative network on Earth” then they have clearly have never traveled abroad. News flash the world is not USA
jkthsnk
I think coming out means saying the words and I’ve never heard them from this man.
Terrycloth
Am I the only one who thinks he’s already had too much work done on his face ?