“I think basically Shep is the only one who has any real connection with traditional journalism over there,” says Fox News critic Eric Boehlert, an analyst for the liberal media monitoring organization, Media Matters. “He still thinks about fairness and accuracy… He sticks out like a sore thumb.”…

“Shep Smith has made news more than once by contradicting the party line,” says independent media critic Andrew Tyndall, who runs the respected online newscast analysis The Tyndall Report. “Fox News is very into message discipline, which became famous with the release of their internal talking points from [senior vice president and Ailes lieutenant] Bill Shine… Actually Shep is an advantage for Ailes, in the same way as the Fox News White House correspondent, Major Garrett. When people criticize Fox, Ailes can point to Shep as someone who is fair and balanced. The critics might be right 85 percent of the time, but Shep is the other 15 percent.”