When asked by The Washington Post how the network’s prime-time hosts can so glaringly flout the journalistic rigor of their “hard-news” colleagues, a Fox spokesperson offered this jaw-dropping excuse: “We support both of our talent. Shep is an outstanding journalist, and Sean is an outstanding opinion commentator.”

Despite Fox’s glossy spin on that disparity, Smith’s tendency to defiantly fact-check or buck his own network’s narrative has drawn the ire of several colleagues.

“He’s so anti-Trump,” Hannity said of Smith, whom he called a friend, in a radio interview with Sebastian Gorka. Shep’s stoic response: “Sometimes facts are displeasing. Journalists report them without fear or favor.”

And days after the deadly Charlottesville white-supremacist rally, Fox News reporter Doug McKelway retweeted one user telling Shep Smith to “keep some comments to yourself.”