David Shepard Smith Jr. (born January 14, 1964) is an American broadcast journalist. He served as chief general news anchor and host of ''

The News with Shepard Smith ''The News with Shepard Smith'' was an American news television program hosted by Shepard Smith that aired on CNBC. The program, which premiered on September 30, 2020, was a general interest news show that aired at 7 PM ET. The show was the fi ...

'' on

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

, a daily evening newscast launched in late September 2020; but his program was cancelled in November 2022. Smith is best known for his 23-year career at

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

, which he joined at its 1996 inception and where he served as chief anchor and

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edito ...

of the breaking news division. Smith hosted several programs in his tenure at Fox News, including

Fox Report The ''Fox Report'' is an American evening news broadcasting, television news program on Fox News, which debuted on September 13, 1999 as a seven-night-a-week broadcast with Shepard Smith as main anchor of the program until it was relegated to week ...

, '' Studio B'' and ''

Shepard Smith Reporting ''Bill Hemmer Reports'' was an American television news/opinion/ talk program on Fox News Channel hosted by Bill Hemmer. Episodes aired at 3 p.m. ET on Monday through Friday. The show focused on the day's events with interviews, current event up ...

.''

Early life and education

Smith was born in

Holly Springs, Mississippi Holly Springs is a city in, and the county seat of, Marshall County, Mississippi, United States, near the southern border of Tennessee. Near the Mississippi Delta, the area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations and was dep ...

, the son of Dora Ellen Anderson, an English teacher, and David Shepard Smith Sr., a cotton merchant. He attended Marshall Academy in Holly Springs. After high school, his parents separated and he moved to Florida with his mother. He studied journalism at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

, where he left two credits shy of a degree to take a reporter job in

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn Ha ...

. Smith delivered the university's 155th

commencement address A commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions and in similar institutions around the world. The commencement ...

on May 10, 2008.

Career

Local television

Smith began his career in television with

WCJB-TV WCJB-TV (channel 20) is a television station in Gainesville, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Northwest 43rd Street in Gainesville, and its transmitter is loc ...

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

, and then with

WJHG-TV WJHG-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Panama City, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power dual CBS/MyNetworkTV affiliate WECP-LD (channel 21). Both stations share ...

Panama City Beach, Florida Panama City Beach is a resort town in Bay County, Florida, Bay County, Florida, United States, on the Gulf of Mexico coast. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had a population of 12,018. The city is often referred to under the u ...

. After reporting jobs at

WBBH-TV WBBH-TV (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is the flagship television property of locally-based Waterman Broadcasting, which provides certa ...

Fort Myers Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

WSVN WSVN (channel 7) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is the flagship station of locally based Sunbeam Television. WSVN's studios are located on 79th Street Causeway ( SR 934) in North ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

and WCPX-TV (now

WKMG-TV WKMG-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Graham Media Group. The station's studios are located on John Young Parkway ( SR 423) in Orlando, and its transmitter is located i ...

) in

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

, Smith became a correspondent for ''

A Current Affair ''A Current Affair'' may refer to: * ''A Current Affair'' (Australian TV program), 1971–present Australian current affairs program that airs on Nine Network * ''A Current Affair'' (American TV program), a 1986–1998 American television news ...

''.

Fox News

After working as a correspondent for Fox affiliate service News Edge, Smith joined Fox News Channel at its inception in 1996. At Fox News, Smith reported on the

death of Princess Diana In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died from injuries sustained earlier that day in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, Diana's partner, and Henri Paul, their chauffeur, were found d ...

in 1997, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

's 1998 impeachment trial, the 1999

Columbine High School massacre On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, 12th grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. ...

, the 2001 execution of Oklahoma City bomber

Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third o ...

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

in 2005 and the

death of Michael Jackson On June 25, 2009, American singer Michael Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication at his home on North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. His physician, Conrad Murray, said that ...

in 2009. In 2003, ''The Fox Report with Shepard Smith'' was ranked third among the top five U.S. cable news programs, and Smith tied for second with

Dan Rather Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurr ...

and

Peter Jennings Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings (July 29, 1938August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-born American television journalist who served as the sole anchor of ''ABC World News Tonight'' from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. He dropped o ...

as the most-trusted news anchor on both network and cable news. On November 19, 2007, Smith signed a three-year contract for $7–$8 million per year. He renewed his contract with Fox on October 26, 2010, for another three years. On September 12, 2013, he became

of Fox News

breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...

division and the host of ''Shepard Smith Reporting''. In September 2012 while covering live helicopter footage of an

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

police chase of a man after a carjacking, the man shot himself live while Smith was narrating. After a commercial break Smith apologized and told the audience that it was "due to human error". Fox would later be sued for the incident by the man's wife after her children saw the video. In November 2017, Smith infuriated some Fox News viewers when he countered the Uranium One conspiracy theory, which claims that the Obama administration intervened corruptly in a deal allowing a Russian company to buy

Uranium One Uranium One is an international group of companies, part of the management circuit of the TENEX Group of Rosatom State Corporation. Since 2013, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Moscow-based Uranium One Group, a part of the Russian state-owned nu ...

, a Canadian company with uranium mining interests in the US in exchange for donations to the

Clinton Foundation The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...

. Smith's reporting put him at odds with colleague and Fox News prime time host

Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a commentar ...

, who had supported the claim against Hillary Clinton. On March 15, 2018, Fox News signed Smith to a multi-year contract. On October 11, 2019, he announced on ''Shepard Smith Reporting'' that he was leaving the network. In a 2021 interview with

Christiane Amanpour Christiane Maria Heideh AmanpourStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', 22 January 2019 (; fa, کریستیان امان‌پور, Kristiane Amānpur; born 12 January 1958) is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief ...

on her eponymous show on

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

, he stated that his presence on Fox had become "untenable" due to the "falsehoods" and "lies" intentionally spread on the network's opinion shows.

CNBC

On July 8, 2020, the business and economic news network CNBC announced Smith would join the network as chief general news anchor and chief general breaking news anchor. Smith served as the host of ''

'', a primetime general news program that airs weekdays at 7:00 p.m. ET and launched on September 30, 2020. According to a CNBC press release, the program " imsto go beyond financial markets, 'to tell rich, deeply reported stories across the entire landscape of global news.'" CNBC had previously aired a similarly named program in the same time slot, hosted by

Brian Williams Brian Douglas Williams (born May 5, 1959) is an American retired journalist and television news anchor. He was a reporter for ''NBC Nightly News'' starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in 2004. ...

and later

John Seigenthaler John Lawrence Seigenthaler ( ; July 27, 1927 – July 11, 2014) was an American journalist, writer, and political figure. He was known as a prominent defender of First Amendment rights. Seigenthaler joined the Nashville newspaper ''The ...

, from 2002 to 2004. His program was cancelled in November 2022 and he left CNBC that month.

Post-Fox career

In a speech to the International Press Freedom Awards on November 21, 2019, Smith warned of

authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...

governments that make it dangerous and difficult for journalists to do their jobs, saying

autocrats Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...

have learned to use online tools and

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

to shore up their power. At the event, Smith gave $500,000 to the host organization, the

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...

Appearances in film

Smith appeared as himself in the 1997 film ''

Volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

''. Video of Smith anchoring on Fox News during the opening moments of the March 2003

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

was used in the film ''

Fahrenheit 9/11 ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' is a 2004 American documentary film directed, written by, and starring filmmaker, director, political commentator and activist Michael Moore. The film takes a liberal, critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the w ...

''. Additionally, archive footage of Smith anchoring ''Shepard Smith Reporting'' covering the 2016 US presidential election was used in the 2019 docudrama ''Bombshell''.

Personal life

Smith married Virginia Donald, a University of Mississippi classmate, in 1987. They divorced in 1993 with no children. In 2017, Smith publicly announced he is gay and has a long-time boyfriend.

References

External links

Shepard Smith's Bio on FoxNews.com
(archived October 3, 2019)
''Shepard Smith Reporting'' on FoxNews.com
(archived October 11, 2019) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Shepard 1964 births 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 21st-century American journalists American television news anchors American television reporters and correspondents Fox News people American social commentators Gay men Journalists from Mississippi LGBT people from Mississippi LGBT broadcasters from the United States LGBT journalists from the United States Living people People from Holly Springs, Mississippi University of Mississippi alumni Managing editors