Fox News chief news anchor Shepard Smith announced Friday afternoon he was taking a “previously-planned one-week vacation” and joked that when he returns “everything will be peachy-keen & hunky-dory.”
The announcement comes just hours after fellow Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham slammed Smith as “clueless” about what the opinion side of the network does and for making “inconsiderate and inaccurate” statements about prime-time Fox programs.
Smith had previously said the opinion hosts on his network “don’t have rules” and are just meant for entertainment.
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Smith’s announcement came during his 3 p.m. program, “Shepard Smith Reporting,” during a lighthearted end to an interview with “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace.
“No shooting inside the tent. Everything is wonderful,” Smith laughed as the interview with Wallace ended. “Going to take a one-week vacation that was previously planned, and be back in a week, and everything will be peachy-keen & hunky-dory. I can’t wait.”
“That’s what they always say: Previously planned and one-week vacation,” an amused Wallace replied.
“I have the airline tickets. It’s been booked for awhile. Tell everyone down there [in Washington, D.C.,] hello for me, OK?”
Like Smith, Hannity works out of New York, while Ingraham’s show is out of Fox News’s D.C. bureau.
The controversy began Thursday after an interview Smith did with Time magazine was published that included comments that Fox’s prime-time opinion shows, like Hannity’s and Ingraham’s, are meant “strictly to be entertaining” and that the hosts “don’t really have rules.”
Ingraham called out Smith for being “inconsiderate and inaccurate” on Friday.
“Always liked Shep, but his comments were inconsiderate & inaccurate. The hard working team at the Ingraham Angle does real reporting, develops impt sources and scores big interviews. Very proud of them,” Ingraham wrote to her 2.13 million followers.
Her comments came less than an hour after Hannity said Smith was “clueless” in terms of what the opinion side of the network does.
“While Shep is a friend with political views I do not share, and great at breaking news, he is clueless about what we do every day,” Hannity responded Friday, defending his show as one that “breaks news daily.”
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