Shepard Smith: Fox News opinion hosts ‘don’t really have rules’

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith says opinion programming on his network doesn’t “really have rules” and exists “strictly to be entertaining,” in an interview published Thursday.

“Some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining,” Smith told Time Magazine‘s Daniel D’Addario in a piece titled, “Shep Smith Has the Hardest Job on Fox News.”

“We serve different masters,” Smith, 54, added when discussing the difference between the opinion side of Fox News, including shows such as “The Sean Hannity Show,” and the network’s news division. “We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion.”

The interview comes as the network announced today it is re-signing the veteran anchor to a multiyear contract as Fox’s chief news anchor and managing editor of breaking news. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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“I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming,” Smith continued. “I’m busy.”

In another part of the interview, he responded to critics who charge he’s injecting too many of his own political opinions into what is supposed to be a straight news program.

“I guess, I know, that there are people who come at everything in a political way. I don’t. I’ve never really liked politics,” Smith explained. “I’ve always said that I thought politics in America was weird and creepy, and lacked a connection to reality.”

Smith joined Fox News in 1996 upon the launch of the network.