By Reid Nakamura, TheWrap.com May 18 2017
Fox News host Shep Smith paid tribute to Roger Ailes in a tearful segment on his show Thursday.
“Roger Ailes died today,” Smith said. “The founder of our network, our former CEO and chairman, husband to Beth, father of Zach, media genius, revolutionary in American politics, shaper of American history, uproariously funny man with now well documented flaws, fell at his home in Florida and did not survive. I loved him.”
Throughout the 12-minute long segment, Smith teared up several times, at one point having to stop to reach for tissues to wipe his tears. He recounted his relationship with Ailes, tracing back from his earliest days at Fox News up until the founders ouster among sexual harassment allegations last year.
A recurring theme throughout the tribute was the Ailes’ “complicated” nature as a leader, friend and human being. Smith recalled receiving support from Ailes to his face, while simultaneously hearing from managers that the former Fox News boss was accusing him of “going rogue” in closed-door meetings.
“It’s all so complicated,” he said. “Everything here was and is… as he was.”
The most personal moment of the segment came when Smith described Ailes and his wife Beth putting on a display of support when Smith first came out as gay.
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Shep, Bret and Chris Wallace remain the standard bearers for actual fair-and-balanced reportage at FOX. Shep’s heartfelt reminiscence about Roger Ailes was compelling. Although other cable networks covered Roger’s passing as breaking news, I was surprised that most talking heads at CNN and MSNBC ignored it completely. To his credit, Chris Matthews devoted a few Hardball minutes to thanking Roger for hiring him years ago and sent sympathies out to his widow Beth.
One can only hope that Brian Stelter spends much of Sunday’s Reliable Sources focusing on Roger’s profound influence (both positive and negative) on cable news and retail politics. No doubt Howie Kurtz will accentuate the positive on FOX’s Buzz.