Shep Smith Is at the Center of a Fox News Civil War and I Love It

Shep Smith, the sometimes reasonable breaking news anchor for Fox News, has ignited a war with his fellow Fox News colleagues by saying what we all know to be true: that the Fox News “opinion” shows like Hannity, Tucker Carlson Tonight and The Ingraham Angle are essentially “entertainment,” rather than, you know, news.

In one section of a lengthy profile for Time, Smith talked to writer Daniel D’Addario about the division between Fox’s news programming and its opinion programming.

“I get it,” he says, “that some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining. I get that. I don’t work there. I wouldn’t work there. I don’t want to sit around and yell at each other and talk about your philosophy and my philosophy. That sounds horrible to me.”

“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.”

Putting aside the dubiousness of Smith’s claim that Fox’s opinion programming has nothing to do with his job, it’s definitely an accurate portrayal!

Now, Sean Hannity, who promoted the Uranium One conspiracy theory Smith later debunked and who once loudly declared that he is “not a journalist,” and Laura Ingraham, who called Robert E. Lee a “truly great” man and made a quasi-Nazi salute at the Republican National Convention, have fired back on Twitter, salty that Smith doesn’t appreciate their contributions to the art of journalism and “REAL NEWS.”

It must be rough to have your cover blown by a fellow company man, but damn. This, my friends, is some entertainment. I have yet to buy On the Run II tickets, but I will absolutely pick up some Shep v. Hannity & Ingraham tickets on pre-sale or purchase it on pay-per-view because this is shaping up to be quite the showdown. Also, why battle Fox News when they can all just knock each other out?