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1. Two stories involving Shepard Smith from the last week -- an acceptance speech he gave interpreted as a "subtweet" of his colleagues and Trump tweeting criticism -- show why he is so valuable to Fox News. mediamatters.org/blog/2019/03/1…
2. Smith has an earned reputation as a journalist who is willing to push back against right-wing lies and even criticize his own network.
3. Sometimes, commentators to fall into the trap of thinking of Smith as Fox's "voice of reason,” the resistance inside Fox to the network’s depredations and chicanery. They ask why Fox continues to employ him despite his record.
4. This misses the point entirely: Smith doesn’t have his job despite his deviations from the Fox line -- he is supremely valuable to the network **because** of them.
5. Fox’s public relations strategy relies on being able to point to people like Smith as evidence that the network isn’t purely a right-wing megaphone.
6. In return, Fox pays Smith a salary well in excess of industry standards given that he hosts a weekday afternoon show.
7. Smith can keep using that show to debunk the lies his network airs around the clock and call out the conservative hosts who receive bigger platforms and better time slots.
8. He can tell reporters -- and even himself -- that the real reason he keeps signing Fox’s lucrative contracts is because he’s worried about what the network would replace him with.
9. What Smith apparently can’t do is keep Fox from treating “accurate and honest and thorough and fair” journalism as anything more than a PR strategy.
10. There's a reason the closest thing the network has to a legitimate journalist anchors the 3 p.m. hour, not primetime. He fits Fox's PR strategy, not its core business model.
