"Even in our current polarized nation, it's my hope that the facts will win the day, that the truth will always matter, that journalism and journalists will thrive." Watch Shepard Smith announce he's leaving Fox News after 23 years with the network. https://t.co/a7WCpYc6Re pic.twitter.com/HJGXRlLUI9
— CNN (@CNN) October 11, 2019
Multiple news accounts, including the link above, are reporting that Shepard Smith is leaving FOX News because he just couldn’t take the nonstop lies and propaganda any longer. It’s believable, because he was, conspicuously, a craftsman who cared about accuracy.
I imagine he believed — until recently, I mean — the same thing that a lot of the professionals in the Trump administration doubtless believed: This, too, shall pass; just hold on a while longer, and sanity will be restored. Nope. What is now called ‘conservatism’ is no more or better than the nihilist vandalism of a death-wish, and it cannot be reasoned with or accommodated; it must be defeated, bludgeoned into insensibility, irrevocably cast out of decent company.
H.L. Mencken had it right: “The job before democracy is to get rid of such canaille; if it fails, they will devour it.” Well, the barbarians are at the table with napkins tucked into their collars, knife and fork in hand, snouts twitching.