“What is he talking about?” the exasperated host of Fox News’ eponymously titled 3 p.m. weekday slot, “Shepard Smith Reporting,” rhetorically asked on Tuesday afternoon.
Smith was responding to President Donald Trump’s earlier tweet and live remarks in which the chief executive expressed deep concerns about Google, Facebook and Twitter’s alleged bias against him, against conservative news outlets, and against conservatives in general.
“I think Google is really taking advantage of a lot of people,” the president told a pool spray in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I think that’s a very serious thing and it’s a very serious charge,” he added.
The president advised Big Tech companies to proceed carefully, saying, “I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful. It’s not fair to large portions of the population.”
Smith, to put it lightly, did not agree.
He called the president’s contentions of Big Tech’s alleged bias against conservatives “not a thing.”
Further, he contended that Trump’s statement that Google, Facebook, and Twitter “can’t do that to people” and that they were “treading on troubled territory” was meaningless.
He then went to the White House correspondent for Fox News, John Roberts, who was reporting from just outside the White House. Roberts described the president’s reaction as “venting” in response to disliking the coverage he has been seeing lately.
“What he doesn’t like is the news,” Smith declared. “It’s not the people who are delivering it or the platforms on which they receive it. It seems to be the news itself,” Smith added. “Because around there, the news is not good. Except the fake news. The fake news seems to be pretty good for him.”
“The real news seems to be unpleasant,” he added.
Related: Trump ‘Taking a Look’ at Regulating Google, Kudlow Says
“It didn’t make sense then and it wouldn’t make sense now,” Smith also said in recapping the president’s words at the end of the segment — but at that point he began losing track of his notes.
If social media responses to Smith’s pronouncement are any indication, Smith himself may be “treading on troubled territory” as well.
Shep@needs to move to CNN. He’s a drama queen and has as much bias as they do
— Dan (@Katzekraus) August 28, 2018
My friend Shep has #TrumpDerangementSyndrome , the poor thing , he use to be such a great reporter too , I really enjoyed watching his show before he got bit by the hate bug
— Rocca (@RockaSoBoston) August 29, 2018
Shep is Fake news. We all know it, even Trump.
— Dear America (@bagiver2) August 28, 2018
Check out the video below to see exactly what went on:
Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to LifeZette.
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