Shep Smith Lands at CNBC

Shepard Smith to Host CNBC Show After Leaving Fox News | TVLine

Shep Smith, who was at Fox News beginning at its launch, and rose to become its "breaking news" head, left that operation last October.

He left with a final on-air statement expressing gratitude for the opportunities he had been given there, mentioning a non-compete agreement into which he had apparently entered, and signing off without a word of explanation.

For many people, the explanation was not all that difficult to imagine.

Smith had become the 'token liberal' at Fox News, an in-house critic of some of the wilder conspiracy mongering of Sean Hannity and others. For some time, his bosses welcomed this. It made them seem at least a little bit "fair and balanced" to have him around.

But he seems to have outstayed his welcome. He quit before being fired, and he said in an on-air goodbye to his audience that he had signed a non-compete agreement.

That agreement sees to have been of short duration, because it has only been a little more than half a year, and he's got his new gig.

Good luck to him.

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