More Like This Please! Shep Smith Dismisses the Talking Points

Filed in National by on October 7, 2009

You have to see it really, but there is a transcript here. Shep Smith had on repub Representative John Barrasso from Wyoming for a discussion of the Public Option for health insurance reform, which definitely did not go as the Representative likely expected. Not only is it remarkable that Smith understood the Public Option and how it fits into any reform effort really well, but the jaw-dropping thing about this interview is how utterly intolerant Smith is for the routine talking points. Barasso wanted to talk about “government-run health care” and Smith sets him straight. Barasso wanted to talk about Medicare cost and budget issues and Smith re-orients the conversation to noting how health care costs have gone up while insurance profits and lobbying costs have gone up. There’s definitely more at the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT61GNLBclk[/youtube]

And a note to reporters everywhere — this is how you deal with the talking points.

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"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (4)

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  1. a. price says:

    I’m a huge Shep fan. This is, from whatIi can remember his 3rd break from the network kool-aid fountain.
    Way back when Fat-Glenn and the wanna-be Right Wing Freedom Fighters had their pitiful little rally, Shep fake cried, and mocked the coke-head (glenn…look it up)
    Then his famous on air “we do not fucking torture”…. now this..
    He may be the only honest person in the entire Fixed News organization.

  2. Scott P says:

    How does he still have a job there? Naughty pictures of Murdoch? Or maybe he’s just a very good negotiator, and in his last contract got exempted from FOX’s “Check your conscience and original thought at the door” policy.

  3. I’m sure Faux News thinks he’s their token liberal.

  4. cassandra_m says:

    That is funny!

    I was really stunned by this — not so much that Smith defended the Public Option, but that he directly cut down the talking points. It is a rare thing for anyone in the traditional media to do this, but to hear someone on FOX clearly stepping on the message was astonishing.