Shepherd Smith gets NSFW

The web is buzzing today with video of Fox News anchor Shepherd Smith getting so angry during a conversation about the torture memos that were just released that he swears on live TV twice.

First, I should say that I agree with Shep 100%. We are the United States, and we do not fucking torture. Or at least we wouldn't have if ol' shit-for-brains hadn't been President for the last 8 years.

But what's really going on here? This is not the first time that Shep has gone off the FNC script, so it begs the question whether he's been a closeted moderate who has just gotten sick of shoveling the Fox News crap to us every day...or if this is all a well-timed faux conversion to let us know that Shep is one of us, part of the new zeitgeist ushered in by Obama, to turn him into Fox's version of Keith Olberman.

I find the first scenario entirely believable. If someone who wasn't a true believer in the right wing bullshit had worked at Fox News for a decade and had to repeat the talking points every single day, he just might eventually snap. He just might eventually be unable to avoid calling bullshit at some point when it all got to be too much.

But sadly I also find the second scenario frighteningly believable. Fox's relevance is in serious challenge right now, as they are looking more and more like Paranoid Fringe Network. What if the 2008 election really did signal a sea change that will lead to a corresponding drop in ratings for conservatively slanted news? What if Shepherd Smith senses that his media power and relevance might go down unless he either abandons ship to another network or sends out a few signals that wink wink nudge nudge, he's in on the joke that is his network and he's going to laugh along at it with all of us?

Who knows which is the right answer. But I wouldn't be so quick to laud Shepherd Smith as our new hero just yet. The proof may well be in whether he is punished by Fox for his on-air slip. Dropping the F-bomb on live TV shouldn't be taken lightly, even with an Obama-run FCC monitoring things.