SHEPARD SMITH

Documents from a defamation lawsuit against Fox News illustrate the pressures its journalists faced in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election.

CNBC says it is pulling the plug on Shepard Smith's weeknight general interest news program, saying it wants to focus on the network's core strength of business news.

Veteran Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin took on an unusual role around the start of Russia's incursion into Ukraine.

With an expansion and relaunch Monday, the Scripps Networks service Newsy is betting that consumers have an interest in more news and less political talk.

Both Fox and CNN announced schedule changes on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. Both Fox and CNN announced lineup changes Monday, as is often the case for news organizations with a new president about to take power. For years, first with Shepard Smith and then with MacCallum, Fox has stressed news instead of opinion in that hour. In fact, Newsmax issued a statement that its improved daytime and 7 p.m. ratings since the election has triggered changes at Fox. Since the election, CNN has averaged 1.92 million viewers in those daytime hours, with Fox and MSNBC both at 1.53 million.

The 56-year-old newsman, a Fox News original who joined that network at its start in 1996, says he's relishing the fresh start. Smith left more questions than answers upon his Fox exit, leaving others to speculate about why. His 3 p.m. newscast stood out at a network where opinion is king, and sometimes he challenged statements made by the network's prime-time hosts. Asked about it, Smith said that “I had felt like it was time for a new challenge for a long time. With CNN, MSNBC and the broadcast networks courting Smith, CNBC was considered an underdog, at best.