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The other day, Fox News newsman Shepard Smith announced on his Facebook page that something "crazy" would be going down on his show. Just what kind of crazy are we talking about? A monkey wearing a Napoleon hat crazy? Putting two bananas in your ears and barking like a walrus crazy? TiVoing Brothers crazy?

He never officially confirmed just what the "crazy" thing would be, but I wonder if this is it. Smith, the Fox News Channel's equivalent of Edward R. Murrow, issued an official apology for his network's (and I'm actually quoting) "lack of balance."

The "lack of balance" in question referred to Fox correspondent Shannon Bream, who conducted an interview with Republican candidate for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, but failed to nail down his Democratic opposition Jon Corzine. Smith said he didn't know the candidate wasn't interviewed and that "If I had control, it wouldn't have happened." Quick, someone check The Weather Channel for Hell's temperature and five-day forecast!

The other day we shared the video of FOX News anchor Shep Smith dropping the F bomb. Now Stephen Colbert responds to all of Smith's various moments of "not being a team player." Colbert is more upset about swearing on live television than anything else. Colbert helpfully provides a list of words that Smith should have said instead of that dreaded four letter one. Added bonus: Samuel L. Jackson!

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Shep Smith is one of my favorite people on television. He's always entertaining, informative, fair, and (yes) balanced! He's also a great source for those priceless "live news" moments that make for great video fodder. Here are a few of my favorites, including a new one where the F-bomb is launched (PopEater has even more Shep goodness).

So we've had the first Presidential debate, and the Vice Presidential debate takes place tonight at 9pm ET (on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, PBS, CSPAN, probably The Weather Channel and Noggin too). While newspeople involved in the debates range from good (Jim Lehrer, Anderson Cooper, Bob Schieffer) to bad (Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos), there are several journalists who never seem to be involved in the debates for one reason or another. Maybe the debate committees and the campaigns don't want them, or maybe the anchors don't want to do a debate, but I can think of a few people I'd like to see moderate these things.

After the jump, my top five.

I used to dislike Shepard Smith. Not because he was on FOX News, but for the way he anchored the news. It was as if he was skipping whole words or something, making these short, declarative sentences, and it was hard to listen to him for a long period of time. But my view of him has softened the last couple of years (and will continue to if he keeps being this funny). He also doesn't seem to just automatically spew the network's line at the drop of a hat.

TV Guide's Stephen Battaglio has an interview with Smith about the new look and direction for his show. Among other topics, Smith talks about why CBS and Katie Couric quickly went back to a traditional newscast, why the news industry might be dying, and the possibility of hosting one of the presidential debates. He also says they're not going to do "more crap...we're not going to do more titillating [stories], Hollywood movie reviews and jokes."

[via TV Newser]

A few years ago, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith got in trouble for flubbing a report and using a phrase meaning oral sex. He didn't hear the end of it from people, and now the clip lives on forever online. But now he has someone who can identify with what happened to him, fellow Fox News anchor Jane Skinner (of "Skinnerville," as Shep likes to say every day).

Skinner was reporting recently on the war in Afghanistan, and she meant to say "top cop," but for some reason she couldn't get the word "cop" out, and said another word not once but twice. Shep was pretty funny about it, not only saying "South Carolina Gamecocks, she's a big fan!" and "We'll look for you on YouTube Jane!" And, as you can see from the video below, she has indeed made it to YouTube.

[via TV Newser]