Major Fox News Host Comes Out as GAY – Breaks Silence on Network’s Sexual Harassment Scandal [VIDEO]

17 Oct, 2016 by Cassy Fiano

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Fox News was rocked by allegations of sexual harassment, with Roger Ailes forced to resign as chairman and CEO. Multiple Fox News personalities have come forward, saying that they were victims of sexual harassment, including Andrea Tantaros, Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson. Carlson got an incredible $20 million from Fox News, as well as a public apology. But now, another Fox News personality is speaking up… but is he defending Roger Ailes?

(Photo by Andy Kropa/Getty Images)

Shepard Smith has put years of rumors to rest by finally coming out as gay. But he insisted that Ailes never kept him from coming out of the closet. “That’s not true. He was as nice as he could be to me. I loved him like a father,” he said. A Fox News insider claimed that it was Ailes who made Smith keep his sexuality a secret, with Gawker reporting the rumor in 2014. Smith and Ailes released a joint statement at the time denying the report. It was also alleged that Ailes would make homophobic remarks towards Smith, but that was also shot down by Smith.

“He treated me with respect, just respect,” he said. “I wasn’t new in the business when I came here – I’d been doing reporting for 12 years – but I wasn’t old in it either, and he gave me every opportunity in the world and he never asked anything of me but that we get it right, try to get it right every day. It was a very warm and loving and comfortable place.”

Smith was with Fox News when they first launched 20 years ago, and so for Smith, the sexual harassment scandal was a horrifying betrayal. “I trusted him with my career and with – I trusted him and trusts were betrayed,” Smith said. “People outside this company can’t know [how painful that betrayal was]. This place has its enemies, but inside, it was very personal, and very scarring and horrifying.”

He continued, saying, “This was a real shock to the system, and it upended a lot of things that we thought we knew. We were wounded and horrified and very emotional, and we realize that as leaders we need to come in and face up to what we’ve learned.”

“We have to make sure there aren’t young victims wandering around here who need us. We have to get appropriate counselors in here. We have to make sure legally everybody’s protected and have to make a commitment to be the most transparent, open and welcoming organization of our kind in the world, and I’m determined to be a part of the team that makes it happen.”

After the scandal, Smith sat down with Rupert Murdoch to discuss the future of Fox News. “He said, “I’m a newsman. I want to be the best news organization in America,'” Smith recalled. “He wants to hire a lot more journalists, he wants to build us a massive new newsroom, he wants to make more commitments to places like this [studio], to hire reporters to work on beats, just enlarge our news-gathering.”

If Smith’s comments are to be believed, then it seems that the sexual harassment accusations won’t be the end of Fox News. It might not be too late to turn the sinking ship around.