Fox News' Shep Smith Didn't Mince Words: 'Racism Is Not Funny and Roseanne Barr Is a Racist'

The network's premier truth-teller strikes again.

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When the news dropped Tuesday that Roseanne Barr's latest racist tweet had gotten her hit ABC show canceled by the network, Fox News sprung into action. This was a free speech issue, the pundits said, refusing to use the word "racist" while discussing a tweet that compared an African-American former White House official to an ape. As we discussed yesterday, this was not a free speech issue—it was an example of how social norms around racist rhetoric are enforced. Soon, even Sean Hannity was suggesting Roseanne's tweet was "outrageous" and "she was right to apologize."

Still, there was only one person at Fox who could mop up the mess of those initial knee-jerk reactions from the network's on-air personalities. Shep Smith jumped on the airwaves to explain, simply, that "racism is not funny and Roseanne Barr is a racist. Now her show is canceled."

This is how it's done. The comments were not just "offensive" or "outrageous," and it is insufficient to characterize them only as such. Smith even raised the question of why ABC hired Roseanne in the first place when they knew full well her extensive record of racism and unhinged conspiracy mongering. Like he did with President Trump's claims of fake news, the Ebola outbreak, Kim Davis, Uranium One, and even CNN, Smith told the whole truth on an issue when few on his network dared to.

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