Apple's Tim Cook Tops Out's Power 50 List

Out Magazine today published its ninth annual ranking of the 50 most powerful LGBT people in the United States.  Taking the top spot from last year's list leader, Ellen DeGeneres, is Apple CEO Tim Cook, who formally came out six months ago. Here is this year's top ten:

1. Tim Cook
2. Ellen DeGeneres
3. Rachel Maddow
4. Sen. Tammy Baldwin
5. Anderson Cooper
6. Anthony Romero 
7. Chad Griffin
8. Mary Kay Henry
9. Laverne Cox
10. Andy Cohen

Romero is the executive director of the ACLU and Henry is the head of the SEIU. Missing from the list for the second year is closeted homocon blogger Matt Drudge, who ranked at #21 in 2013 and at #16 in 2012. Fellow homocons Peter Thiel and Ken Mehlman appear on this year's ranking at #13 and #41 respectively, with closeted Fox anchor Shepard Smith coming at #20. Also gone this year is recently retired blogger Andrew Sullivan, who ranked at #26 last year. Hit the top link for the full 2015 list.

Shephard Smith Slams Anti-Vaxxers

"Hello, SCIENCE?"

Fox Anchor Shepard Smith Slams States That Continue To Fight Same-Sex Marriage

After announcing today's decision by the Supreme Court, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith slammed the "continuing discrimination" by states that are still fighting same-sex marriage, noting that some of those states are the ones that fought most strongly against integration. The Tea People are going nuts on Twitter, demanding that Fox fire Smith for "smearing Christians."

Shepard Smith Apologizes

"I spent an entire hour talking about how much this man affected people’s lives and brought greatness to this world. I was just wondering aloud what could have made this man want to end it all. And it reminds us that we all have responsibility as friends and neighbors to help take responsibility to prevent this from happening. There are people who process suicide as a black-and white-issue. I don’t process anything as black-and-white.

"I was sorry to read online the people who see the world in a black-and-white way, and to suggest that they might have a definitive analysis of why he did such a thing. What I wanted to do is celebrate his life and find some meaning in our own lives, since we often do know someone who is reaching out, and we have a responsibility to help that person — maybe a phone call or a door knock is in order.

"But no matter how you process it: Look at what this family is going through. I would never presume to know anything about his private life. And if any of his family members and friends were to have seen me use the word 'coward,' I would be horrified. I would just to apologize to the end of the earth to anyone who might think that I meant to openly call him a coward. To the core of my being, I regret it. It just came out of my mouth. And I’m so sorry. And to anyone and their families who see that, I am sorry." - Closeted Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, in a statement issued to Mediaite.

Closeted Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith Calls Robin Williams "Such A Coward"

Via Raw Story:

Fox News host Shepard Smith on Tuesday asserted that actor Robin Williams was “such a coward” for allegedly committing suicide. “One of the children he so loved, one of the children grieving tonight,” Smith said. “Because their father killed himself in a fit of depression.” “It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?” he continued. “You could love three little things so much, watch them grow, they’re in their mid-20s, and they’re inspiring you, and exciting you, and they fill you up with the kind of joy you could never have known.” “And yet, something inside you is so horrible or you’re such a coward or whatever the reason that you decide that you have to end it. Robin Williams, at 63, did that today.”

(Tipped by JMG reader DM)

HomoQuotable - Shepard Smith

"News team- Good morning from Los Angeles. I came to Fox News 18 years ago because they agreed to hire me. I’ve stayed with Fox News because of my relationship with Roger Ailes. He’s my boss, my friend and my steadfast supporter both professionally and personally. Things you might read today are horseshit. As phony as 24-hour breaking news on The Plane Channel. Stand down. Big love. See y'all Monday. Unless breaking news changes everything." - Shepard Smith, responding to Wednesday's Gawker story in an email to fellow Fox staffers.

Gawker: Fox News Demoted Shepard Smith For Wanting To Come Out

An interesting claim from Gawker:

In the summer of 2013, according to multiple sources with knowledge of their exchange, Shepard Smith approached Fox News president Roger Ailes about publicly coming out. The newly attached anchor was eager, at the time, to finally acknowledge his sexuality. “It’s time,” he told Ailes and other colleagues. “It’s time.” Instead, Ailes informed Smith that the network’s famously conservative audience would not tolerate a gay news anchor. Ailes’ answer was definitive: Smith could not say he’s gay.

“This came up during contract negotiations,” a Fox insider told Gawker. “Shep wanted to and was ready to come out, and Roger just said no.” Smith, one of Ailes’s first and most loyal disciples, acquiesced to his boss’s demand, and dropped the matter. But the discussion worried enough Fox executives to prompt Smith’s removal, in September 2013, from the channel’s coveted prime-time lineup. According to a Fox insider with direct knowledge of negotiations, Smith’s desire to come out was a large factor in the dramatic move.

According to Gawker, Fox executives first went on "high alert" after Smith brought his boyfriend to a company picnic. It was shortly after that when Smith reportedly approached Ailes.

Smith and Ailes have issued a joint statement in reaction to Gawker's story: "This story is 100% false and a complete fabrication. As colleagues and close friends at Fox News for 18 years, our relationship has always been rooted in a mutual respect, deep admiration, loyalty, trust, and full support both professionally and personally."

A top Fox executive named in Gawker's anonymously-sourced story has also issued a statement denying their claims. 

"Over the past 18 years, we’ve had the privilege of working with Shepard Smith throughout his incredible rise from a field reporter to chief news anchor and his recent promotion to managing editor. Throughout his entire tenure here, Roger Ailes and I have fully supported him in both a professional and personal capacity. We have never asked Shep to discuss or not discuss his private life, and the notion of us having an issue with anyone’s sexuality is not only insulting, but pure fiction. We renewed his contract in June 2013 based on this full support as well as his exemplary journalism. He’s the gold standard of this profession and we’re extremely proud to call him the face of our news division.”

We've long known that Shepard Smith is gay and Fox management has now issued a de facto acknowledgment that they've always known too. Yet Shepard Smith has still not publicly come out. It's all so bizarre.

Fox Anchor Shep Smith Attends LGBT Journo Gala, Does Not Come Out

Last week I reported that Fox anchor Shep Smith was the list of attendees for the annual gala held by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, which was held last night in NYC. As you can see from Don Lemon's selfie above, Smith did attend. But he did not come out despite being confronted by a reporter from the Washington Blade.

“I’m going to walk over here,” he said as the Washington Blade asked him about his sexual orientation during NLGJA’s Headlines and Headliners fundraiser at the Prince George Ballroom in Manhattan. A Gawker reporter with whom the Blade spoke outside the venue said Smith took a picture of him with his cell phone as he walked to his car. The Fox News anchor rushed past the reporter as he tried to ask him questions. Blade Editor Kevin Naff outed Smith in 2005 after Smith hit on him in a Manhattan bar. That incident was featured in the documentary film “Outrage;” he recounted the experience earlier this month. “Our company’s the sponsor,” Smith told the Blade. “I’m really happy to be here and it’s great to see a lot of old friends.

(Via Towleroad)

Sources Say Fox Anchor Shep Smith Isn't Planning On Coming Out At LGBT Gala

Jim Romenesko followed up on my post yesterday about Shep Smith attending next week's gala for LGBT journalists.

I asked Fox News and NLGJA if Smith – outed by Gawker last October – plans to announce anything at next Thursday’s event. “Not to my knowledge,” NLGJA membership coordinator Matthew Rose told me. “Our special guest list is filled with allies,” straight and gay. (Another NLGJA member noted that Anderson Cooper attended the “Headlines and Headliners” bash during his closeted years.) Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti tells me: “Fox News is an annual sponsor of the NLGJA event and Shepard Smith is attending the benefit along with numerous other Fox News Channel & Fox Business on-air talent and staff.”

The event takes place on Thursday at the Prince George Ballroom in Manhattan.

Is Fox Anchor Shep Smith Coming Out?

Next week the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association will hold its annual gala here in New York City. When I first got my invite to cover the event, I noticed that glass-closeted Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is listed among the attendees. To be clear, not all of the announced media personalities on the list are LGBT, but today the publicist for the event confirmed to me that Smith has not previously attended. One wonders if a long overdue announcement is coming.

New York Times Slams Gawker For Hunting Down Shepard Smith's Boyfriend

David Carr writes at the New York Times:

What if Gawker tried to out an anchor at Fox News and no one cared? Cue the innuendo, the salacious follow-ups and the specter of mainstream media outlets picking up the item with a pair of tweezers. Except after the post was published, there was nothing but crickets, other than a piece in Slate wondering aloud why Gawker had bothered. Otherwise, there was no significant pickup, and no broad expression of outrage. We know why: The culture has moved on. People see other people who happen to be gay at their workplaces, in their schools and on their televisions. Somewhere along the way, what was once a scarlet letter became just another consonant in the personal résumé. And now that gay marriage is a fact of life, a person’s sexual orientation is not only not news, it’s not very interesting.

Carr continues:

The frisson of the Gawker tidbit was supposed to derive from the contextual equation — Fox News + gay = hypocrisy — but the channel has hardly been of one voice on the issue and there is no indication that it has any special obsession with sexual orientation, like, say, Gawker. From what I can tell, Fox News has done a decent job of representing the broad range of conservative views on same-sex marriage and seems to have, along with the rest of the country, evolved. Bill O’Reilly, who once suggested that gay marriage could lead to nuptials between humans and turtles, has come around to the point that in March, he said he had been convinced that the government should not decide who should marry.

While Carr is correct in that Gawker's piece has generated relatively little attention in the teabag-o-sphere, I'd chalk that up to those sites providing cover for their holy news channel. And Fox's "decent job" of covering same-sex marriage usually involves giving air time to vile hate group leaders. (Something CNN is guilty of as well, not incidentally.) Otherwise, I agree that I can't see the point in hounding some kid who has done nothing worse than taking a low level job at Fox News.

Gawker Identifies Boyfriend Of Closeted Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith

That Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is gay is fairly widely known, even though he has never publicly acknowledged it. He's even appeared in Out Magazine's annual ranking of the most powerful gays in America. But after a gossip column earlier this week reported that Smith had blown up at a downtown Manhattan cocktail waitress while on a night out with his boyfriend, Gawker went looking for the identity of said paramour. Smith, it turns out, is keeping it in-house.

Shepard Smith, the endlessly endearing (and easily angered) Fox News anchor, has likened the right-wing channel to a “family,” with president Roger Ailes as its domineering father. Which makes it only slightly awkward that in early 2012, the 49-year-old anchor started courting an attractive young production assistant who worked under him on Fox Report With Shepard Smith. Now they are a couple.  Gawker has learned that Smith is dating a 26-year-old Penn State grad and Fox Business producer named Giovanni “Gio” Graziano. According to multiple sources with knowledge of their relationship, the couple met sometime after Graziano started working at Fox Report in October 2011 as a production assistant. He’s the man with whom Smith frequents Bathtub Gin.  “Yes, that’s Shepard’s boyfriend,” Katya Minskova, the Bathtub Gin waitress Smith berated in March, confirmed to Gawker when shown a photo of Graziano. Another source who had seen them together at the Chelsea speakeasy confirmed Graziano’s identity as well. Both sources say they saw Graziano and Smith together at the bar on multiple occasions, and that they appeared to be romantically involved.

Graziano has not responded to numerous requests for comment.  A number of Gawker commenters are questioning why the site is "harassing" him.

Porno Pete: Drudge Should Come Out

Conversation's over! Got a little too close to the ongoing cover that right wingers give homocon Matt Drudge! Still, that's the first time I've gotten a prominent anti-gay activist to even grudgingly concede that Drudge should come out if he's gay. I've saved the above conversation to Storify just in case it should come in handy later.

RELATED: Here's the Kincaid video that started it all.

Anti-Gay Wingnut Calls For Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith To Come Out, Says Nothing About Matt Drudge

Noting that Out Magazine has (for several years) listed Fox News anchor Shepard Smith as one of America's "most powerful" gay people, anti-gay crackpot Cliff Kincaid is demanding that Smith come out.  But Kincaid has NOTHING to say about homocon Matt Drudge, who has also appeared on the list for years.  Kincaid works for the hilariously named Accuracy In Media, which earlier this month published a 40,000-word report declaring that Fox News has gone pro-gay. That report was authored by....Porno Pete.

Fox News Airs Suicide On Live TV

Today Fox News inadvertently aired a suicide during a live broadcast when the suspect in a police chase the network was following jumped from his vehicle and shot himself in the head. Moments later host Shepard Smith issued a profuse apology, which is below.

(Via Igor Volsky at Think Progress)

An Apology From Fox News?

Shepard Smith: The Donut Burger Is A Sign Of Apocalypse

Right-Wing Comes Swinging For Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith

Today's top story on World Net Daily, the most widely-read conservative site in nation, is not an alarmed recapping of yesterday's Holocaust Memorial shooting, but rather a blistering attack on Fox News anchor Shepard Smith for his righteous worry about the alarming state of an increasingly extremist-laden America in which even the nationality of our president is questioned.

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, host of the top-rated evening cable newscast, believes Americans challenging the eligibility of Barack Obama to hold the office of president are "crazies," saying "there is no truth whatsoever" to the suggestion Obama is not a "natural born citizen." Smith made the remark during analysis of today's shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where an elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle, killing a security guard before himself being shot. Police were probing an alleged white supremacist, James von Brunn, as the assailant. During his interview with Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Smith said: "There are these crazies out there who want to pretend [Obama's] not a citizen of the United States, who want to pretend that his religion is something they see as in some way troublesome to them and all of us. And there is a group perpetuating this thought, and there is a culture to which you can attach yourself very easily through the Internet. ... We know it's absolutely – there is no truth whatsoever – zero – to any of those ideas, yet they live within the computer and they fester in people's minds."

WND then goes on to dig up ten year-old dirt on Smith, going into great detail about a completely unrelated parking incident in which he struck a woman with his car. Because that is more important than decrying a racist murder in the nation's capital. Most of the emails that Smith reads on-air in the clip below probably came from Free Republic, where members are staging a letter writing campaign calling for his dismissal for his "anti-patriot rantings."

Shepard Smith Live: "We Are America! We Do NOT Fucking Torture!"