Fox News host Shepard Smith called out his “personal friend” and former Fox News executive Bill Shine for barring a CNN reporter from a White House event on Wednesday.
“Bill Shine, full disclosure, is my personal friend,” Smith said Thursday during his show “Shepard Smith Reporting.” “He was a producer, then executive, then senior executive at this network, and in that capacity, he was my boss.”
{mosads}Shine, the former co-president of Fox News, joined the White House as deputy chief of staff for communications last month.
Smith aired footage of Shine telling reporters to ask the CNN reporter, Kaitlan Collins, if he ever used the word “ban” in telling her she could not attend the event.
“Focus now. You ask her if we ever used the word ban,” Shine said earlier Thursday.
“Focusing, this is a difference without a distinction,” Smith said on his show.
He also cited comments about the incident from White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who said members of the news media need to show more respect while covering President Trump.
“Civility,” Smith said. “CNN maintains, the [White House] Correspondents’ Association agrees, and we at Fox News observe, that Collins was civil, that she asked relevant and timely questions of a president who often answers questions under identical circumstances and in the same setting.”
“One of our journalists might have done exactly the same,” he added.
Collins was barred from the White House event on Wednesday after she repeatedly asked Trump questions about his former longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen and Russian President Vladimir Putin during an Oval Office meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Smith also offered a defense of journalists during his show, saying that they “are not the enemies of the people.”
“Our profession is enshrined in the Constitution, and the Fourth Estate holds the essential job of being your eyes and often ears and, when appropriate, your voice. It’s a cornerstone of our republic,” he said.