Shepard Smith Profile…

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Mackenzie Carpenter profiles FNC’s Shepard Smith…

Smith won’t say if he’s a Republican or a Democrat. He doesn’t like politics much at all, in fact, and he claims no friction with Beck or Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly.

“There are all kinds of people in families. Mine, at least, we all get along great. There are some ideologues around here. People have different political backgrounds and all of that, but I don’t play on that field. I just do the news.”

Indeed, by showcasing Smith as its lead news anchor at a cable channel known mostly for its fiery conservative commentators, Fox News is trying to show that its brand is more diverse than it gets credit for — and to grow its already sizable audience, which, in the age of Obama, has been flocking to the cable channel in droves.

It’s not completely clear if those exploding ratings are being fanned by the O’Reillys of the world or because Smith, as Fox’s face of news, is, perhaps, perceived as more energetic or less of a bloviator than his counterparts at CNN or MSNBC.