Rachel Maddow’s Friends At Fox News: Shep Smith ‘Admires’ Her

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is incredibly popular, even with some of the folks at rival network Fox News. Anchor Shep Smith said in a recent interview that he’s a fan, and that he even admires and respects the prime time pundit.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Smith (who suffers no small fanbase himself) said that he’s a fan of Rachel Maddow when asked if he was surprised that the MSNBC host gave him props during her recent Reddit “AMA.” Smith returned the compliment, and then some.

“I know Rachel. I’m a fan of Rachel’s. But what she said very generously is I do regular guy and voice of God at the same time. By voice of God, she means you can be a news anchor and be taken seriously and then when it’s fun, you can have a little fun. We all know each other in this business. It’s a very small community, and we all pretty much like each other,” he said.

“And I admire and respect Rachel,” Smith continued. “Everything in this thing we do to me is Ole Miss and LSU. I love Ole Miss; I hate LSU. And that’s how MSNBC and Fox News viewers are, and I understand it and I respect it because I hate LSU.”

During her “AMA,” Maddow was asked who her favorite anchor from a competing channel is. She picked Shep.

“I really like the way Shep Smith (at Fox News Channel) balances anchorman gravitas… with a willingness to put the artifice aside and acknowledge what it really going on,” Maddow said. “Some of us can pull off seeming like human beings on TV, some of us can pull off V.O.G. authority, but Shep is really very good at both. Better than anyone else, I think. Also, I’ve met him and he’s a nice person!”

Another surprising Fox News fan of Maddow’s is chief Roger Ailes, who detailed his friendship with her in a new biography. In Off Camera, Zev Chafets says that the two became friends in 2006 when he complimented her at a White House Christmas party.

Are you surprised that Shep Smith and Rachel Maddow are pals?