I’m pretty critical of Fox News, and I make no apologies for that. Fox News, as an entity, as a business, and as a news outlet is almost completely devoid of integrity of any kind. Their most popular anchors are all far-Right radicals (yes, radicals) and the vast majority of their daily reporting contains a gross conservative bias they’re not even trying to hide anymore.

That said, this guy Shepard Smith has gotten my attention recently. He appears to be the lone voice of reason in the black hole of Fox News insanity. I’m sure he’s just as personally conservative as the rest of the crew over there, and I’m sure he and I would disagree on countless issues. But he seems to at least display the kind of sense and sensibility that one would hope for from all prominent journalists.

If you have a few minutes, visit this link and watch both of the embedded videos. In the first video (the YouTube embed) Smith goes up against Iraq War cheerleader Judy Miller (formerly of the New York Times) and some conservo-douchebag who does nothing but equivocate about what is and isn’t torture. Shepard Smith is rightfully dismissive of said douchebag, who keeps citing the meritless and oft-debunked “24 scenario” so popular with torture advocates.

The second video clip is from a discussion on FoxNews.com’s online show The Strategy Room. Smith pretty much goes off, slamming his hand on the desk and yelling, “I don’t give a rat’s ass if it helps. We are AMERICA! We do not fucking torture!!”

(Torture doesn’t “help,” by the way.)

And Smith’s admonishment to anyone who thinks torture is no big deal: “If we are going to be Ronald Reagan’s Shining City on the Hill, we don’t get to torture. We don’t do it.”

Nothing gets the conservo-sphere’s attention like invoking Saint Ronnie. (Actually, the notion of a “Shining City on the Hill” was first proffered in a sermon by 17th century Puritan leader John Winthrop and later cited in speeches by Kennedy and Reagan. It is one of the few ideas on which I agree with Reagan. That is, if I understand it correctly to mean that the United States must lead by example and be a government and a society that others would want to emulate rather than fear. As such, yeah, torture is pretty much off the table.)

Shepard Smith takes down a wingnut. And it’s beautiful.

The surprise? As you can probably see, Shepard Smith works for Fox News. Perhaps we’re seeing a crack in the conservo-facade there.