“You know that, that bear there didn’t get hurt.” Today, on Fox Report, Shepard Smith finally seemed to get it, i.e., that his Trampoline Bear video can be seen as animal cruelty. After earlier playing the exploitative clip on his Studio B,* receiving flak from the author for doing so, and seemingly suspending his Twitter account, Shep ran the Trampoline Bear footage during the Fox Report** but with the aforementioned explanatory coda.**
During Studio B, Shep Tweeted the upcoming “Bear Alert” to his followers shortly before showing it to his audience. Then, when he aired the footage of a young black bear who had had his head removed from a jar, he gleefully ran the Trampoline Bear clip (of the black bear falling from a tree, being propelled high into the ground, and crashing head-first into the ground) as usual. After the exploitative video had run, the author Tweeted, “Shep de Sade, er, Sad strikes again with his “Studio B Trampoline” bear vid.”
Shortly thereafter (and before Shep’s Fox Report aired) Shep’s Twitter page (including his Tweet, supra), strangely disappeared (“suspended”). Nevertheless, when the Fox Report ran, Shep still replayed the “Bear Alert” with the offensive Trampoline Bear footage appended thereto. However, in a later segment at the very end of the show, Shep defended his use of the clip. To wit, after a story about Disney film Bambi, Shep deadpanned, “I wonder how Bambi would like the trampoline”: then, he added, “You know that, that bear there didn’t get hurt.”***
Shep, please quit airing this exploitative video of Trampoline Bear. As your good friend and weekend counterpart, Julie Banderas, has acknowledged, it contains an element of animal cruelty and should be barred from her weekend Fox Report. Shep, just can it for good from your weekday Fox Report and your Studio B. At the very least, cut the repulsive frames of Trampoline Bear crashing face-first into the hard ground.
And, come back to Twitter!
*Studio B with Shepard Smith – 08/12/10 (@3:59 p.m. ET)
**Fox Report with Shepard Smith – 08/12/10 (@7:54 p.m. ET)
***Fox Report with Shepard Smith – 08/12/10 (@7:59 p.m. ET)
Tags: animal cruelty, animal righs, Bambi, FNC, Fox News, Fox Report, Julie Banderas, Shepard Smith, Studio B, Trampoline Bear
Carpe Diem 
August 14, 2010 at 9:58 am
Shep DID NOT suspend his Twitter account.
@ShepardsmithFNC was a Fake account.I was not Legit and was suspended.
The only Legit twitter acount for Shep is ~ @Team_Shep..and that is still going strong.
So jakeho “receiving flak” from you…had NO impact on Shep at all !
Jus sayin !
August 14, 2010 at 11:19 am
“Jus sayin!” Exactly. Bald assertions untethered to the facts.
August 14, 2010 at 12:52 pm
My goodness would you give it a rest on the bear. What is your obsession with it?
The bear didn’t get hurt. It was fine. A bear would rip you apart limb from limb and not think twice about it. Have you ever experienced wild bears? They aren’t nice. They do major property destruction. They can kill family pets. Break in to omes and other things. People have to put boards with nails through them to try and use them to keep the bears out.
Stop the insanity!
August 14, 2010 at 7:18 pm
I love that trampoline bear video! Keep on playing it!
Bears will sometimes fall out of trees to go after prey. It is doubtful this bear was even be a little sore after that. There’s plenty of real animal cruelty to rail against.
August 15, 2010 at 11:31 am
Meghan, I would love to give the Trampoline Bear a rest. That is what I am imploring Shep to do with that almost SEVEN year old video that he has obsessively shown his viewers. As to my familiarity with black bears, I live in their habitat and know their potential danger but I do not believe that reveling in the plight of one ad nauseam is a virtue.
August 20, 2010 at 7:45 pm
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