On Friday, Shepard Smith stunned Fox News viewers and co-workers when he announced on air that he was quitting the network in which he had been a part of since in launched.

Fox New says it was completely Smith’s idea to leave Fox News.

But, the question still is why?

Smith was making millions of dollars to sit behind a desk for an hour each day and tell the Fox News viewers something they were not hearing from Fox and Friends, Sean Hanniny, Tucker Carslon, and others in primetime.

Smith told the viewers the truth.

He was one of the few on Fox News that would go straight up against the President of the United States and say he was lying.

And for that, he was hated.

Fox News viewers often called for Smith to be fired over and over again.

Tucker Carlson demeaned Smith on air. Other opinion hots did so behind the scenes.

But Smith went out each day and tried to report the truth and he backed up that truth with facts.

So, who will Fox News replace him with?

Yesterday we quoted a former Fox employee said of Smith’s leaving, “half of Fox News's objectivity walking out the door.”

Former Fox News host Bob Beckel tweeted this:

In a statement, Fox News says they have plenty of people that are objective Journalists, ““…Jennifer Griffin whose report just went viral this week. Or Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, Bill Hemmer, Martha MacCallum or Catherine Herridge who have all done outstanding journalism.”

All of these people are Journalists, but I’m not sure any of them are willing to go toe to toe with Trump and also go completely against the grain of the Fox News viewer. Smith did it and almost on a daily basis Fox viewers demanded he be fired.

Smith was willing to do the job and did not worry about the haters.

I don’t think there is a person on staff at Fox News currently that is willing to stick their neck out as far as Smith did. Maybe, Chris Wallace, but he is not moving to weekdays at 3PM.

As we said, Fox News says that it was completely Shepard Smith’s call to leave Fox News.

We believe that to be the case. But, we also believe that like the great sailor Popeye said, “I’ve taken all I can stands and I can’t stands no more.”

Smith could report the truth at 3PM, but it would all be spun and undone in primetime. Smith could tell viewers the sky was blue, but then Sean Hannity will come on at 9PM and convince the Fox News faithful that it is green.

I believe Smith grew tired of the game.

Maybe he decided that being part of an outlet, along with CNN and MSNBC that does more to divide this country, was no longer in his future.

The question now, is there someone on the Fox News bench that can replace him?

Stay tuned…