Fox News Channel says Shepard Smith has not been fired

Shepard Smith. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith still has a job with the network, despite claims on social media that he’s been fired.

Network spokeswoman Irena Briganti said in an email to The Associated Press that the story that Smith has been let go for his “obvious disrespect for President Trump” is “completely false.” Smith was on the air Monday afternoon in his regular time slot.

Web sites including adjourna and conservativesay reported that media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave Smith “his walking papers” after the anchor spoke out against President Donald Trump “on multiple occasions.” Similar stories circulated online about a year ago.

Smith has been a newscaster on Fox for more than 20 years. He’s been criticized by Fox’s more conservative viewers for reporting on views they disagree with. Last fall, the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America pointed out that Smith’s program had avoided a story about Hillary Clinton and an Obama-era uranium deal that was receiving heavy play elsewhere on the network.