“To critics who accuse Fox News of being uniformly pro-Trump, the network often points to the blunt-truth reporting of Shepard Smith, its veteran chief news anchor, whose coverage of the Trump White House stood out on a channel known best for conservative opinion,” as the New York Times is reporting.
“Starting now, Fox News will need to point to somebody else.
“In an announcement that stunned colleagues, Mr. Smith concluded his Friday newscast by signing off from Fox News — for good. ‘Recently, I asked the company to allow me to leave,’ Mr. Smith said calmly. ‘After requesting that I stay, they obliged.’
“A member of the network’s founding staff in 1996, Mr. Smith became increasingly conspicuous at Fox News for his skepticism on President Trump. ‘Why is it lie after lie after lie?’ Mr. Smith asked during a 2017 newscast; this summer, he deemed the president’s attacks on minority female lawmakers as ‘misleading and xenophobic.’
“His pointed comments, closer in tone to that of CNN anchors like Anderson Cooper than of Fox News mainstays like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, irked Mr. Trump, who had taken to taunting Mr. Smith on Twitter as the network’s ‘lowest-rated anchor.’ Other Fox News personalities were also unimpressed: Last month, Mr. Carlson openly mocked Mr. Smith on-air, a rare moment of intramural discord bursting into public view.”
The rest of the article is here.
Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report 
This brings to light another aspect of these high profile “Anchors” for Fox. Non/Disclosure Agreements. In this case he (Smith) isn’t allowed to comment –“But given Fox’s strict nondisclosure agreements, it’s unlikely that Smith will be divulging much about the circumstances that led to his departure. It’s also unlikely that he’ll be showing up on another network anytime soon: He said an agreement he signed with Fox News means that he “won’t be reporting elsewhere at least in the near future.” Hilarious-
I think the situation is pretty self evident. Smith has been a counter balance for 23 years. Eventually, swimming in turd infested polluted waters gets to be enough. I look forward to his next adventure in real journalism.