Fox News anchor Shepard Smith appeared to be fact-checking his own colleagues in a strange response to criticism about New York City.
As he concluded a segment on the ongoing government shutdown during the Fox News Channel broadcast of “Shepard Smith Reporting” on Friday, the host added an unrelated comment before heading to a commercial break in what appeared to be a jab at the hosts of “Outnumbered.”
That show featured a panel discussion over the policies of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and ended up being a snapshot of the city which is the “worst that it’s ever been” under the Democrat’s leadership. The co-hosts of “Outnumbered” discussed the demise of the city – where the Fox News show is filmed – in segments Thursday and Friday.
“You can see the quality of life has gone down the drain,” host Melissa Francis said. “The streets are filthy. It’s more dangerous than ever. The squeegee men are back. The quality of life has gone down the drain.”
“It’s a disaster. It’s going down the drain,” Francis said Friday.
On his show Friday, Smith seemed to offer a rebuttal to his Fox News colleagues, ending a segment on the government shutdown with an invitation to “come visit” New York City.
“Here in New York City, city crime rates, violent crime rates, are the lowest they’ve been in seven decades,” he said.
“The violent crime rate is the lowest of any major city in America. Streets are clean, things are good,” he added. “Come visit us.”
New York City’s violent crime statistics showed a drop in 2018, according to a report in AM New York. Serious crimes were reportedly down 1.4 percent to a historic low of 95,509, also a historic low in 2018 though there was an increase by 22 percent in rapes.
A report in The Washington Times last year revealed that despite the statistics coming from deBlasio’s office, many New Yorkers – including law enforcement officials – are not buying the rosy picture being painted.
“It’s easy for Bill de Blasio to say our city is safe as he travels in an SUV guarded by the men and women of the NYPD,” Republican Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who lost an election bid to de Blasio, said at the time. “For over two decades stiff penalties for quality of life crimes kept our neighborhoods a little cleaner and a whole lot safer. Now, the progress made by our city has been sacrificed by a mayor who, along with our council speaker has put the rights of law breakers before those of law abiding New Yorkers who want a good quality of life where they live and work.”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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