Shepard Smith

IT was the day after Bill Clinton lost his temper on "Fox News Sunday," and the video of the red-faced former president wagging his finger at Chris Wallace, accusing him of a "conservative hit job," was running on an almost constant loop on the top-rated cable news network. One anchor, however, made no mention of the episode. "I just wanted to stay away from it," said Shepard Smith, the 42-year-old Mississippi native who hosts two daily programs on Fox News Channel.

Slipping into a tracking booth to record headlines for his national newscast, Shepard Smith bellows: "Bus meets semi in Florida, children critically injured." Why is Smith trumpeting a local accident as his third major story, before the FBI's blunders in failing to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers? "Good pictures, and kids are involved," he says. They call him the anti-anchor here in the Fox News building, the sometimes-smirking man from Holly Springs, Miss.

Shepard Smith, the news anchor with the fastest Mississippi drawl on television, has been a rising star in cable news this year: The Fox News Channel personality has the top-rated newscast (as opposed to talk show), and in October and November his "Fox Report" passed CNN's Larry King to take the No. 3 spot overall. He's ahead so far this month too. But there's always room for more viewers.