Gawker :: Shepard Smith Is An Angry Gay

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith is not only closeted, claims Gawker in a recent article, but he was also a total asshole to the NYC club's wait staff.

According to the Oct. 22 article, Smith, the new director of Fox News' breaking news operation, has been caught several times over the last year being belligerent and abusive in public. According to Gawker, the victim of his ire last March was Katya Minskova, a 30-year-old waitress at the Chelsea speakeasy Bathtub Gin.

Minskova told the website that on the evening in question, the 49-year-old Smith was drinking his usual off-menu mix of gin, muddled cucumber and shaved ice when he grabbed the waitress, demanding the next round.

"He got up from his table, grabbed my elbow and started yelling, 'Where the fuck is my drink! Where is my fucking drink! Get my fucking drink!'" said Minskova.

The waitress said she tried to explain to Smith that the bartender was mixing the second round, but he said, "You're fucking slow, I told you I wanted a second round."

When the Fox anchor demanded the check, Minskova passed it on to another waitress, and Smith left without an apology or a tip.

"I've dealt with assholes and drunks before, but nothing like this," said the waitress, who ended up quitting several months later.

Gawker reports that during this incident, Smith was sitting with a straight couple and his "regular date," a 6'2" thirty-something white male who Minskova and another source said they had seen Smith with there on multiple occasions, and whom the Bathtub Gin staff referred to as "his boyfriend."

The sources said that the couple frequently holds hands under the table; none of the sources, including Fox insiders, said Gawker, knew the name of this alleged boyfriend.

Slate chastened Gawker reporter J.K. Trotter for burying the lead outing Smith, saying, "If that's Trotter's big scoop, and Gawker deems it so newsworthy, why did they dump the outing in the middle of a fluff piece about a speakeasy tantrum? Probably because there's no other way to do it without seeming sleazily reactionary."

Slate reporter Mark Joseph Stern criticized Gawker for unnecessarily outing the anchor, saying that despite working at the ultra-conservative news outlet, Smith was not a hypocrite, and had taken Republicans to the mat for their anti-gay stances on TV.

"Smith's sexuality isn't really juicy," wrote Stern. "It's just a personal detail, widely thought to be the case, which Gawker has now seemingly confirmed. They can feel free to dress it up as newsworthy, but that doesn't mean the rest of us have to pretend that it's real news."