Junk Food for Jesus Brings Chick-fil-A Record Sales, Unlikely Critic

AP
Adam Martin 3,557 Views Aug 2, 2012

Chick-fil-A won't say exactly how much money it made from the righteous junk-food binge known as Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, but the company claims it set a one-day record, this despite one surprising critic in Fox News's Shepard Smith, who called it a "National Day of Intolerance." The stunt organized by Sen. Rick Santorum and Gov. Mike Huckabee got the chain a ton of national publicity and business as a show of support after its president, Dan Cathy, got criticized for expressing his opposition to same-sex marriage. Chick-fil-A vice-president Steve Robinson put out a statement on Thursday saying, "while we don’t release exact sales numbers, we can confirm reports that it was a record-setting day." But one voice of condemnation came from an unlikely place: The normally conservative Fox News.

Mediaite's Tommy Christopher clued us in to Shep Smith's editorializing: "Delivering one of those banal date-related factoids that news shows throw out there every so often, Smith said 'It’s National Badminton Day,' then added 'forget National Day of Intolerance, let’s just stay with badminton.' " Smith didn't attack Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day outright, but it sure sounds like that's what he was talking about. It's not the first time Smith has reacted differently from his Fox News colleagues on the topic of same-sex marriage: Remember that when President Barack Obama came out in favor of it, Smith said: "The President of the United States, now in the 21st century."

Mediaite shared the clip of his comments from Thursday:

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