The 2016 Trump campaign made stars out of a great many journalists, and none used the ascendant politician as a springboard to greater fame more effectively than Fox News host Megyn Kelly. Having won over the sympathies of the national news media by going hard after Trump at one of the early Republican debates and then doubling those sympathies when she fell afoul of another patented Trump Attack (blood coming out of her…wherever), Kelly left Fox News not long after the election to join NBC, where she was promised a periodic nighttime news magazine show.
That show turned out to be…um, not so much of a success. Conservatives were largely disgusted with Kelly for her behavior during the election and liberals knew that Kelly had not suddenly shed all of those conservative impulses that vaulted her to the top of the Fox News pack in the first place. This left her fandom in a weird place. To wit: Nonexistent. And the ratings for her NBC show bore that out.
So NBC tried again, putting her in the 9:00 AM slot of the Today franchise in the hopes that she could win over America with a live audience and a less formal approach. Alas, this didn’t work much better than her previous outing and now, after making some un-PC remarks about white people and their right to paint their skin dark for Halloween, it seems Kelly’s star has fallen for the last time.
On Tuesday, Kelly stirred up a hornet’s nest in a discussion about what might be appropriate to wear on Halloween.
“But what is racist?” Kelly asked. “Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.
“There was a controversy on The Real Housewives of New York with Luann, and she dressed as Diana Ross, and she made her skin look darker than it really is and people said that that was racist,” Kelly continued. “And I don’t know, I felt like who doesn’t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day. I don’t know how, like, that got racist on Halloween.”
We have to admit that we (kinda) agree with Kelly’s remarks here; the FREAKOUT that occurs every time someone wears so-called blackface for Halloween is transparently stupid and full of meaningless virtue-signaling. On the other hand, anyone with half a brain knows that this is a “settled” matter as far as our culture is concerned. No good can come from bringing it up, especially if you’re trying to become a mainstream news/tainment star.
Kelly has since done the repugnant groveling “I’ve learned so much” apology thing, but it is apparently not going to be enough to save her job. CNN reported Thursday that her NBC show was done and that network executives were mulling over where to put her for the remainder of her contract.
Maybe Fox News is interested in buying her out?
Probably not.
