Megyn Kelly: Critics Ask If Megastar Can Escape Her Past With Fox News


Megyn Kelly, the breakout star of Fox News over the past five years, has left the cable station. According to Page Six, she is set to take the top spot on Today with Matt Lauer.

“After the dramatic departure of Tamron Hall from Today, TV insiders are buzzing that Megyn Kelly could next unseat Savannah Guthrie as the star co-anchor with Matt Lauer.”

The article adds that sources reveal that Kelly is likely to take the lead role on the NBC morning show with Lauer when she starts in September. However, Megyn Kelly has caused controversy even before beginning her new job. The Daily Beast has the news.

“Megyn Kelly’s impending arrival at NBC News — an event apparently as momentous, and disruptive, as a 747 landing in a cornfield — has claimed its first casualty,” writes columnist Lloyd Grove, who adds that Tamron Hall, Al Roker’s co-host for three years, abruptly left the channel because of Kelly’s hiring.

NBC has been accused of “whitewashing” with Megyn Kelly. [Image by Paul Morigi/Getty Images]

According to Vulture, the National Association of Black Journalists has accused NBC of “whitewashing” when deciding to place Kelly on the same time Roker and Hall were on.

“NBC has been a leader for diversity in broadcasting, but recent reports that Hall and Roker will be replaced by former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly are being seen by industry professionals as whitewashing,” reads a statement from the group, adding that Roker and Hall’s ratings should have been rewarded instead of punished.

Some of the commenters after the article say that the statement is divisive and even hypocritical.

“I like Tamron Hall, and I am not so pleased to hear that she is being replaced by prissy Megan Kelly. HOWEVER, Just because a black person leaves a job, doesn’t necessarily make it whitewashing,” says Slaghoople.

“Wonder if they called it blackwashing when ratings leader Brian Williams was replaced with Lester Holt at the top news job. No, it was a decision made due to the individuals involved and money — just like this one,” states Alesh.

There seems to be a lot of bitterness against Megyn Kelly since she became a star because of Fox News, a media outlet that most of the mainstream media mocks and dislikes. However, unlike other Fox News hosts such as Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, Kelly isn’t a right wing personality; she has often defended gay rights, women’s rights, and she has been known to bash Donald Trump more than a couple of times.

Still, there are critics asking if Kelly can escape her past at Fox News. Caitlin Flanagan, from the Atlantic, wrote an entire essay on it.

“In the middle of all this, feeding clips of ammo into the hot Fox News machine, was Megyn Kelly. To watch her, during one of her interviews on the subject of race and policing, interrupt a black guest to ask her whether she’d ever called white people ‘crackers’ was to see Kelly in action, fired up and ready to go.”

Megyn Kelly was very critical towards Donald Trump. [Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

After describing how much Kelly was like the other hosts, Flanagan said that Kelly began to change before our eyes during the most recent presidential election. She not only fought Donald Trump, but Newt Gingrich and the father of Fox News, Roger Ailes, as well. Kelly even joined a number of Hillary supporters to take part in a Sheryl Sandberg initiative called “Lean In Together.”

Kelly has already earned the support of several liberal news outlets, and she is always invited to star-studded events. Perhaps whether or not she became a star on Fox News won’t matter in the long run. Do you think Megyn Kelly’s past at Fox News will hurt her future at NBC? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

[Featured Image by by Andrew Toth/Getty Images]

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