Is Megyn Kelly Leaving Fox News? Joe Scarborough Stokes Rumors, Urges Kelly To Learn From ‘Failed’ Glenn Beck

In a manner of speaking, it is actually Joe Scarborough’s business to get involved in Megyn Kelly’s career. As the host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the outspoken television personality often shares his opinions on a variety of hot-button issues. A veteran of the cable news circuit and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Scarborough frequently speaks from a position of authority when it comes to matters regarding politics and show business, and the rumors that Megyn Kelly is leaving Fox News includes a bit of subject matter from both of the aforementioned categories.

In a recent op-ed piece written for the Washington Post, Scarborough praised Megyn Kelly for her success as a broadcast journalist and author. He also commended her for attempting to balance her family life with the demanding schedule of hosting duties at Fox News, including her prime time television show, The Kelly File.

But pivoting to Megyn Kelly’s recent comments to Vanity Fair about the possibility that she might leave Fox News when her contract expires next year, Joe Scarborough suggested that Kelly would do well to learn a lesson from Glenn Beck’s post-Fox career. In dissecting Beck’s body of work after leaving the right-leaning media outlet, Scarborough was less than kind to his kindred conservative. In Scarborough’s assessment, he alleged that Beck turned against the good-natured, career changing influence of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes once he “began to believe that he had outgrown Fox News.” Indeed, although Beck’s media venture, the Blaze, grew quickly once it was established, the past few years have seen a decline in the once prominent conservative’s influence and audience.

“Five years after his Fox News departure, Beck has been irrelevant to the 2016 campaign,” Scarborough said in something of an open letter to Megyn Kelly. The host of Morning Joe also noted that Glenn Beck had to make deep financial cuts to his enterprise last year, ultimately loaning $3 million from his personal funds to the struggling media venture.

“That may be largely because his business has fallen apart since Beck left Fox News,” Scarborough added. “Those massive cuts came later that year and the media empire Beck imagined creating while sitting comfortably in his Fox News anchor chair never materialized.”

Joe Scarborough acknowledged that Megyn Kelly’s experience might be different, as she has a larger viewership than Glenn Beck these days, an opinion shared by Mediaite columnist John Nicosia. For his part, Nicosia was less than impressed with Scarborough’s unsolicited advice, pointing out that “Megyn Kelly has more viewers go to the bathroom during commercial breaks than Scarborough has during his entire three-hour show.”

The one thing that perhaps Joe Scarborough, Glenn Beck, and Megyn Kelly can agree on is that they all have had a contentious relationship with GOP front-runner Donald Trump during the present election cycle. Scarborough initially expressed enthusiasm for Trump’s candidacy, but later castigated the Republican candidate when Trump hesitated to denounce extremist supporters like David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. Ted Cruz supporter Glenn Beck has opposed Donald Trump for the better part of the primary season, going as far as comparing Trump to Hitler. Trump himself has dismissed Beck as a “wacko.”

As for Megyn Kelly, her well-documented feud with Donald Trump has been something of a boon, garnering her mainstream recognition well beyond the confines of her polarized audience at Fox News. In the above-noted interview with Vanity Fair, Kelly expressed appreciation for the support of Roger Ailes. In quotes cited by BizPac Review, she also said that she has always been able to work with Ailes through a variety of problems. Indeed, it’s a safe bet that Kelly will be in a great position when it finally comes time to reevaluate her position with Fox News. Moreover, the outcome of that eventual reckoning will depend more on the wants and needs of Megyn Kelly than on the whims and experiences of Joe Scarborough or Glenn Beck.

[Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images]