Last night, Megyn Kelly got together with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg for a little female bonding among one percenters. And we all got to watch as Sandberg gushed over Kelly’s stance on behalf of working women in her highly-publicized (and almost certainly carefully calculated and pre-approved with the higher ups) on-air confrontation with Erick Erickson and Lou Dobbs defending working mothers. But in doing so, Sandberg demonstrated either ignorance of her pal’s full record on women’s issues or else a lack of concern over the hypocrisy.
In the excerpt below from the multi-part interview, Kelly and Sandberg discussed the guilt of working women and the difficult choices they face in trying to balance work and family. Of course, their loads are greatly lessened by having the means to employ nannies, maids, chauffeurs, assstants, etc. to ease the way. Not to mention the ability to take time off to nurse a sick child without worrying about paying the bills that month. How many people watching have those options?
But instead of acknowledging the even bigger burdens those less privileged face, Kelly hyped her working-woman cred by playing an excerpt from the Erickson segment.
Sandberg gushed, “Which is how we met. I loved it so much, I just called you to congratulate you. … (W)e became friends over it and I was really impressed that you did it.”
Well, that’s lovely. I'll also grant that Erickson got exactly what he deserved from Kelly. But I can’t help but wonder if Sandberg has any idea of what Kelly’s fuller history looks like. For example, as I wrote last year in a post called, “Before You Make Megyn Kelly A Hero For Challenging Erick Erickson’s Sexist Comments…”:
To be sure, Kelly has at times done a decent job on sex and gender issues. But not always. Remember when she helped rehab Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” comment? When she characterized Sandra Fluke’s call for contraception coverage in health insurance as a sense of “entitlement” – as she allowed a guest to slut shame Fluke? Or how Kelly made her resentment plain when the Susan G. Komen foundation reversed its decision, after a public outcry, to cut funding to Planned Parenthood? We remember. Coincidently, supporting Mitt Romney and slamming Sandra Fluke and Planned Parenthood are all consistent with the Fox News Party line.
Let's not forget that Erickson is and was a Fox News contributor at the time of that segment. The likelihood that Kelly just lit into a colleague without the approval - if not the direction - of a higher up is somewhere between slim and none.
But wait, there's more. Just last week, Kelly made no challenge as her conservative guest, Fox News contributor Dana Loesch called the gender pay gap a myth. She also described feminists as “old cat ladies” and “Mean Girls with less attractive women." There was not a peep of objection from Kelly about it. In fact, two days ago, Kelly worried that the Democratic Paycheck Fairness Act, designed to close the pay gap between men and women, would "infantilize" women.
It’s not just me complaining about Kelly’s self-serving stances. Jon Stewart exposed her hypocrisy on maternity and paternity leave. In a devastating 2011 segment, he caught her opposing paternity leave as an “entitlement” before she smacked down conservative Mike Gallagher in a heated defense of it after her own maternity leave.
Stewart commented:
They’re only entitlements when there’s something other people want. When it’s something you want, they’re a hallmark of a civilized society, the foundation of a great people. "I just had a baby and found out maternity leave strengthens society. But since I still have a job, unemployment benefits are clearly socialism."
Or, as I’d put it:, “Since I still have a job that pays me well to be against benefits for everybody else, I can play the role of a modern, young woman when it suits me and still have enough conservative cred the rest of the time to keep my prime time salary on Fox!”
I’m not trying to sabotage Kelly’s friendship with Sandberg or anyone else. But if Sandberg is going to go on prime time television and hold up Kelly as some proponent of women in the workplace - and coincidentally help Fox News fight the "Republicans have a war on women" meme - she is either unaware of her BFF's behavior or she’s got some ‘splaining to do.