Megyn Kelly deliberately raised fears about racial unrest in Ferguson and seemed uninterested in finding out whether or not they were valid. Coincidentally, she followed a similar playbook Bill O’Reilly used in the preceding hour.
In his “Fear in Missouri” segment just before The Kelly File, O’Reilly paid scant attention to the efforts his guest, an African American legislator in Missouri, said are being made to maintain peace. Instead, he repeatedly promoted the likelihood there will be an outbreak of even worse (black) violence than last summer.
Kelly used the same tactics. In her introduction, she announced that the grand jury will soon decide whether or not to indict the police officer who shot and killed the unarmed African American teen, Michael Brown. Kelly’s voice rose with drama as she continued:
With that decision coming any day, President Obama today said he has a quote, real heart-driven concern about the prospect of another round of violence in Ferguson. Attorney General Eric Holder also spoke up, saying he hopes the law enforcement response is appropriate and proportionate. And one local community in the St. Louis area sending a letter to residents telling them to prepare for the worst, suggesting they should stock up on water, non-perishable food items, prescriptions and gasoline, saying they may be indoors for several days.
Her guest for the segment was St. Louis County Police Chief, Jon Belmar, “one of the men in charge of the Ferguson response.”
Belmar immediately shot down the “stock up on food and stay inside” fear mongering. “I’ll be honest with you. I think that’s an over-reaction,” he said, “and I certainly hope that it is.”
Belmar acknowledged that there were “pretty serious riots” last summer but, he said, no lives were lost. The police have to be prepared for violence, he noted. However, “I gotta believe I have more faith in this community than that.”
That was so not what Kelly wanted to hear. She interrupted in order to paint the community as an angry (black) mob on the verge of rioting out of control:
With all due respect, we saw it too. And there is so much anger there – over race relations, over the shooting, over the way it’s been portrayed – whether, you know, that’s accurate or not, the viewers can make up their own minds. But I don’t know that our audience has the same doubts you do. I mean, this – this community looks like a powder keg and if this grand jury does what the community thinks is the wrong thing. I mean, all hell could break loose, could it not?
Kelly spoke with such concern, nobody could possibly think she was deliberately race baiting. Just because she spent weeks on a bogus story painting our African American attorney general as flouting the law to favor black people and then welcomed her source on that story as a neutral analyst on AG Holder’s role in Ferguson, just because she repeatedly hosted racist Mark Fuhrman to comment on Ferguson and just because this is the woman who "assured" her viewers that Santa and Jesus are white – she couldn’t possibly have a racial chip on her shoulder now!
Belmar said that since the protests, law enforcers have been “constantly engaging” with young people and other community groups. “I make sure that they know where we are, what we want to change, what we can do moving forward,” he added. “Their voices have to be heard.” Belmar also said that one group went with him to a press conference calling for peace.
Kelly showed absolutely no interest in exploring what's been done to ease tensions, how the police have reached out and how the community has responded. She dismissed the subject by saying, “Let’s hope that that’s how this turns out, one way or the other, no matter how the grand jury decides its case.”
Whatever the Ferguson grand jury decides, there's no doubt which side Megyn Kelly will promote.
Watch Kelly's fear mongering below, from last night's The Kelly File.
FOR EVERY ACTION, THERE IS A REACTION!
In the same way, when you push racial and ethnic minorities around long enough, sooner or later THEY WILL START PUSHING BACK!
If an armed black police officer had killed an unarmed white teenager, Blackroots Barbie and Bildo would be leading the lynch mob.