In a discussion about the death of Eric Garner with former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, Megyn Kelly told the audience that Garner is a “convicted felon.” But she failed to mention that Kerik is, too. Instead, she referred to him as a decorated officer.
The segment was clearly designed to suggest that this latest example of a police killing of an unarmed African American has nothing to do with race. But while Kelly was combative, rude and dismissive to National Urban League’s Marc Morial, who tried to explain the African American perspective earlier in the show, she was a vision of hospitality to Kerik.
Kelly played a brief clip of last night’s protesters before she introduced Kerik. She said, “Joining us now for the other side of this debate, Bernard Kerik, who’s a former New York City police commissioner and a former NYPD officer who received the New York City Police Department medal for valor.”
But Kelly left out a few details of Kerik’s background. From CNN:
June 30, 2006 - Pleads guilty to charges that while head of the NYC Corrections Department, he received $165,000 in gifts from a New Jersey construction firm Interstate Industrial Corp., a company alleged to have ties to organized crime. He also failed to report a $28,000 loan from a real estate developer and is ordered to pay $221,000 in fines.
…November 5, 2009 - Kerik pleads guilty to eight felony charges, including corruption, tax fraud and lying to White House officials vetting his nomination as homeland security secretary in 2004.
…February 18, 2010 - Is sentenced to 48 months in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud, lying under oath, and other charges. Begins serving his sentence on May 17.
Kerik is also the former protégé and partner of Rudy “blacks need to start behaving better” Giuliani.
I’m all for giving a guy a second chance but those are the kinds of facts a network claiming, “we report, you decide” should tell its viewers, don’t you think?
Especially when Kelly thought it relevant to mention Garner’s record.
At about 2:48 into the interview, Kerik said he thought both Garner and Ferguson’s Michael Brown would be alive had they not resisted arrest. “And I don’t give a damn what color they were,” Kerik said.
Kelly added helpfully, “You think if Eric Garner – you know, 300+ pounds, you know, convicted felon – had been white, they would have treated him exactly the same.”
Was Kelly trying to suggest that Garner was a scary dude? I won’t try to read her mind. But I will say that Garner’s crimes were much lower level than Kerik’s. According to Silive, they mostly involved illegally selling cigarettes, though Garner was also caught driving without a license under a false name and with a small amount of marijuana.
I do appreciate the police perspective in cases like this. Police have a tough, dangerous job and have to make life-and-death decisions in seconds. But Kelly and Fox News keep trotting out known crooks and racists as experts – and then whitewashes that part of their records. Put that together with Fox's mistreatment of African American guests and the pattern is impossible to miss.
Watch the Kerik segment below. I’m also including the Morial interview for comparison.
Only on Fox would such a skewed scale be presented as even remotely credible.
I love that you did that!
I saw that Kerik was supposed to be on again but I didn’t see him, though I didn’t catch the entire show.
However, former police commish Howard Safir was on. He’s pretty clean, especially compared to Kerik.
Well, except for the time he hit a pregnant woman with his car and then drove away and another time he left the scene of an accident. And then there were the Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima incidents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/nyregion/09safir.html?_r=0
Here’s an article about Kerik’s affairs: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/bernard-kerik-double-affair-laid-bare-article-1.340899
Here’s a lengthy article about Regan at News Corp:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/03/wolff200703#
You and Ellen both left out the fact that Kerik was caught using an apartment the city had rented near Ground Zero for rescue workers to crash in for regular trysts with his also married lover at the time, the lady who ran a right-wing publishing house, I think it was Regnery, making it, of course, unavailable for those genuine heroes to use.
And then there was his Bush Jr. appointment to train Iraqi policemen post-war, a job he rarely showed up for and quit a la Palin a few months in without having had any discernible impact on the Iraqi police, but having drawn down some nice $$ from U.S. taxpayers.
In addition to being a convicted felon, Kerik is one of the absolute scummiest of scumbags.