We can chalk up Variety as the latest mainstream media outlet to somehow miss just how adeptly Megyn Kelly promotes Fox News propaganda – at the same time that she pretends she doesn’t.
In a lapdog profile, Variety writes:
Megyn Kelly is bucking the conventional wisdom of what it means to be a Fox News anchor. The take-no-prisoners newswoman isn’t afraid to throw hardballs at Republicans. She recently lectured Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul over his penchant for arguing with female reporters. She poked Jeb Bush about whether he would have invaded Iraq in 2003. She cornered Mike Huckabee for saying it was trashy for women to swear in public. Last year, she told Dick Cheney, “History has proven that you got it wrong” on Iraq. On Election Night 2012, she dared to question Karl Rove for claiming that Barack Obama hadn’t won Ohio, and it went viral.
As I noted when The New York Times fell for those “Megyn moments,” Kelly is adept at making calculated-to-go-viral moves – right before she goes right back to Fox talking points and more or less re-affirms them.
After ensuring her YouTube moment in the Cheney interview, for example, the rest of the interview was Fox News GOP Promotion 101. Kelly allowed Cheney to dissemble about the Iraq war and “asked” him, “Do you think that President Obama is dangerous?”
Nevertheless, Variety goes on to suggest that Kelly really is a Fox of a different color.
Viewers and critics are often befuddled, because they never know where she stands. She sounds like a Democrat on social issues (she’s long defended the transgender community) but a Republican on fiscal matters. Kelly tells Variety she’s not a member of the GOP. “I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans,” she says. “I’m an independent.” She believes her lack of political ideology actually makes her a more effective reporter. “I’m not rooting for anybody,” she says. “I’m a Fox News anchor, and I have no horse in the race. I can give anyone a hard time.” When asked if she considers herself a journalist or a personality, Kelly says, “I don’t really separate the two. I just think of myself as Megyn Kelly — broadcaster. You can do both.”
I’ll take Kelly’s word for it that she lacks political ideology. But while she personally may not root for anyone, her willingness to push Fox propaganda couldn’t be more evident. Show me a segment where Kelly yelled at and disrespected a Republican as much as she did Rep. Al Green (D-TX) as he tried to discuss a Congressional Black Caucus “hands up, don’t shoot” protest over the Ferguson grand jury decision not to indict a white police officer for killing unarmed black teen Michael Brown.
Or, for that matter, show me where Kelly apologized for her utterly bogus (and now forgotten) accusations that former Attorney General Eric Holder condoned black voter intimidation of white people out of racial prejudice. Kelly abruptly dropped her attacks once she was confronted on the air for her race baiting a phony story. But she spent more than 3.5 hours and 46 segments hyping easily-debunked, racially inflammatory falsehoods. And she continues to present the same source as a credible pundit to attack Holder.
In the Variety piece, Kelly makes it clear she wants to be the next Barbara Walters. And I actually think she could do it, if she can put aside her incessant race baiting. But don’t try to tell me that she’s not a reliable mouthpiece for Fox propaganda in the meanwhile.
Graphic by DonkeyHotey.
When asked if she considers herself a journalist or a personality, Kelly says, “I don’t really separate the two. I just think of myself as Megyn Kelly — broadcaster. You can do both.”
Did I not hear Megyn Kelly criticize NBC’s Brian Williams when he pointed to his humorous embellishments on entertainment shows like “the Tonight Show” and “Late Night/w Jimmy Fallon?” She told Williams that “you can’t do both.” I’m sure I heard her say that Williams, as a hi-profile “journalist,” can’t go on those shows and try to be funny and still expect people to take him seriously for being a “serious journalist.”
Haven’t I heard O’Reilly say that when he and other FNC LIARS get in trouble for LYING on air(and other media) that he, and FNC late-night, are not journalists, they are opinion analysts(see-Hacks), and are therefore held to a different(see-zero) standard.
Either O’Reilly is delusional, or Kelly is delusional! To reverse a phrase from Kelly: You can’t be both!
The suits know a blonde female will attract more male viewers than the other old men at this sham channel.
Billy will most likely retire, and Race Bait Hannocchio will probably be tossed out, if Nixon Trainee Ailes is replaced by a younger president.
