Megyn Kelly

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About

Megyn Kelly is a news pundit and television host formerly on Fox News channel and NBC. Online, Kelly has gained notoriety for various gaffes uttered over the years as well as a public feud with entrepreneur and Presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

History

Television Career

In 2003, Kelly was hired at the ABC affiliate news station WJLA-TV in Washington, DC as an assignment reporter, covering national and local events. In 2004, Kelly contributed to various legal segments on the Fox New channel. In February 2010, Kelly was selected as the host of the Fox New show America Live. On October 7th, 2013, Kelly began hosting the Fox News program The Kelly File.

Santa Claus is White

On December 10th, 2013, Slate^[1] published a column by writer Aisha Harris titled “Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore,” which argued that Santa Claus should be depicted as a penguin rather than the traditional image of an “old white male.” On the following day, Kelly discussed the article on her The Kelly File, during which she argued vehemently against against the idea of an image makeover for the mythical figure and claimed that both Santa Claus and Jesus were White (shown below). Kelly’s remark was subsequently met with punchlines from the late-night pundit circles and criticisms of race-baiting.

2015 Republican Presidential Debate

On August 6th, 2015, the first debate for the 2016 Republican presidential primary was hosted by Fox News at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The main debate was moderated by Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, with candidates Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and John Kasich. During the debate, Kelly questioned Trump regarding various insults he has directed at women, to which Trump responded that he didn't appreciate the way Kelly had treated him in the past (shown below).

On August 24th, Trump posted several tweets disparaging tweets toward Kelly about an interview segment on The Kelly File, referring to her as "the bimbo" and professing a preference for her temporary replacement while she was on vacation (shown below).^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] On August 25th, Fox News executive Roger Ailes released a statement describing Trump's attack on Kelly as "unacceptable" and "disturbing."^[7]

As of August 2015, Kelly has over 1.1 million Twitter^[2] followers and 800,000 Facebook^[1] likes.

Megyn Kelly Essentially

Megyn Kelly Essentially, also known as “Euphemism Megyn Kelly”, is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photo of Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly captioned with dismissive statements trivializing acts of violent crime and human rights violations.

Personal Life

Megyn Kelly was born on November 18th, 1970 in Syracuse, New York. She received her undergraduate degree in political science at Syracuse University before earning a J.D. from Albany Law School in 1995.

Blackface Halloween Costume Statements

On October 23rd, 2018, Megyn Kelly addressed whether wearing blackface is racist during an episode of Megyn Kelly Today during a discussion about Halloween costumes and political correctness. That day, Twitter user @tommyxtopher tweeted a clip of the segment, adding "Megyn Kelly wonders what the big deal is about blackface" (shown below).

“But what is racist? Because truly, you do get in trouble if you’re a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a Black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Like, back when I was a kid that was OK as long as you were dressing up as like a character.”

That day, a Twitter Moments^[9] page titled "Megyn Kelly under controversy for remarks on wearing blackface costumes for Halloween," which highlighted several tweets criticizing Kelly for her comments. That day, US Weekly^[8] published a letter sent by Kelly to staff at Megyn Kelly Today, in which she apologized for the comments:

"One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get the chance to express and hear a lot of opinions. Today is one of those days where listening carefully to other points of view, including from friends and colleagues, is leading me to rethink my own views. When we had the roundtable discussion earlier today about the controversy of making your face look like a different race as part of a Halloween costume, I suggested that this seemed okay if done as part of this holiday where people have the chance to make themselves look like others. The iconic Diana Ross came up as an example. To me, I thought, why would it be controversial for someone dressing up as Diana Ross to make herself look like this amazing woman as a way of honoring and respecting her?"

On October 24th, Kelly tearfully expressed remorse for the comments during the opening segment of her show (shown below). That day, CNN^[10] reported that Kelly would not be appearing on the show the following day, and was "unlikely to return." The following day, a Twitter Moments^[11] page titled "Megyn Kelly's future with NBC is uncertain," highlighting tweets reacting to news that the show would be ending.