Critiquing the Commentators, Part 12: Megyn Kelly Is Having a Moment

It’s either Mike Lindell begging you to buy a pillow, or William Devane of Rosland Capital bullying you into buying gold. There’s a rule, it seems, that at least one of these two commercials must run during every single cable news TV break. (I actually like the Rosland Capital ads. In fact, I’d support William Devane for secretary of the Treasury: That guy loves gold more than anyone I’ve ever seen!)

William Devane is probably a Megyn Kelly fan: She’s the new Gold Standard in conservative political commentary.

And what a wild and crazy eight years it’s been for Megyn Kelly. In 2016, she was one of the two leading faces of Fox News — the other being Bill O’Reilly — and was the rare FNC personality to reap mainstream media accolades for her toughness, intelligence, and veracity. But the same moment that the mainstream media lauded her for was the one that fractured her connection to conservative viewers.

I’m speaking, of course, of the “Rosie O’Donnell question” during the first Republican presidential debate:

For liberals, Megyn Kelly exhibited great courage and journalistic integrity: Perhaps she’s more of a lefty than we think! Maybe she’s only cosplaying as a conservative to placate her evil Fox News bosses. After all, she’s smart and beautiful; she MUST be a secret liberal!

Conservatives thought her question was a low-watt way to begin a presidential debate and noted how quickly her “talking points” were parroted to bash Trump. Via the cheerleading of the left, she became the public face of Trump’s so-called misogyny. Obviously, that didn’t sit well with MAGA fans.

This was the low point of Kelly’s relationship with conservatives.

But it was the high point of Kelly’s value on the open market. Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly were #MeToo’d from Fox News, so the network was desperate to keep her in the fold. And not just for continuity purposes, either: She got great ratings and was a hit, but Fox News took a severe PR beating during the #MeToo fallout. Megyn Kelly was their most prominent female talent; were she to flee from ‘em too, it would reinforce the PR narrative of Fox News being an unfriendly place for women.

NBC, however, saw Kelly as a unicorn: A smart, beautiful woman who already appealed to conservatives — and once liberals got to know her, they’d fall in love with her, too!

So they paid her between $15 million and $20 million a year. They tried her on morning TV, but the touchy-feely NBC “Today” vibe didn’t mesh with Kelly’s cool-headed demeanor. “Megyn Kelly Today,” her NBC daytime talk show, was poorly received and failed to connect with viewers.

Then, on October 23, 2018, Megyn Kelly did a show on the controversial, ultra-edgy topic of… Halloween costumes. (Gasp!) And during a segment, she voiced the shocking belief that it was okay for black and white kids to dress up as other ethnicities:

Truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween or a black person who put on whiteface for Halloween. When I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character.

Liberals, of course, [EXPLETIVE] a brick. Suddenly, Megyn Kelly wasn’t this wonderful unicorn — she was a crypto-conservative who infiltrated their ranks!

On the October 24 episode, Kelly issued a public apology. She also sent an internal email to her team members, letting them know how horrible she felt: “I realize now that such behavior is wrong, and I am sorry.”

But it wasn’t enough.

Liberals tarred and feathered her as a blackface apologist. Her show was canceled and her tenure at NBC cut short. CAA, her agency — which also repped the president of NBC News (coincidentally enough) — split from her, too.

Suddenly, Kelly stood at the crossroads of a once-promising career. There was still bad blood at Fox News, and now there’s the debacle at NBC. Two bridges burnt. That’s enough to destroy most careers.

She certainly wouldn’t have been the first can’t-miss superstar to fade into the night sky.

But the thing is, Megyn Kelly has talent. Real, undeniable talent.

She never was a “media creation,” or an empty, vacuous hype-balloon that Roger Ailes launched. She’s the genuine article: Looks, brains, charisma, guts — she’s got it all.

And on YouTube alone, she has over 3 million fans. (Plus another 3.4 million on X.)

Those numbers keep growing because she keeps uploading great content.

Eight years ago, Megyn Kelly was on a much different career path. Since then, she’s lost a few jobs, ate some bad press, and was served humble pie. But she gained something invaluable:

Credibility and gravitas as an independent thinker.

Megyn Kelly isn’t beholden to any network, party, or billionaire oligarch. She speaks her mind, damns the torpedoes, and blasts full speed ahead. Her commentary is sharp, biting, and rooted in honesty. When she says something, you know it’s not just lip service; this is what she truly believes.

She’s been a news anchor and a newsmaker, but it turns out that Megyn Kelly’s best role is being Megyn Kelly.

GRADE: A+

Prior commentators in this series: