Megyn Kelly's 'Blackface' Comments Leave Her NBC News Future Very Cloudy
/I missed this Megyn Kelly 'blackface' stupidity from Tuesday. The NBC face been on thin ice anyway, as Kelly's ratings have not been great. Her audience is 35% or more people -- largely women -- of color.
She still hasn't recovered from her run-in with Jane Fonda, choosing to ask Fonda about plastic surgery rather than her activism, which was the scheduled topic. Fonda abruptly ended the interview.
So Megyn Kelly, who already has a track record over objecting to black Santas, wonders out loud -- in the midst of this Trump crisis -- why whites can't wear blackface on Halloween. If the woman wanted to get her contract cancelled, she just delivered her own knock-out punch.
Kelly’s off the air Thursday and everything is up in the air at NBC. Rumors are intense that her departure is in negotiations. Given the outrage among her own colleagues over her ‘blackface’ remarks, it’s difficult to understand how Megyn Kelly can survive.
What was she thinking!!! Just last night I wrote a terse pushback over Instagram and Twitter outrage that Kendall Jenner was wearing frizzy curls in a photoshoot. Generally I feel that our culture has become way too politically correct. However, blackface??? Are you out of your mind Megyn Kelly? Because I refuse to buy the dumb blonde moniker, being one myself.
Kelly got withering criticism from her NBC colleagues. On Wednesday’s “Today” show, NBC anchor Craig Melvin called her comments “racist and ignorant,” and Al Roker, mister nice guy, always genial weatherman, said that Ms. Kelly “owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country.” Roker continued, “I’m old enough to have lived through ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ where you had white people in blackface playing two black characters magnifying the worst stereotypes about black people. That’s what the big problem is. That’s what the issue is.”
MSNBC anchor Jacob Soboroff wrote on Twitter that Kelly’s remarks were “vile.” “I was born in the same decade as Megyn Kelly and do not recall blackface being acceptable anywhere, anytime,” tweeted Alex Wagner of CBS News.
In her email, Kelly said that she’d never been a “PC” person, “but I understand that we do need to be more sensitive in this day and age. Particularly on race and ethnicity issues which, far from being healed, have been exacerbated in our politics over the past year.
The former FOX News anchor and Creative Artists Agency, the Hollywood talent agency that represented her, have parted ways. In addition, cast members and showrunners from the Netflix drama “House of Cards” canceled their scheduled appearance on her show.
THR reports that Kelly’s new lawyer Bryan Freedman, one of Hollywood's top talent-side litigators, will meet with NBC News executives in New York as early as Friday for what are expected to be decisive talks about her status at NBC News Considering the withering criticism from colleagues, it does seem increasingly unlikely that Kelly can return to NBC News. ~ Anne