Just one year after launching her own podcast, Megyn Kelly brought her show to SiriusXM Radio on Tuesday, vowing to fight “bulls*** censorship” and blasting media bias.
And Kelly pulled no punches — calling out hosts like Don Lemon, Joy Reid, and Chris Cuomo by name in an interview with the conservative outlet Outkick earlier in the day.
Kelly opened her first show on the satellite radio network by explaining that she wanted to cut through media spin and cover the news “in a truly fair and balanced way.”
“We’re doing this program because we believe there is an urgent need for independent voices in the media landscape — hosts who are not committed to corporate agendas, partisan jerseys, or simply committed to stoking your outrage day-in and day-out,” she said.
“We are not Woke, and we are no one’s sycophant. And we are entirely over the bulls*** censorship of free speech and debate that has seized hold of most media, education, Hollywood, sports, and corporate America,” she continued.
A recent poll showed that nearly two out of every three Americans (62%) feel afraid to share their political and moral beliefs with others for fear of personal and professional repercussions. “It is insane, but it is our reality,” Kelly said.
“When you hear the news discussed without a filter, without crippling concern for who’s going to claim offense or try to cancel you, it is a joy. It is intellectually stimulating. It’s wonderfully American. And it’s what you can expect from us,” Kelly said.
Earlier in the day, she told Outkick one of the most significant developments of the last five years has been “the complete collapse of the American media as a trustworthy source of information.”
Host Bobby Burack said, out of frustration and their desire for facts, “Americans have turned off CNN; unsubscribed to the New York Times; and have begun to follow Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and writers on Substack.”
“Totally,” Kelly agreed.
Kelly then specifically mentioned several media figures she believes distort the facts, naming CNN’s Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, as well as MSNBC’s Joy Reid and Brian Williams.
“Don Lemon is out there every night telling everybody what bigots they are. Meanwhile, this is a man who has been credibly accused of shoving his hands down the pants, fondling the genitals, and rubbing his hands all over a stranger in a bar,” she said.
A bartender named Dustin Hice filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Lemon for the alleged incident, which he says occurred in July 2018 at a bar in the Hamptons. Lemon denies the charge, and CNN defended its host by saying that Hice has “displayed a pattern of contempt for CNN on his social media accounts.” The legal process remains ongoing.
“Who is Don Lemon to lecture us on anything?” Kelly asked. “Don’t even get me started on Chris Cuomo. These are our moral arbiters who are casting judgment on regular American citizens who, for the most part, are powerless to fight back.”
“Joy Reid is a truly a grotesque person,” Burack interjected.
“She is absolutely one of the worst offenders,” Kelly said, citing Reid’s discredited allegations that someone had hacked her blog to post statements critical of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
“But, you know, it’s MSNBC; They put Brian Williams back on the air after about dozens, if not hundreds, of lies,” Kelly said, adding that she’s “got some information on that, by the way, but I’m not at liberty to share.”
“One of the good things that happened in 2017,” she said, “is the exposure of these organizations as utterly soulless and completely partisan.”
Kelly alluded to the legacy media’s softer coverage of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left hundreds of Americans stranded and unable to get to the Kabul airport to be airlifted to the United States.
“While the press was tough on Biden — unusually tough for them — on Biden at the beginning of this, I feel like they’re starting to turn,” she told Fox News host Lara Logan, before reading several laudatory statements about the evacuation. “Already, they’re trying to run cover for him and, of course, shift the narrative to more domestic stories, because everyone in the press realizes this has been disastrous for Biden and his poll numbers.”
Kelly expressed optimism during the Outkick interview that the extreme Woke movement of cancel culture can be defeated, if not the Left’s broader influence over the media and academia.
Kelly remained optimistic that the culture could be wrenched out of the hands of the Woke movement driving cancel culture. “There’s no appeasing the Woke …It doesn’t matter how many chips you deposit in the Woke Bank. They will come for you,” she said on Outkick. “The Woke is an annoying, probably 10-11% group, that won’t shut up and is incredibly squeaky. But I believe they can be stopped.”
On her own program, Kelly also interviewed National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz.
Her debut SiriusXM show closed with a call from “Timothy” — Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who welcomed her presence as a fellow Irish host on SiriusXM.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.