On Friday afternoon, journalist Megyn Kelly interviewed a recently-fired CBS employee named Ashley Bianco, who was allegedly canned for leaking a video clip of ABC News anchor Amy Robach complaining that the network killed her story on registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein three years ago. 
But according to Bianco, CBS fired an innocent woman.
Working as a producer and video editor, Bianco told Kelly that she did indeed clip the video of Robach, but denied leaking it to James O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s Project Veritas, the group that dropped the story this week. Bianco said she had never heard of O&#8217;Keefe before the story broke, and O&#8217;Keefe has denied that Bianco was his source.
&#8220;Did you leak the tape?&#8221; Kelly started the interview.
&#8220;I did not,&#8221; answered Bianco, who recently left ABC and started working for CBS this week.
She cut the clip and saved it in the internal system, she explained, because that was part of her job.
After Robach made the remarks, Bianco said she went to her manager and asked if Robach knew she was &#8220;on a hot mic.” &#8220;She knew she was being broadcasted to all the affiliates,&#8221; Bianco was told.
&#8220;I just clipped it off; I essentially marked it in the system and it never left the system. We do it all the time,” she emphasized. 
&#8220;I did it just for office gossip you know,&#8221; the producer added.
&#8220;So this week you&#8217;re sitting at CBS doing your job, and what happens with Project Veritas?&#8221; Kelly asked.
&#8220;They released the video, you know, and I was shocked but I didn&#8217;t think anything of it,” answered Bianco. 
She was promptly fired and never given a chance to defend herself, she said.
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know what I had done wrong and I just, you know, I wasn&#8217;t even given the professional courtesy to defend myself,&#8221; Bianco claimed. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know what I had been accused of. It was, you know, humiliating. I was devastated.&#8221;
&#8220;Do you regret clipping that moment now?&#8221; questioned Kelly.
&#8220;I do. Had I known, I would have never clipped it. I didn&#8217;t do anything wrong. I didn&#8217;t do anything. I didn&#8217;t leak it. Anyone else could have clipped it off.&#8221;
Kelly noted, &#8220;Even James O&#8217;Keefe has come out now saying you are not the leaker, that you were not the insider who gave this to him.&#8221;
&#8220;I just want my career back,&#8221; Bianco told Kelly.
During the hot mic clip, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-megyn-kelly-announces-bombshell-first-interview-since-nbc-exit">Robach</a> claims ABC News killed the story for a multitude of reasons, including threats from Prince Andrew.
&#8220;I’ve had the story for three years. I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts. We would not put it on the air,&#8221; the ABC anchor says.  &#8220;&#8230; The Palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways. We were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will, that also quashed the story. And then Alan Dershowitz was also implicated in it because of the planes. She told me everything. She had pictures, she had everything. She was in hiding for 12 years. We convinced her to come out. We convinced her to talk to us. It was unbelievable what we had, Clinton, we had everything.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe title="The MK Interview: Megyn sits down with Ashley Bianco who was fired by CBS" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/87PVEXMN5qE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Megyn Kelly

CBS Reportedly Fired Innocent Woman For &#8216;Leaking&#8217; Video On ABC Killing Epstein Story: I Am Not The Leaker

Jeffrey Epstein

UPDATE: After this piece was published, Kelly posted a tease of the interview via Twitter:
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The former ABC staffer who allegedly leaked the hot mic Amy Robach tape sits down with me in an exclusive — here’s a preview — we’ll be posting the full exchange shortly at <a href="https://t.co/A53IqETTDd">https://t.co/A53IqETTDd</a>. Stay tuned! <a href="https://t.co/WgvUFgCnBX">pic.twitter.com/WgvUFgCnBX</a>
&mdash; Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/1192885402396512257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Original post:
On Friday morning, journalist Megyn Kelly announced that she conducted an interview with the CBS employee who was recently fired for exposing that ABC <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bombshell-abc-news-killed-epstein-clinton-story-says-anchor-in-hot-mic-video">killed a bombshell story</a> three years ago on registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This will be the first time Kelly has conducted an interview since exiting NBC News last year.
&#8220;Have you been following this story about the Amy Robach hot-mic moment at ABC?&#8221; the former &#8220;Megyn Kelly Today&#8221; host started. &#8220;She was caught talking about how she said she had the Epstein story three years ago and ABC wouldn’t air it. And then she amended to say, &#8216;Well, I didn’t have the corroboration,&#8217; after ABC had publicly had to deal w this hot-mic moment.&#8221;
&#8220;The employee who sort of marked that clip in the system and then moved on to CBS got fired this week because they suspected she leaked this thing to Project Veritas — which is the one that put it out there,&#8221; Kelly continued.
&#8220;Well, we just sat down with her in an exclusive interview,&#8221; she teased. &#8220;We got the full story and I think you’re gonna be fascinated by it.&#8221;
&#8220;Launching my Instagram with an exclusive interview of the woman just fired after the leak of a hot mic moment by ABC’s [Amy Robach],&#8221; Kelly caption the Instagram post, ominously adding, &#8220;But did ABC News target the right person?&#8221;
James O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s Project Veritas dropped the bombshell clip of Robach on Tuesday. Here&#8217;s the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bombshell-abc-news-killed-epstein-clinton-story-says-anchor-in-hot-mic-video">partial transcript</a> of the ABC anchor discussing how her network killed the story:
<blockquote>I’ve had the story for three years. I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts. We would not put it on the air. First of all, I was told who’s Jeffrey Epstein, no one knows who that is, this is a stupid story. Then the Palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways. We were so afraid we wouldn’t be able to interview Kate and Will, that also quashed the story. And then Alan Dershowitz was also implicated in it because of the planes. She told me everything. She had pictures, she had everything. She was in hiding for 12 years. We convinced her to come out. We convinced her to talk to us. It was unbelievable what we had, Clinton, we had everything. [emphasis added]
I tried for three years to get it on to no avail and now it&#8217;s all coming out and it’s like these new relevant revelations and I freaking had all of it. I’m so pissed right now, like every day I get more and more pissed because I’m just like, oh my god, what we had was unreal. Other women backing it up. Brad Edwards the attorney three years ago saying like, &#8216;there will come a day for we will realize Jeffrey Epstein was the most prolific pedophile this country has ever known.&#8217; I had it all three years ago.</blockquote>
Kelly was canned at NBC last year for allegedly discussing people dressing up as famous black and brown people for Halloween and darkening their faces. But last month, Fox News host Tucker Carlson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-floats-real-reason-megyn-kelly-was-canned-from-nbc">suggested</a> she was actually fired because she called for an outside investigation into the network over internal claims of sexual misconduct and the suspect handling of allegations into Democratic mega-donor Harvey Weinstein.
WATCH:
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</a> 
 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B4m0pYGHQAU/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Launching my Instagram with an exclusive interview of the woman just fired after the leak of a hot mic moment by ABC’s @ajrobach. But did ABC News target the right person? ⠀ ⠀ Follow along with me here @MegynKelly, for current stories and my insight in real time.</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/megynkelly/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Megyn Kelly</a> (@megynkelly) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-11-08T13:45:49+00:00">Nov 8, 2019 at 5:45am PST</time>
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WATCH: Megyn Kelly Announces Bombshell First Interview Since NBC Exit

NBC News

Though she has defended him in the past, former Fox and NBC News host Megyn Kelly says she cannot ignore the Ukraine whistleblower&#8217;s attorney&#8217;s &#8220;clearly partisan, harshly anti-Trump&#8221; past statements that &#8220;reveal an unambiguous desire to oust&#8221; the President of the United States.
Kelly made the statement online in response to a post by attorney Victoria Toensing. &#8220;Attorney for so-called whistleblower, [Mark Zaid], tweeted in January 2017 that &#8216;#coup has started.&#8217; And, &#8216;Impeachment will follow &#8230; &#8216;&#8221; Toensing tweeted Thursday. &#8220;[Zaid has] been planning to take down [President Trump] for over two years. Will MSM publish the story?&#8221;
Toensing is referencing multiple <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whistleblower-lawyer-in-january-2017-coup-has-started-impeachment-will-follow">tweets by Zaid</a> from 2017 celebrating that a &#8220;coup&#8221; by federal officials had begun and &#8220;impeachment&#8221; of Trump &#8220;will follow.&#8221; Zaid made the comments in response to the announcement that Trump had fired Attorney General Sally Yates &#8220;for refusing to enforce a legal order to protect the citizens&#8221; of the United States.
&#8220;#coup has started,&#8221; Zaid tweeted. &#8220;First of many steps. #rebellion. #impeachment will follow ultimately. #lawyers.&#8221;
In another tweet, Zaid again declared the beginning of the &#8220;coup.&#8221; In response to Trump announcing the appointment of Dana Boente as Acting Attorney General, Zaid wrote: &#8220;#coup has started. As one falls, two more will take their place. #rebellion #impeachment.&#8221;
Responding to Toensing&#8217;s post, Kelly wrote: &#8220;I earlier said I’ve always known [Mark Zaid] to be a straight shooter (he’s helped clients in situations I’ve covered, no matter whether it would hurt a [Democratic] or [Republican] admin). But these tweets are clearly partisan, harshly anti-Trump &amp; reveal an unambiguous desire to oust the [president].&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I earlier said I’ve always known <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarkSZaidEsq</a> to be a straight shooter (he’s helped clients in situations I’ve covered, no matter whether it would hurt a D or R admin). But these tweets are clearly partisan, harshly anti-Trump &amp; reveal an unambiguous desire to oust the prez. <a href="https://t.co/uOGo6bLYnD">https://t.co/uOGo6bLYnD</a>
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/1192454798597079040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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As reported by <a href="https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2019/11/08/he-doth-protest-too-much-megyn-kelly-calls-whistleblower-attorney-mark-zaid-out-for-his-anti-trump-tweets-and-he-just-cant-deal/">Twitchy</a>, Zaid has since responded with another loaded statement citing &#8220;dictatorships.&#8221;
&#8220;Amazing how many [people] completely misunderstand def of &#8216;partisan&#8217;. I have zero affiliation [with] politics other than holding all public officials accountable,&#8221; Zaid wrote. &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t aware in America citizens had to like their president. Those are dictatorships.&#8221; Zaid also linked to Merriem&#8217;s definition of dictatorship.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Amazing how many ppl completely misunderstand def of &#8220;partisan&#8221;. I have zero affiliation w/politics other than holding all public officials accountable.
I wasn&#8217;t aware in America citizens had to like their president. Those are dictatorships.<a href="https://t.co/jpPigHhncY">https://t.co/jpPigHhncY</a> <a href="https://t.co/yT6CENpWOA">https://t.co/yT6CENpWOA</a>
— Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/1192525819517779968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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After Zaid&#8217;s &#8220;coup&#8221; and &#8220;impeachment&#8221; tweets came to light earlier this week, Trump campaign communication director Tim Murtaugh told Fox News that Zaid has exposed the whistleblower&#8217;s political game.
&#8220;The whistleblower’s lawyer gave away the game,&#8221; Murtaugh said. &#8220;It was always the Democrats’ plan to stage a coup and impeach President Trump and all they ever needed was the right scheme. They whiffed on Mueller so now they’ve settled on the perfectly fine Ukraine phone call. This proves this was orchestrated from the beginning.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-to-argue-whistleblowers-protections-voided-by-consulting-with-schiff-prior-to-filing-complaint-report-says">GOP To Argue Whistleblower’s Protections Voided By Consulting With Schiff Prior To Filing Complaint, Report Says</a>

Megyn Kelly Calls Out Whistleblower Lawyer’s ‘Partisan, Harshly Anti-Trump’ Comments; He Responds With ‘Dictatorship’ Tweet

Donald Trump

Mark Zaid

Ukraine

When approaching her role in Lionsgate’s “Bombshell,” actress Charlize Theron was apprehensive, reports <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/02/entertainment/charlize-theron-megyn-kelly-bombshell/index.html">CNN</a>.
“This was not a person who was easy for me to wrap my arms around,” Theron said at a recent panel in L.A.
<blockquote>From afar it looks like we have nothing in common – obviously, I&#8217;m a liberal and a lot of these women have said things that have been deeply upsetting to me. But at the same time, as a woman, understanding what each of them went through and understanding what Megyn was facing, especially in those two weeks where she didn&#8217;t step forward and she didn&#8217;t support Gretchen [Carlson], that&#8217;s when I emotionally tapped into her because I started to see similarities between us, dare I say that.</blockquote>
“Bombshell,” a film that chronicles the downfall of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes after allegations of sexual misconduct, stars Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie. It was written by Charles Randolph, who co-wrote 2015’s “The Big Short,” and directed by Jay Roach, who directed political dramas “All The Way” and “Game Change.”
“I saw a woman with ambition, with drive, and all of a sudden I realized, ‘S***, this is the kind of stuff that&#8217;s been weaponized against me. I relate to that.’ That&#8217;s when it became clear to me just how important this story was,” Theron stated. “Because if we can see the power of the message through someone who we may not agree with or somebody who might even anger us, that tells you there&#8217;s something real there.”
Theron added that it was difficult to analyze Megyn Kelly as a person because so much of the available footage of the former Fox News anchor is from her doing her job as a journalist.
Theron had previously <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/charlize-theron-megyn-kelly-bombshell-monster.html">discussed</a> the role, and the way in which actors are supposed to engage with character research, with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, saying:
<blockquote>You forget sometimes – all of us do this – we think we know people, we have our preconceived ideas of them. As an actor, you have to have that ability to put all of that aside and do research, and to actually find out about somebody.</blockquote>
Theron added that there were certain aspects of the part that “bothered” her. It wasn’t until she came to the understanding that the movie was a portrait of the women who took on an alleged abuser at Fox News, rather than a Megyn Kelly biopic, that it “felt &#8230; like a story worth telling.”
In her 2016 memoir “<a href="https://people.com/books/megyn-kelly-memoir-9-things-we-learned-about-roger-ailes-alleged-sexual-harassment/">Settle for More</a>,” Kelly describes an incident that allegedly took place in January 2006: “Roger called me up to New York and we had a shocking exchange. I was nervous about going into his office, concerned he might start in again. Sure enough he did. And then he crossed a new line – trying to grab me repeatedly and kiss me on the lips.”
Kelly also claims that Ailes had made sexually charged comments toward her. The Fox News anchor left the network in January 2017.
In July 2016, former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who is played by Nicole Kidman in “Bombshell,” <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/06/fox-settles-with-gretchen-carlson-for-20m-and-is-expected-to-offer-apology-report.html">sued</a> Ailes for sexual harassment. Two months later, the suit was settled, and Carlson was paid $20 million.
Announcing the settlement of the suit, 21st Century Fox issued a statement that read in part: “We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.”

Charlize Theron.

Charlize Theron Says Playing Megyn Kelly Was Difficult, But Ultimately ‘A Story Worth Telling’

Charlize Theron

Fox News

Gretchen Carlson

Hollywood

Roger Ailes

On Monday, author Sil Lai Abrams explained how her rape accusation against music mogul Russell Simmons and sexual assault charge against then &#8211; “Extra” host A.J. Calloway were allegedly killed off by NBC in 2018.
Abrams says Simmons, who has since moved to Bali, raped her in 1994. Mr. Calloway, who no longer works at &#8220;Extra&#8221; — which &#8220;airs in major markets on NBC owned-and-operated stations,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/russell-simmons-an-extra-host-nbc-news-a-sexual-assault-accusers-story-1123824">The Hollywood Reporter</a> — allegedly sexually assaulted the author in 2006. Both Simmons and Calloway have denied the allegations.
According to Abrams, her #MeToo claims were set to be covered by MSNBC host Joy Reid before the interview was killed off by NBC higher-ups in the same fashion journalist Ronan Farrow&#8217;s reporting on Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was apparently buried.
&#8220;I have been struck by the company’s (NBC) insistence that Ronan didn’t have the Harvey Weinstein story in the bag,&#8221; Abrams writes at <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-not-just-ronan-farrow-nbc-news-killed-my-rape-allegation-story-too?ref=scroll">The Daily Beast</a>. &#8220;I don’t believe a word of what it says because in 2018, the network killed my #MeToo story that was being reported by MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid. Incredibly, a year after NBC botched Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein, they had the audacity to do it again.&#8221;
Abrams says she was put through &#8220;a thorough vetting process” and an on-camera interview with Reid was taped on January 7, 2018, which was scheduled to air six days later. She assumed they would go forward with the taped interview and publish an accompanying #MeToo piece written by Reid for New York magazine. Neither, however, would hit the press. 
The day before the interview was set to air, Abrams was asked to contact Reid. 
&#8220;When we spoke a few hours later, she informed me that Russell Simmons&#8217; attorney had gone ballistic and NBC was not going to air the segment, and the New York magazine story was also on hold since they were paired,&#8221; Abrams said. &#8220;She assured me the story wasn’t dead, but that NBC simply needed more vetting done in order to feel comfortable with moving forward.&#8221;
&#8220;Over the next several months, NBC put me through an elaborate and bizarre vetting process,&#8221; Abrams continues. &#8220;I provided legal documentation, hospital bills, and over a dozen corroborating witnesses. Still, they stonewalled. I asked Joy repeatedly if NBC was going to do to her what it did to Ronan, and she said that she didn’t think so.&#8221;
In mid-February, Reid allegedly emailed Abrams:
<blockquote>“So basically the story got caught up in a couple of vices: the struggle to get comments from the principles (now mostly alleviated), threats from Russell’s lawyer that spooked NBC,” Joy told me via email. “So now NBC… is demanding that I do all of this additional reporting to meet a legal and standards review.”</blockquote>
“Still not clear why NBC is demanding more corroboration regarding A.J. [arrest] &#8230; his lawyer already confirmed the case, but I know this isn’t about you,” Abrams replied to the MSNBC host. 
“My team and I, my PA and senior producer helping me with the story met with the standards department rep today just to figure out what the heck’s going on,” Reid explained to Abrams in a phone call two weeks later. “I just have to get my company to have the guts to do the story. I’ve never done a story that has this much evidence before. I have more evidence than the LA Times and The New York Times stories combined. So the whole thing is, if my company will trust the evidence that I’ve shown them, which is substantial, they will do the story.”
When Abrams asked if the network was going to kill her story due to legal threats from Simmons&#8217; and Calloway’s attorneys, Reid allegedly told her: “We have enough that we have satisfied the standards side, but this is now in the hands of lawyers who have to determine the likelihood of a lawsuit by two people now, and what is the likelihood that we will prevail. … This has now gone up past the attorneys I deal with to the head of NBCUniversal’s lawyers. I’ve never been through anything like this.”
Abrams writes that the last time she spoke with Reid was on April 6, 2018, when Reid told her should take her story elsewhere. Senior management, Reid reportedly told her, had stopped responded to her inquiries about the story.
As reported last week by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-floats-real-reason-megyn-kelly-was-canned-from-nbc">The Daily Wire</a>, Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that former NBC host Megyn Kelly was canned from the network because she called for an outside investigation into internal claims of sexual misconduct by former “Today” host Matt Lauer and the handling of Farrow’s reporting on Weinstein. 
“Last September, early September, you (Kelly) on your show, on the air on NBC, called for an independent investigation into these allegations,” Carlson said to Kelly, who appeared alongside the host on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday night. 
Carlson ran a clip of Kelly from September 2, 2018. “There is a question about whether or not there should be an outside investigator to take a hard look at this,” she said. “To me, as a lawyer, it’s just always better to just send it outside, and then people can have more faith in it and if there’s nothing to hide, you have no worries about it,” Kelly added. 
“People’s jaws hung open when you said that,” Carlson told Kelly. “There have been a couple of published accounts that say you were fired from NBC, a little more than a month later, for saying that.”
Kelly was ostensibly canned from NBC in October for discussing whether it’s “racist” or not for people to darken their faces for Halloween costumes.  
Carlson then pointed out that MSNBC host Chris Hayes similarly questioned NBC’s handling of such allegations and reporting. “He (Hayes) is saying essentially what you said, which is he doesn’t trust the management at NBC News,” he said to Kelly. “Given your experience, do you think he’s in jeopardy of being fired?”
Tellingly, Kelly responded: “No comment to that.” 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-floats-real-reason-megyn-kelly-was-canned-from-nbc">Tucker Carlson Floats Real Reason Megyn Kelly Was Canned From NBC: Called For Independent Investigation</a>

Sil Lai Abrams

Author Says Her Rape Claim Set To Air With Joy Reid Was Killed By NBC

Matt Lauer

Sexual Assault

Tucker Carlson

On Wednesday, NBCUniversal announced that there will not be any additional investigations into sexual misconduct allegations surrounding former “Today” host Matt Lauer. 
&#8220;There is no additional investigation being launched,” NBCUniversal spokesperson Hilary Smith said, according to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nbcuniversal-wont-conduct-new-matt-lauer-investigation-1248592">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. &#8220;We are very confident in the report that was conducted.”
&#8220;We fired Matt Lauer within 24 hours of learning what he did, and promptly launched a corporate investigation,” Smith contended. “Based on our investigative findings, we have swiftly taken appropriate actions to address the situation and improve workplace culture. It is also worth noting that this was a corporate investigation that was conducted by an almost entirely female team, none of whom are part of the News division.&#8221;
Megyn Kelly, a former NBC employee who’s been vocal in her support for an outside investigation, blasted the network for their lack on transparency. 
“CBS, FOX, NPR, NFL &#8211; all hired outside investigators,” she posted to Twitter. “NBC again refuses to do so &#8230; as it claims it has ‘nothing to hide.’”
“RELEASE ALL LAUER ACCUSERS FROM THEIR NON-DISCLOSURES,” Kelly added, in all upper case letters.
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CBS, FOX, NPR, NFL &#8211; all hired outside investigators. NBC again refuses to do so &#8230; as it claims it has “nothing to hide.” RELEASE ALL LAUER ACCUSERS FROM THEIR NON-DISCLOSURES. <a href="https://t.co/cMoLMYCcE6">https://t.co/cMoLMYCcE6</a>
&mdash; Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/1184971434856202240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
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While working for NBC, Kelly publicly called for an outside investigation into the network over internal claims of sexual misconduct regarding Lauer and the suspect handling of allegations into Democrat megadonor Harvey Weinstein.
“There is a question about whether or not there should be an outside investigator to take a hard look at this,” Kelly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-floats-real-reason-megyn-kelly-was-canned-from-nbc">said</a> on NBC airwaves on September 2, 2018, referring to the Lauer allegations and apparent stonewalling on Weinstein reporting from then-NBC journalist Ronan Farrow. “To me, as a lawyer, it’s just always better to just send it outside, and then people can have more faith in it, and if there’s nothing to hide, you have no worries about it,” she added.
While Kelly was ostensibly fired from NBC a month later for remarks about darkening one&#8217;s face for Halloween costumes, Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested Wednesday that Kelly was actually canned for calling for an outside investigation.
Kelly neither confirmed nor denied Carlson&#8217;s theory.
“There needs to be an outside investigation into this company,” she told Carlson. “They investigated themselves, that doesn’t work. Fox News had an outside investigator, CBS News had an outside investigator, NPR, the NFL, this is how it’s done. You get somebody on the outside who can be trusted.” 
As reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-lauer-accused-of-rape-by-former-colleague-lauer-responds">The Daily Wire</a> last week, former NBC news employee Brooke Nevils claims she was raped by Lauer in 2014 while covering the Sochi Olympics, Farrow&#8217;s new book &#8220;Catch and Kill&#8221; reveals.
“Once she was in his hotel room, Nevils alleges, Lauer — who was wearing a T-shirt and boxers — pushed her against the door and kissed her. He then pushed her onto the bed, ‘flipping her over, asking if she liked anal sex,’ Farrow writes. ‘She said that she declined several times,’” a report from Variety said.
Nevils claims she “was in the midst of telling him she wasn’t interested again when he ‘just did it,’” Farrow wrote in the book. “Lauer, she said, didn’t use lubricant. The encounter was excruciatingly painful. ‘It hurt so bad. I remember thinking, Is this normal?’ She told me she stopped saying no, but wept silently into a pillow.”
“It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” the former NBC employee told Farrow. “It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex.”
Nevils admitted that she had consensual sexual encounters with Lauer following the alleged rape — some of which she initiated.
According to Farrow, Nevils says the alleged incident was an open secret at NBC before a formal complaint was filed and Lauer was canned.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-floats-real-reason-megyn-kelly-was-canned-from-nbc">Tucker Carlson Floats Real Reason Megyn Kelly Was Canned From NBC: Called For Independent Investigation</a>

NBC Won&#8217;t Open New Investigation Into Matt Lauer; Megyn Kelly Responds

Rape

Ronan Farrow

On Wednesday night, Fox News&#8217; Tucker Carlson, citing published accounts, suggested the real reason Megyn Kelly was canned from her job at NBC last year was because she called for an outside investigation into the network over internal claims of sexual misconduct and the suspect handling of allegations into Democrat mega-donor Harvey Weinstein. 
&#8220;Last September, early September, you (Kelly) on your show, on the air on NBC, called for an independent investigation into these allegations,&#8221; Carlson said to Kelly, who appeared alongside the host on &#8220;Tucker Carlson Tonight.&#8221;
Carlson ran a clip of Kelly doing just that on September 2, 2018. &#8220;There is a question about whether or not there should be an outside investigator to take a hard look at this,&#8221; Kelly said, referring to allegations of sexual misconduct aimed at former “Today” host Matt Lauer and apparent stonewalling on Weinstein reporting of then-NBC journalist Ronan Farrow. “To me, as a lawyer, it&#8217;s just always better to just send it outside, and then people can have more faith in it and if there&#8217;s nothing to hide, you have no worries about it,” Kelly added. 
&#8220;People&#8217;s jaws hung open when you said that,&#8221; Carlson told Kelly. &#8220;There have been a couple of published accounts that say you were fired from NBC, a little more than a month later, for saying that.&#8221;
Kelly was ostensibly canned from NBC in October for discussing whether it’s “racist” or not for people to darken their faces for Halloween costumes. 
Carlson then pointed out that MSNBC host Chris Hayes similarly questioned NBC&#8217;s handling of such allegations and reporting. 
&#8220;He (Hayes) is saying essentially what you said, which is he doesn&#8217;t trust the management at NBC News,&#8221; Carlson said to Kelly. &#8220;Given your experience, do you think he&#8217;s in jeopardy of being fired?”
&#8220;No comment on that,&#8221; Kelly tellingly responded. “I will say, the question is open as to whether [NBC] put dollars ahead of decency.” 
“There needs to be an outside investigation into this company,” she continued. “They investigated themselves, that doesn&#8217;t work. Fox News had an outside investigator, CBS News had an outside investigator, NPR, the NFL, this is how it’s done. You get somebody on the outside who can be trusted.” 
As outlined by Tiana Lowe earlier this week, it’s become increasingly clear that Kelly was likely fired for questioning NBC management, rather than the “blackface” comments, in light of reporting from Farrow&#8217;s new book &#8220;Catch and Kill.&#8221;
“Ronan Farrow&#8217;s explosive reporting on the lengths NBC went to shut down his investigation into Harvey Weinstein grants further credence to an unpalatable, sexist, and abhorrent rationale for Kelly&#8217;s firing: NBC wanted to silence Kelly&#8217;s coverage of their former anchor, Matt Lauer,” Lowe posted at <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nbc-probably-fired-megyn-kelly-for-her-matt-lauer-coverage">The Washington Examiner</a>. 
“In the weeks before the blackface nothingburger, Kelly spent ample amounts of time on her talk show reporting on the numerous sexual assault and harassment allegations plaguing Lauer. Unlike many of her fellow daytime hosts, Kelly had covered the #MeToo beat in scrupulous and, at times, necessarily unsavory detail: conducting explosive interviews with multiple Weinstein victims, and when the Lauer story broke and his termination from NBC came shortly thereafter, Kelly covered it with the same righteous indignation,” she continued. “On live television, Kelly called on her own employers to allow an external team to investigate the network&#8217;s handling of the entire Lauer affair, and she went so far as to interview one of Lauer&#8217;s accuser on air.”
“It&#8217;s a massive gamble to criticize the ethics of your own employer on national television, but Kelly rightly made that bet. And NBC fired her for it,&#8221; Lowe claimed. &#8220;We can be more confident thanks to new reporting by Farrow.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Tucker Carlson Floats Real Reason Megyn Kelly Was Canned From NBC: Called For Independent Investigation

Harvey Weinstein

On Wednesday, Lionsgate released the first trailer for &#8220;Bombshell,&#8221; its feature film on the sexual harassment allegations against former Fox News Channel chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, who resigned in July 2016 as a result of the scandal and died less than a year later. The film stars Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, Margo Robbie as a fictitious news producer at the network, and John Lithgow as Roger Ailes.
In its report on the film&#8217;s first trailer, <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/08/margot-robbie-charlize-theron-nicole-kidman-roger-ailes-jay-roach-movie-bombshell-trailer-1202700698/">Deadline</a> notes that, for some reason, Lionsgate chose to drop the trailer &#8220;very quietly.&#8221;
The <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6394270/">film</a> is directed by Jay Roach, who also directed the politically charged made-for-TV movie &#8220;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1848902/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_6">Game Change</a>&#8221; (2012) about Sen. John McCain naming former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate. The screenplay was written by Charles Randolph, who also wrote the script for &#8220;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_4">The Big Short</a>&#8221; (2015).
The teaser trailer does not feature Lithgow&#8217;s Ailes, but it provides the audience a look at the three female leads heading up to the second floor, where Ailes&#8217; executive suite was located. Deadline points out that the trailer also provides a glimpse of Saturday Night Live comedian Kate McKinnon as a producer with the network, whose name hasn&#8217;t yet been provided on IMDB.
Watch the trailer below via Lionsgate:
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Fox News has long been in the crosshairs of Hollywood, the scandal surrounding Ailes&#8217; departure providing the perfect opportunity to take aim at the network. The allegations against Ailes first began to emerge when Carlson sued him in July 2016 for sexual harassment in what turned out to be a precursor to the #MeToo movement, which erupted in fall 2017 as a result of a flood of accusations against megaproducer and Democrat megadonor Harvey Weinstein.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/7223/breaking-gretchen-carlson-files-sexual-harassment-amanda-prestigiacomo">The Daily Wire</a> reported at the time, Carlson filed the lawsuit on July 6, 2016, about two weeks after being fired for what she alleged was her refusal to succomb to his sexual advances. Two months later, 21st Century Fox settled with Carlson for a reported <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/8916/fox-news-hands-20-million-settlement-gretchen-amanda-prestigiacomo">$20 million</a>. &#8220;We sincerely regret and apologize for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect that she &amp; all our colleagues deserve,&#8221; the company said in a statement announcing the settlement in early September 2016.
About two weeks after Carlson filed her lawsuit, reports revealed that Kelly had made similar accusations against Ailes, allegations she detailed in her book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Settle-More-Megyn-Kelly/dp/0062565311">Settle for More</a>,&#8221; published in November 2016.
Amid mounting pressure and a growing number of accusations, Ailes resigned from Fox News on July 21, 2016. Though Ailes <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/7257/roger-ailes-responds-gretchen-carlsons-sexual-james-barrett">denied</a> the &#8220;false&#8221; allegations and claimed that Carlson&#8217;s lawsuit was &#8220;retaliatory,&#8221; he said in his <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/21/fox-news-confirms-that-roger-ailes-is-leaving-company.html?view=story&amp;%24DEVICE%24=native-android-tablet">resignation letter</a> that he was stepping down because he didn&#8217;t want to be a &#8220;distraction&#8221; for the network.
Ailes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/16597/fox-news-founder-roger-ailes-dead-age-77-james-barrett">died </a>in May 2017 from &#8220;complications of a subdural hematoma after he fell at home injuring his head,&#8221; the medical examiner&#8217;s report states. &#8220;Hemophilia contributed to his death and his manner of death was accidental. There was no evidence of foul play.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/38591/megyn-kelly-nbc-finalizing-exit-deal-and-its-good-james-barrett">Megyn Kelly, NBC Finalizing Exit Deal, And It&#8217;s A Good One For Kelly</a>

WATCH: Charlize Theron As Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman As Gretchen Carlson In ‘Bombshell’

On Monday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show,&#8221; Knowles attacks the Left for applying political correctness selectively. Video and partial transcript below:
It drives me crazy because about once a year there&#8217;s a movie from Hollywood that I actually want to go see. In the last few years, we had &#8220;A Quiet Place,&#8221; we had &#8220;Hail Caesar,&#8221; &#8220;Get Out&#8221; was kind of interesting, but those are the exceptions. Most of the movies were horrendous. So you finally see a movie that looks pretty good, and then it gets canceled.
This is the problem with cancel culture. This is the problem — which is 99.9 percent a Leftist problem, but occasionally conservatives get involved too — which is, we don&#8217;t like you, we&#8217;re going to shut you down, we&#8217;re going to shut you up, or we think we don&#8217;t like you, so we&#8217;re gonna shut you down and shut you out. Bad idea. Just let it out. It&#8217;s ok. They&#8217;ll make a movie. If Hollywood wants to make a bad stupid liberal movie, people aren&#8217;t going to go see it. Hollywood wants to make what seems like a fairly conservative movie. I bet people would have gone to go see it, but you don&#8217;t have to go see it if you don&#8217;t want to.
Now it&#8217;s not just this movie, it&#8217;s not just &#8220;The Hunt.&#8221; Unfortunately, this is a tough day. I&#8217;m having almost as bad a day as Jeffrey Epstein too because not only do I have to defend Hollywood, I have to defend Sarah Silverman, one of my least favorite comedians — if you can even call her a comedian. But she apparently, she was relating this on a podcast — Sarah Silverman apparently just got fired from a movie because, on her own unfunny TV show, she wore blackface one time. I don&#8217;t watch her show. I didn&#8217;t watch the episode. I don&#8217;t know the context of the blackface, but I assume she wasn&#8217;t wearing it to just make fun of black people. I don&#8217;t think she was going out there — I don&#8217;t know that she was singing Al Jolson songs or something. I assume she was doing it for a comedic point, to make some kind of point. And yet she was fired from a movie for it.
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So my question is: Has Jimmy Kimmel been fired yet from his show? Jimmy Kimmel wore blackface on &#8220;The Man Show.&#8221; Has Ted Danson been fired from his incredibly good and successful career in Hollywood yet? Ted Danson wore blackface one time to make a point. How about Robert Downey Jr? He wore blackface in that movie &#8220;Tropic Thunder.&#8221; How about Julianne Hough? I don&#8217;t even know who that is. But she is apparently a Hollywood person; she wore blackface. How about Fred Armisen from &#8220;Portlandia&#8221; and SNL? He wore blackface on &#8220;SNL.&#8221; How about Gigi Hadid? How about the Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam, who either wore blackface or a KKK hood? Probably the latter but he hasn&#8217;t copped to either of them — he was just on his medical school yearbook page.
Why are we firing one person for this when we&#8217;re not firing other people? Doesn&#8217;t make a lot of sense. Also are we really going to take away someone&#8217;s career because they wear blackface? I guess, if you&#8217;re gonna do that though, if that&#8217;s the new rule, then you&#8217;ve got to apply it to everyone. And are we going to take away the Wayans Brothers&#8217; careers because they were white face in that movie &#8220;White Girls&#8221; or &#8220;White Chicks.&#8221; Remember that movie was two black guys who put on white face and blonde wigs and they pretended to be white girls. So you&#8217;re allowed to do that but you&#8217;re not allowed to wear blackface? Or I guess you&#8217;re allowed to wear blackface — for virtually every liberal elite in Hollywood — except for Sarah Silverman. I hate defending Sarah Silverman, but I have to do it because it&#8217;s just not applied fairly. There&#8217;s no logic to this cancel culture. There&#8217;s no logic to these new speech codes. There&#8217;s no logic to political correctness. It isn&#8217;t a logical ideology. Political correctness is a cudgel — that&#8217;s all it is. It&#8217;s just a tool. It&#8217;s just a hammer used to smack down your opponents. Which is why it only happens to some people and not others.
You know Meghan Kelly, for goodness sakes, she was on that show and on NBC, and she suggested that wearing blackface isn&#8217;t the worst possible crime, especially let&#8217;s say if you go out and go as Diana Ross — let&#8217;s say for Halloween you darken your skin a little bit to look more like Diana Ross. Maybe that&#8217;s not the end of the world. Maybe you shouldn&#8217;t get fired for that. And she lost her show for that, even though other people on the same network have worn blackface multiple times but nothing happens to them. Now, why did they go after Meghan? Did they go after Meghan because of her comments about blackface? Absolutely not. They went after Meghan because they don&#8217;t like her politics — because they&#8217;re not exceedingly left-wing — and they went after her because they didn&#8217;t like her show. So they were looking for an excuse to get rid of her show, and they used that politically correct excuse as a way to do it. But it wasn&#8217;t about principles, it wasn&#8217;t about values, it wasn&#8217;t about logic. Nothing. And that is always the way political correctness is applied.
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-michael-knowles-show/id1266577963?mt=2">Download full episode of &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on iTunes.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/michael-knowles-show">Watch &#8220;The Michael Knowles Show&#8221; on-demand!</a>

Sarah Silverman

KNOWLES: Cancel Culture Comes For Sarah Silverman

Jimmy Kimmel

Michael Knowles

Political Correctness

Ralph Northam

Video from a 2016 taping of &#8220;The View&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/photo-of-joy-behar-dressed-as-beautiful-african-woman">reveals</a> co-host Joy Behar darkened her skin to dress like an &#8220;African woman&#8221; for Halloween when she was 29.
The segment was focused on the &#8220;feminist statement&#8221; of embracing naturally curly hair. This triggered Behar to show off a photo of her 29-year-old self in the controversial costume, proudly boasting about her natural curls and how &#8220;cute&#8221; she was.
Former co-host Raven-Symoné was shocked when the photo first appeared on screen. &#8220;Joy, is that you, Joy?&#8221; she asked. &#8220;Joy, is that you? Joy, are you black?&#8221;
&#8220;I was so cute,&#8221; Behar said.
&#8220;Are you my auntie, Joy?&#8221; Raven-Symoné joked.
&#8220;I was 29,&#8221; explained Behar. &#8220;I went as a beautiful African woman.&#8221;
&#8220;Oh, you ain&#8217;t black,&#8221; Raven-Symoné muttered in response.
Reacting to Raven-Symoné&#8217;s clear change of tone, Behar asked, &#8220;Why are you upset with me now?&#8221;
&#8220;Did you have tanning lotion on, Joy?&#8221; Raven-Symoné asked.
&#8220;I had makeup that was a little bit darker than my skin,&#8221; Behar explained.
A firestorm of political controversy hit Virginia recently after an alleged yearbook <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42962/breaking-kkk-blackface-photo-emerges-virginia-ryan-saavedra">photo</a> of Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, dressed in either blackface or a KKK robe, resurfaced online. Northam, who advocated for infanticide earlier this month, initially copped to the photo, but now is claiming it is not him in the photo. In another twist, though, Northam did say he once darkened his face to look like pop icon Michael Jackson in a talent show. The Democrat has told reporters that he can still moonwalk, and seemingly almost demonstrated this before his wife told him it was inappropriate.
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I&#8217;m at &#8294;EVMS&#8297; in Norfolk, Virginia (Gov. Ralph Northam graduated here). These are photos from the 1984 yearbook, including &#8294;<a href="https://twitter.com/GovernorVA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GovernorVA</a> Ralph Northam&#8217;s page, in a yearbook provided by the library. I&#8217;ve asked the governor&#8217;s office for comment.
Sent from my iPhone <a href="https://t.co/1u3mYKJWnY">pic.twitter.com/1u3mYKJWnY</a>
&#8212; Sarah McCammon (@sarahmccammon) <a href="https://twitter.com/sarahmccammon/status/1091460734918238209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who&#8217;s next in line to take Northam&#8217;s position if the governor were to resign, is now facing an accusation of sexual assault which Fairfax has suggested was leaked by Northam&#8217;s team.
And to compound the political insanity, &#8220;the third-ranking elected official in Virginia, Attorney General Mark R. Herring, acknowledged Wednesday that he had worn blackface at a party as an undergraduate student, deepening a crisis that has engulfed the state&#8217;s Democratic leadership,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/us/politics/virginia-blackface-mark-herring.html">reported</a> The New York Times on Wednesday.
In October, NBC host Megyn Kelly was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37506/megyn-kelly-issues-apology-so-called-blackface-amanda-prestigiacomo">canned</a> from the network after comments concerning people dressing up as characters and celebrities of differing races on Halloween that critics decried as &#8220;racist.&#8221;
Ironically, Kelly&#8217;s comments merely discuss the type of costume Behar actually wore and proudly showed off to a live audience.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t see how that is racist on Halloween,&#8221; said Kelly, remarking on a cast member from Bravo&#8217;s Real Housewives of New York getting into trouble for dressing up as legendary singer Diana Ross. &#8220;Who doesn&#8217;t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don&#8217;t know how that got racist on Halloween,&#8221; the former Fox host continued, noting that the costume was done in homage, not mockery.
&#8220;What is racist?&#8221; she asked &#8220;Because truly you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character.&#8221;
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Joy Behar admitted during a taping of The View in 2016 to dressing as a &#8220;beautiful African women&#8221; at a Halloween party when she was 29 which involved makeup &#8220;that was a little bit darker than my skin&#8221;
The show even ran an image of the old photo <a href="https://t.co/qKQqzDPxyn">pic.twitter.com/qKQqzDPxyn</a>
&#8212; Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) <a href="https://twitter.com/LevineJonathan/status/1093272835076837377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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WATCH: Joy Behar Darkened Skin To Dress As &#8216;African Woman&#8217; For Halloween

Joy Behar

Race

The View

Virginia

The negotiations between Megyn Kelly and NBC News are all but in the books, according to multiple reports, and it&#8217;s working out quite nicely for the soon-to-be-former NBC host. Inside sources say that Kelly will be walking away with the full value of her original $69 million contract, which means she will receive the full $30 million left on her three-year deal.
Citing sources &#8220;familiar with the matter,&#8221; <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/megyn-kelly-nears-deal-to-leave-nbc-news-with-entirety-of-69-million-contract-1542751002">The Wall Street Journal</a> reports that Kelly, a little less than halfway through her deal, is expected to part ways with Comcast Corp.&#8217;s NBC News &#8220;with more than $30 million &#8212; the full value left on the three-year, $69 million contract with the network.&#8221;
One of the Journal&#8217;s sources says her official exit may come as early as next week. The two sides have been reportedly haggling over largely &#8220;nonfinancial&#8221; issues, the source says, including her deal&#8217;s noncompete and nondisclosure clauses.
<a href="http://pagesix.com/2018/11/20/megyn-kelly-finalizing-30m-exit-from-nbc/">Page Six</a>&#8216;s sources have confirmed that Kelly will be receiving the full $30 million payout, one source stressing that it won&#8217;t be official until next week, at the earliest. &#8220;It&#8217;s taking slightly longer than expected, the paperwork is going back and forth,&#8221; the source told Page Six.
Another source told the outlet that both sides want the whole ordeal behind them. &#8220;Everyone wants this to be over &#8212; both Megyn and NBC &#8212; and Comcast has the money to pay off Megyn,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;We thought this would be a done deal a few weeks ago.&#8221;
A &#8220;senior TV source&#8221; told Page Six that NBC simply did not want to prolong the process by haggling, so has agreed to pay her the full amount of her contract.
&#8220;NBC decided rather than fight and face a lawsuit from her, they &#8212; and more importantly, Comcast with all its money &#8212; decided to draw a line under the entire debacle and pay Megyn the full amount owed in her contract to go away,&#8221; said the source.
The source went on to predict that this won&#8217;t be the end of Kelly&#8217;s career, saying, &#8220;in the Trump era, there are few broadcasters like her,&#8221; and suggesting she&#8217;ll likely take a break then make a comeback ahead of the next election.
The abrupt breakup between Kelly and NBC was spurred by her comments about what is or isn&#8217;t appropriate to wear for Halloween ahead of the holiday. Kelly pushed back on the idea that changing one&#8217;s skin tone to portray a famous figure of a different race was necessarily racist, comments made in the context of paying tribute to the figure. Citing criticism of &#8220;Real Housewives of New York&#8221; star Luann de Lesseps for darkening her skin to dress as Diana Ross, Kelly said, &#8220;And people said that that was racist. And I don&#8217;t know! I thought like, who doesn&#8217;t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don&#8217;t know how that got racist on Halloween.&#8221;
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Megyn Kelly wonders what the big deal is about blackface <a href="https://t.co/07yvYDuAYe">pic.twitter.com/07yvYDuAYe</a>
&#8212; Tommy Xtophurkey (@tommyxtopher) <a href="https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1054725740476973057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Critics, including several media outlets, characterized the comments as a &#8220;defense&#8221; of the racist practice of &#8220;blackface,&#8221; which Kelly stressed was not her intention in an emotional apology the next day.
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&#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry..The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor..Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too.&#8221; Megyn Kelly <a href="https://t.co/6hHrvZLNvK">pic.twitter.com/6hHrvZLNvK</a>
&#8212; Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) <a href="https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/1055084273420722176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Kelly&#8217;s apology was not enough for network executive Andy Lack, whose relationship with Kelly had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37635/nbc-sources-suggest-real-reasons-network-wants-james-barrett">already reportedly soured</a>.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37859/megyn-kelly-breaks-silence-slams-out-control-media-james-barrett">Megyn Kelly Breaks Silence, Slams Out Of Control Media: &#8216;Videotaped My 7-Yr-Old Child&#8217;</a>

Megyn Kelly, NBC Finalizing Exit Deal, And It&#8217;s A Good One For Kelly

Members of the media have taken their coverage of her breakup with NBC too far, Megyn Kelly said in a series of tweets Wednesday.
&#8220;For a week paparazzi has been lurking outside my home day &amp; nite. Finally today I took my kids to school. I went out alone 1st, offered them donuts &amp;begged them to just take their pic of me &amp; to leave my kids alone when they emerged. All were nice. Except the Dailymail,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;The DailyMail 1st published photos of my husb IN OUR HOME &amp; then *did* photog my kids, trailed us to my daughter&#8217;s school, &amp; secretly videotaped my 7-yr-old child (her classmates too) &amp; posted it. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.&#8221;
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1 of 2: For a week paparazzi has been lurking outside my home day &amp; nite. Finally today I took my kids to school. I went out alone 1st, offered them donuts &amp;begged them to just take their pic of me &amp; to leave my kids alone when they emerged. All were nice. Except the Dailymail&#8230;
&#8212; Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/1057665039082110976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
2 of 2: The DailyMail 1st published photos of my husb IN OUR HOME &amp; then *did* photog my kids, trailed us to my daughter&#8217;s school, &amp; secretly videotaped my 7-yr-old child (her classmates too) &amp; posted it. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.
&#8212; Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/1057665322608664576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Kelly&#8217;s tweets come amid a public feud between her lawyer Bryan Freedman and NBC executives. In response to reports by the Daily Mail and others that his client was allegedly asking for more money, Freedman called on NBC to refute such false and disparaging allegations.
&#8220;Despite my efforts to handle this process confidentially, NBC News is allowing the media to run with completely false and irresponsible reports that disparage Megyn by erroneously claiming she has ever asked for more money than her contract requires,&#8221; said Freedman Wednesday, <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/10/megyn-kelly-exit-negotiations-lawyer-criticism-andy-lack-steve-burke-1202493047/">Deadline</a> reports.
&#8220;If NBC News is not the source then they have a responsibility as a news division to correct these false claims,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Or are they somehow attempting to use these fabrications for some fictitious advantage in the discussions we&#8217;re having? If Andy Lack has lost control, my hope would be that Steve Burke can step in and not permit blatant lies about our discussions to remain uncorrected.&#8221;
A spokesperson for NBC dismissed Freedman&#8217;s suggestions about any wrongdoing. &#8220;Unlike Mr. Freedman, who has repeatedly commented to the media throughout the negotiations, we respect the confidentiality of the process, and will have no comment until it reaches its conclusion,&#8221; the spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline.
NBC has moved to fire Kelly after she pushed back on the notion that changing one&#8217;s skin tone to portray a famous figure of a different race for Halloween was necessarily racist. Critics portrayed the comments as a defense of the racist practice of &#8220;blackface.&#8221; Kelly offered an emotional apology the next day, but Lack publicly rebuked her and reports quickly began to circulate that she was out.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37635/nbc-sources-suggest-real-reasons-network-wants-james-barrett">NBC Sources Suggest Real Reasons Network Wants Megyn Kelly Fired</a>

Megyn Kelly Breaks Silence, Slams Out Of Control Media: &#8216;Videotaped My 7-Yr-Old Child&#8217;

NBC was aghast that Megyn Kelly said it was once OK to color your skin during Halloween when she was a kid.
&#8221;But what is racist?&#8221; she said on her NBC morning show last week. &#8220;Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.&#8221;
Kelly was quickly drummed out of NBC and accused of being a racist.
Now, before we go on, we want to point out that Kelly didn&#8217;t actually appear in blackface, dressed up like, say, Aunt Jemima. She just said those words.
But now it turns out several NBC stars have dressed up in blackface, and in whiteface &#8212; including one who fiercely criticized Kelly.
NBC News anchor Lester Holt once dressed as British pop singer and YouTube sensation Susan Boyle for Halloween, complete with wig and a dress, but also wearing whiteface, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/lester-holt-dressed-up-as-a-woman-in-whiteface-fallon-in-blackface-what-exactly-is-nbcs-policy/">Mediaite reported</a>. Ironically, Holt did so for an appearance on the Today Show &#8212; the very same show from which Kelly was fired.
See a <a href="https://pagesix.com/2017/10/03/the-today-shows-most-unsettling-halloween-costumes/slide-6/">picture here</a>, posted on Page Six of the New York Post.
Fox News&#8217; Tucker Carlson discussed Holt on his show Tuesday.
&#8220;He has changed his appearance in a way that is now very controversial. He wore that costume for a Halloween episode of the &#8216;Today&#8217; show, Megyn Kelly of course was just fired for suggesting that it wasn&#8217;t always bad to dress up as a member of an opposite race,&#8221; Carlson said.
At the 2016 Golden Globes, Jimmy Fallon, another NBC star, wore blackface during an impersonation of comedian Chris Rock. He also did the same during a &#8220;Saturday Night Live&#8221; sketch in 2000.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E37BSMRA7-o" width="1280"></iframe></div>
And ABC late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel also donned blackface for a skit back in 2000, when he appeared in blackface to pretend he was NBA Hall of Famer Karl Malone on Comedy Central&#8217;s &#8220;The Man Show.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="722" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-wse5lgIDxM" width="963"></iframe></div>
And who can forget the time &#8220;30 Rock,&#8221; another NBC show, featured Tracy Morgan as a white woman and Jane Krakowski in blackface.
But &#8203;Carlson rightly said the whole thing is silly, and noted that whiteface is not exactly blackface, which has a long history.
&#8220;Look, I just want to be clear, I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s an equivalence between the two. There is a long history of one and not of the other. But I also wonder, I don&#8217;t think, there are like five people in America who would be deeply offended by what Lester Holt did. I&#8217;m not offended by it. Maybe though if you dress like that you should be slightly less self-righteous in the face of other people&#8217;s transgressions.&#8221;

Lester Holt Once Dressed As Woman In &#8216;Whiteface,&#8217; Jimmy Fallon In Blackface

Jimmy Fallon

Lester Holt

Racism

It&#8217;s Halloween and time for another round of outrage over inappropriate costumes.
Once upon a time, parents &#8212; most of them, anyway &#8212; were concerned with oversexualized costumes for little children, but how unenlightened was that ? Today we&#8217;re focusing our energy on what&#8217;s really important. Now it&#8217;s all about &#8220;cultural appropriation.&#8221; White children need to &#8220;own their privilege&#8221; and not dress up and pretend to belong to a non-oppressive race.
Megyn Kelly ran afoul of NBC&#8217;s &#8220;diversity/inclusion&#8221; police, and as we write this, it looks like she&#8217;ll be canned for saying: &#8220;But what is racist? Because truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on white face for Halloween.&#8221; Oops. The word &#8220;blackface&#8221; is loaded and should be avoided, since people immediately think of minstrel shows, and kids shouldn&#8217;t dress up as Al Jolson crooning &#8220;Mammy&#8221; in &#8220;The Jazz Singer.&#8221;
Kelly continued: &#8220;Back when I was a kid, that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.&#8221; Not only was she tongue-lashed on air by NBC&#8217;s black news stars; it seems like this gave NBC a reason to end her morning show, a cover story to nix the (cringe) Fox News woman.
It might have been a better starting point to ask if it&#8217;s offensive for a white boy to want to be Black Panther for a few hours. And if that&#8217;s wrong, can a Person of Color be Superman?
Can a white comedian impersonate a black man? If not, then can a black man not poke fun at white people either? And what does it say about white people that when that happens, we &#8230; laugh?
Oh, the intolerant preachings of the tolerant left.
CNN analyst Kirsten Powers is one of these obnoxious people. The other day, she tweeted: &#8220;Dear white people who are upset that you can&#8217;t dress up as another race or culture for Halloween: your feelings don&#8217;t matter. The only feelings that matter are of those who feel disrespected/mocked by you appropriating their culture for entertainment. Show some common decency.&#8221;
This is the same Kirsten Powers who wrote a book in 2015 titled &#8220;The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech.&#8221; Back then, she worked for Fox.
Back in 2015, after Powers&#8217; book came out, then-Yale lecturer Erika Christakis sent an email around campus suggesting Halloween used to be a time for children to be a little naughty or subversive. She wrote about Disney princess costumes, saying: &#8220;it is hard for me to give credence to a claim that there is something objectionably &#8216;appropriative&#8217; about a blonde-haired child&#8217;s wanting to be Mulan for a day. &#8230; I wonder what is the statute of limitations on dreaming of dressing as Tiana the Frog Princess if you aren&#8217;t a black girl from New Orleans? Is it okay if you are eight, but not 18?&#8221;
She even concluded, &#8220;Whose business is it to control the forms of costumes of young people? It&#8217;s not mine, I know that.&#8221;
Nearly a thousand students, faculty members and deans called for both Christakis and her husband, Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a Yale professor, to be fired immediately for this alleged offense. She stopped lecturing, and her husband resigned some duties at the end of the school year in 2016.
Powers actually spoke to the Christakis incident (and others) when she was a Fox News analyst in November 2015. She said, &#8220;It is not actually that anybody is in any danger.&#8221; Bill O&#8217;Reilly added, &#8220;It is oppressive to hear somebody with an opposing point of view.&#8221; Powers replied, &#8220;Exactly. &#8230; They talk about it as if they&#8217;ve been actually physically attacked, because somebody has expressed an opinion different than theirs.&#8221;
Now re-read that tweet of hers. You have our permission to laugh &#8212; quietly.
There&#8217;s nothing wrong with Halloween spurring a &#8220;teaching moment&#8221; for children, but what is being taught? Leftists want to use these costume controversies as just another grenade to destroy the careers of anyone asking them a single challenging question about how to negotiate their minefield.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

BOZELL &#038; GRAHAM: What&#8217;s Halloween Without Racism Charges?

Cultural Appropriation

Halloween

With NBC News in negotiations with host Megyn Kelly&#8217;s lawyer over the terms of her dismissal, network sources are beginning to share more about the behind the scenes drama leading up to the public blowup &#8212; and it doesn&#8217;t have much to do with her questioning if it was necessarily &#8220;racist&#8221; for someone to change their skin tone for Halloween.
The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/megyn-kelly-is-out-at-today-after-her-blackface-comments-but-the-nbc-family-rejected-her-long-ago/2018/10/25/ebd39cd0-d7ac-11e8-aeb7-ddcad4a0a54e_story.html?utm_term=.0f8403b9a318">Washington Post</a> reports that after talking with a &#8220;half-dozen current and former NBC staffers&#8221; on the condition of anonymity, it appears that NBC throwing Kelly under the bus has been a long-time coming, proceeded by &#8220;a compounding list of problems: Inside the building, colleagues had grown envious of her large salary, exasperated by her on-air gaffes and disdainful of her low ratings.&#8221;
&#8220;Everyone&#8217;s feeling is, even if you have to pay her [the remainder of her contract], pay her,&#8221; one staffer told the Post. &#8220;Andy [Lack], you can save face with this entire thing. Just get rid of her.&#8221;
As the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/megyn-kellys-nbc-career-implosion-ugly-dramatic-and-inevitable">Daily Beast</a> highlights, Kelly was already on the rocks over the poor performance of her show, Lack having told her weeks ago that her morning show was going to get the ax. &#8220;Weeks before her blackface gaffe, Kelly was looking for an exit strategy,&#8221; the Beast reports.
In addition to problems with her &#8220;envious&#8221; colleagues and ratings struggles, Kelly recently publicly questioned NBC&#8217;s handling of the Ronan Farrow expose on Harvey Weinstein, a story NBC quashed, prompting Farrow to leave and repeatedly rebuke his former network. According to <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/megyn-kellys-lawyer-wants-ronan-farrow-to-attend-meeting-with-nbc-executives/">Mediaite</a>, Kelly&#8217;s relationship with the network &#8220;soured&#8221; after that:
<blockquote>
Farrow recently accused NBC News of <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/online/ronan-farrow-fires-back-at-nbc-over-weinstein-report-memo-i-was-being-blocked-from-further-reporting/">blocking his reporting on Weinstein</a>, a charge that was denied by network chief Andy Lack. Megyn Kelly covered the spat on her NBC News morning show, <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/megyn-kelly-suggests-on-nbc-show-that-outside-investigator-probe-nbc-news-handling-of-weinstein-story/">questioning</a> NBC&#8217;s handling of the Weinstein report, and suggesting the network use an &#8220;outside investigator&#8221; to find out what happened.
In the next few weeks, NBC and Kelly&#8217;s relationship <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/why-is-nbc-actively-hyping-megyn-kellys-blackface-controversy/">soured</a>. Her comments this week defending blackface ignited a controversy that earned public rebukes from her NBC colleagues, and a <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/why-is-nbc-actively-hyping-megyn-kellys-blackface-controversy/">strong condemnation</a> from Lack before the network&#8217;s staff.
</blockquote>
On Wednesday, Lack made clear that he wasn&#8217;t going to stand behind his employee, even after her emotional apology. &#8220;There is no other way to put this: I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them,&#8221; said Lack.
Kelly has hired high-powered lawyer Brian Friedman to represent her in the negotiations over her contract, and Friedman has already made a notable demand: that Farrow be present at the meeting, a move that highlights the role Kelly&#8217;s defense of Farrow may have played in her firing.
The ugly situation revolves around Kelly&#8217;s comments on Tuesday about what is appropriate for Halloween costumes. Noting that &#8220;Real Housewives of New York&#8221; star Luann de Lesseps has been decried as &#8220;racist&#8221; for darkening her skin to dress as Diana Ross, Kelly asked why that was necessarily racist.
&#8220;And people said that that was racist. And I don&#8217;t know!&#8221; said Kelly. &#8220;I thought like, who doesn&#8217;t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don&#8217;t know how that got racist on Halloween.&#8221;
Her comment was portrayed as a defense of &#8220;blackface,&#8221; the racist tradition of a white person applying make-up to mock people of color.
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Megyn Kelly wonders what the big deal is about blackface <a href="https://t.co/07yvYDuAYe">pic.twitter.com/07yvYDuAYe</a>
&#8212; Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) <a href="https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1054725740476973057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
On Wednesday, Kelly issued a tearful apology, an apology which Lack and co. apparently do not find sufficient &#8212; at least, that&#8217;s the network&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37605/nbc-news-reportedly-fires-kelly-over-faux-outrage-ben-shapiro">cynical excuse</a>.&#8221; Here&#8217;s her apology:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry..The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor..Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too.&#8221; Megyn Kelly <a href="https://t.co/6hHrvZLNvK">pic.twitter.com/6hHrvZLNvK</a>
&#8212; Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) <a href="https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/1055084273420722176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37605/nbc-news-reportedly-fires-kelly-over-faux-outrage-ben-shapiro">NBC News Reportedly Fires Kelly Over Faux-Outrage Concerning Halloween Makeup. It&#8217;s Just A Cynical Excuse.</a>

NBC Sources Suggest Real Reasons Network Wants Megyn Kelly Fired

NBC is reportedly poised to fire host Megyn Kelly after she questioned on air Tuesday why it would be necessarily &#8220;racist&#8221; for someone to change their skin tone to resemble a person of a different race for Halloween. Kelly&#8217;s lawyer is scheduled to meet with NBC executives on Friday, but, according to Mediaite, he&#8217;s coming with a significant demand: that former NBC reporter Ronan Farrow be present at the meeting.
&#8220;Kelly&#8217;s lawyer Brian Friedman will meet with NBC brass and has requested that Farrow &#8212; who left NBC News last year after the network declined to run his expose on Harvey Weinstein &#8212; be present,&#8221; <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/megyn-kellys-lawyer-wants-ronan-farrow-to-attend-meeting-with-nbc-executives/">Mediaite</a> reports. &#8220;Farrow recently accused NBC News of blocking his reporting on Weinstein, a charge that was denied by network chief Andy Lack. Megyn Kelly covered the spat on her NBC News morning show, questioning NBC&#8217;s handling of the Weinstein report, and suggesting the network use an &#8216;outside investigator&#8217; to find out what happened.&#8221;
Mediaite reports that after she pushed back on NBC&#8217;s handling of Farrow&#8217;s story, over the next few weeks, Kelly&#8217;s relationship with NBC &#8220;soured.&#8221;
The blow-up with NBC, at least publicly, revolves around Kelly&#8217;s comments Tuesday about what is or isn&#8217;t out of bounds for Halloween. Citing the particular example of &#8220;Real Housewives of New York&#8221; star Luann de Lesseps getting slammed as racist for darkening her skin in order to look like Diana Ross for Halloween, Kelly pushed back on the idea that that was inherently racist.
&#8220;And people said that that was racist. And I don&#8217;t know!&#8221; said Kelly. &#8220;I thought like, who doesn&#8217;t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don&#8217;t know how that got racist on Halloween.&#8221;
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Megyn Kelly wonders what the big deal is about blackface <a href="https://t.co/07yvYDuAYe">pic.twitter.com/07yvYDuAYe</a>
&#8212; Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) <a href="https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1054725740476973057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
The comment was immediately characterized as a defense of the racist tradition of &#8220;blackface,&#8221; in which a white person applies dark make-up to portray people of color in a derogatory way. In response, Kelly issued an emotional apology on Wednesday.
&#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry,&#8221; she said. She went on to say she was &#8220;wrong&#8221; for her comments about changing one&#8217;s skin tone in light of the history of blackface, which she said she did not fully understand or consider when she made the comments on Tuesday. While she is not someone who accepts &#8220;PC culture&#8221; in general, she suggested, any semblance of defense of that practice was wrong.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry..The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor..Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too.&#8221; Megyn Kelly <a href="https://t.co/6hHrvZLNvK">pic.twitter.com/6hHrvZLNvK</a>
&#8212; Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) <a href="https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/1055084273420722176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Kelly&#8217;s apology appears not to have been enough. On Wednesday, NBC News chief Andy Lack condemned Kelly&#8217;s comments on Wednesday. &#8220;There is no other way to put this: I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them,&#8221; he said. On Thursday, reports began to emerge that Kelly was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37605/nbc-news-reportedly-fires-kelly-over-faux-outrage-ben-shapiro">going to be fired</a> and that she would be paid out some $69 million.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37548/yes-blackface-terrible-no-megyn-kelly-isnt-racist-ben-shapiro">SHAPIRO: Yes, Blackface Is Terrible. No, Megyn Kelly Isn&#8217;t A Racist.</a>

Megyn Kelly&#8217;s Lawyer To NBC Execs: We Want Ex-NBC Reporter Ronan Farrow At Meeting

On Thursday, NBC News officially fired morning host Megyn Kelly over comments she made on Tuesday regarding darkening one&#8217;s skin for a Halloween costume. She said:
<blockquote>
And people said that that was racist. And I don&#8217;t know! I thought like, who doesn&#8217;t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don&#8217;t know how that got racist on Halloween.
</blockquote>
She quickly apologized for her statements, and acknowledged that she didn&#8217;t know enough about the history of blackface.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry..The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor..Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too.&#8221; Megyn Kelly <a href="https://t.co/6hHrvZLNvK">pic.twitter.com/6hHrvZLNvK</a>
&#8212; Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) <a href="https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/1055084273420722176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
The media ran with the headline that Kelly had defended blackface. She didn&#8217;t. Blackface is the heinous practice of dressing up in stereotypical makeup in order to mock black people; that&#8217;s obviously not what Kelly was talking about. You&#8217;d have to be either an idiot or intellectually dishonest to believe she was. As I wrote yesterday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/37548/yes-blackface-terrible-no-megyn-kelly-isnt-racist-ben-shapiro">Kelly clearly wasn&#8217;t being racist in her first comments</a>.
Yet NBC News played up her comments, featuring them on Lester Holt&#8217;s nightly news show; the head of NBC News, Andy Lack, blasted Kelly on Wednesday, stating, &#8220;There is no other way to put this: I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them.&#8221;
Then, on Thursday, The Daily Mail (UK) reported that Kelly had been fired, supposedly over the comments; the company will pay Kelly out some $69 million.
Here&#8217;s the fact: NBC News wanted Kelly out. They are willing to stoke the flames of racial resentment in order to excuse their firing. It&#8217;s that simple. NBC News <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/so-you-had-questions-about-that-button-on-matt-lauers-desk/2017/12/01/48b1f7c2-d6bd-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html?utm_term=.ba7227ae17a2">paid Matt Lauer for years</a> even though it was well known that he had a button on his desk that allowed him to lock the door in his office behind unsuspecting young women, whom he would then allegedly sexually harass. Perhaps Kelly should have covered for Lauer, as the higher-ups apparently did. Then she&#8217;d still have a job.

NBC News Reportedly Fires Kelly Over Faux-Outrage Concerning Halloween Makeup. It&#8217;s Just A Cynical Excuse.

Megyn Kelly was not on the air on Thursday as host of her morning NBC talk show &#8212; and soon, she may not be on at all.
Kelly&#8217;s show was not the rousing success NBC executives thought it would be when they signed her to a three-year, $69 million contract, but her recent addlepated comments on blackface may just have pushed her over the edge and into the abyss.
&#8220;Megyn Kelly is expected to wind down her 9 a.m. Today show hour by the end of the season, a source close to the situation tells The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/megyn-kelly-expected-end-nbc-morning-show-1154877">Hollywood Reporter</a>.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Sources tell THR that Kelly has met with network executives in recent weeks to discuss the future of the show and expressed a desire to cover more news and politics. It&#8217;s unclear what NBC News would put in place of Kelly&#8217;s show. But the discussions are at least an acknowledgement that the experiment is not working and that Kelly would prefer to be covering more news as she did with the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
</blockquote>
But <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/media/megyn-kelly-blackface-al-roker/index.html">CNN</a> went further, saying Kelly will also not appear on Friday and may not return at all.
<blockquote>
Two people familiar with the matter confirmed that to CNN Business and said Kelly&#8217;s show will be ending. Negotiations about the end date and other details are still underway. But Kelly will not be hosting Thursday&#8217;s program, and she is unlikely to return later, one of the people said. So &#8220;Megyn Kelly Today&#8221; may end very soon.
</blockquote>
Kelly has also parted ways with her talent agency, Creative Artists Agency, the reports say.
The former Fox News anchor got into hot water when she defended white people who wanted to wear blackface on Halloween.
&#8220;But what is racist?&#8221; Kelly asked on her show this week. &#8220;Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.&#8221;
Reaction on social media was brutal, and NBC News even devoted a segment to the story. Then the cast of &#8220;House of Cards&#8221; announced they would not appear on her show next week as scheduled, and NBC News Chairman Andy Lack blasted Kelly.
&#8220;There is no other way to put this: I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them,&#8221; Lack said in a &#8220;town hall&#8221; with NBC staffers on Wednesday.
&#8220;As we sort through this with Megyn, let there be no doubt that this is a workplace in which you need to be proud and in which we respect each other in all the ways we know is foundational to who we are,&#8221; Lack said. &#8220;There is no place on our air or in this workplace for them.&#8221;
Kelly fought back tears as she apologized on her show Wednesday.
&#8220;I&#8217;m Megyn Kelly. And I want to begin with two words &#8212; I&#8217;m sorry,&#8221; she said. &#8220;You may have heard that yesterday we had a discussion here about political correctness and Halloween costumes, and that conversation turned to whether it is ever OK for a person of one race to dress up as another &#8212; a black person making their face lighter or a white person making theirs darker&#8230; I defended the idea.&#8221;
She added: &#8220;I was wrong and I am sorry. One of the great parts of sitting in this chair each day is getting to discuss different points of view. Sometimes I talk and sometimes I listen, and yesterday I learned. I learned given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country, it is not OK for that to be part of any costume, Halloween or otherwise.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry..The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor..Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too.&#8221; Megyn Kelly <a href="https://t.co/6hHrvZLNvK">pic.twitter.com/6hHrvZLNvK</a>
&#8212; Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) <a href="https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/1055084273420722176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
But it all may be too late.

Is Megyn Kelly About To Get The Boot From Her NBC Morning Show?

Megyn Kelly was forced to apologize after she questioned whether a white person dressing up as a black character or celebrity on Halloween was a racist gesture. Should she have? Andrew Klavan, host of &#8216;The Andrew Klavan Show,&#8217; thinks the controversy is the stupidest thing ever, and he explained why on Wednesday&#8217;s episode of the show.
He said, &#8220;I want to talk about this thing with Megyn Kelly &#8212; if you haven&#8217;t heard about this, she went on her show and they were discussing Halloween costumes, and of course I&#8217;m not joking, the Left just wants to suck the joy out of everything we do. Everything is problematical; everything has to be reconsidered; everything has to be looked at in the light of their woke, brilliant righteousness.&#8221;
Klavan continued, &#8220;Megyn Kelly went on and she was talking about being in costume, talking about a white woman who had put on a costume of Diana Ross and made her skin look a little darker so she looked more like Diana Ross, and she said, &#8216;Gee, I think this would be okay.&#8217; And the people on the show with her said they didn&#8217;t agree because of the old days when people would do minstrel shows, and they would do kind of cliched stereotyped versions of black people with the white lips and all this stuff. Megyn Kelly then got slammed, of course, by the Stalinists on Twitter and she had to apologize. I&#8217;m about to tell you why we should very, very much dress up in blackface, or whiteface, or any other damn thing we please.&#8221;
After playing a clip of Kelly&#8217;s apology, Klavan asked if it was okay for an African-American kid to dress-up as the white superhero Batman or a Caucasian kid dress up as the Black Panther, stating that he did not see a problem with a child dressing up as their hero.
&#8220;Look, of course there are costumes that wouldn&#8217;t be right if they express hatred, if they express disrespect,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to see anybody dressing up as a Klansmen or a Nazi or anything like that, that&#8217;s not the point. But what if your hero is a ballplayer, and you&#8217;re a white kid and you want to dress up as a black ballplayer, if you want to wear his jersey and that&#8217;s not alright?&#8221;
&#8220;There are people on the Right agreeing with this, saying she said something stupid. I don&#8217;t think she said something stupid at all, I&#8217;m totally on her side,&#8221; he concluded. 
Video and transcript below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kVeoRF54TIw?start=321" width="560"></iframe></div>
<blockquote>
<div>I want to talk about this thing with Megyn Kelly &#8211; if you haven&#8217;t heard about this, she went on her show and they were discussing Halloween costumes, and of course I&#8217;m not joking, the left just wants to suck the joy out of everything we do, everything is problematical, everything has to be reconsidered, everything has to be looked at in the light of their woke, brilliant righteousness. Megyn Kelly went on and she was talking about being in costume, talking about a white woman who had put on a costume of Diana Ross and made her skin look a little darker so she looked more like Diana Ross, and she said &#8220;gee, I think this would be OK.&#8221; And the people on the show with her said they didn&#8217;t agree because of the old days when people would do minstrel shows, and they would do kind of cliched stereotyped versions of black people with the white lips and all this stuff. Megyn Kelly then got slammed, of course, by the Stalinists on Twitter and she had to apologize. I&#8217;m about to tell you why we should very, very much dress up in blackface, or whiteface, or any other damn thing we please.</div>
<div>But first I want you to hear this, Megyn Kelly had to go on and apologize for this, which she did with her eyes filled:</div>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<blockquote>
<div>Megan Kelly: &#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry. You may have heard that yesterday we had a discussion here about political correctness and Halloween costumes, and that conversation turned to whether it is ever okay for a person of one race to dress up as another. A black person making their face lighter, or a white person making theirs darker&#8230;I defended the idea, saying as long as it was respectful and part of a Halloween costume it seemed okay. Well I was wrong, and I am sorry. One of the great parts of sitting in this chair each day is getting to discuss different points of view. Sometimes I talk and sometimes I listen, and yesterday I learned. I learned that given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country, it is not okay for that to be part of any costume, Halloween or otherwise.&#8221;</div>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<blockquote>
<div>So I&#8217;m a person of color, my color is white, and here&#8217;s what I want to say about this. This is crap. Are you telling me that a little black kid, if his hero is Batman, she can&#8217;t put on a Batman mask and be Batman? Are you telling me that a little white boy, if he wants to be Black Panther, he can&#8217;t dress up as Black Panther? There&#8217;s a movie about Jackie Robinson, the great baseball player, obviously first black guy in the major leagues, and there&#8217;s a scene in this movie &#8211; genuinely moving scene &#8211; where they&#8217;re traveling on a train, they look out the window and there&#8217;s a little boy playing baseball, doing what we all did, what I did certainly when I was a little boy, pretending to be his hero and his hero is Jackie Robinson. He&#8217;s a white boy pretending to be a black man, that&#8217;s a victory! We know it, when we see the movie we understand this is a victory. The good guys won, that&#8217;s the whole point, the good guys won this battle! Look, of course there are costumes that wouldn&#8217;t be right if they express hatred, if they express disrespect, I don&#8217;t want to see anybody dressing up as a Klansmen or a Nazi or anything like that, that&#8217;s not the point. But what if your hero is a ballplayer, and you&#8217;re a white kid and you want to dress up as a black ballplayer, if you want to wear his jersey and that&#8217;s not alright?</div>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<blockquote>
<div>Older people, we&#8217;re on the exit ramp of life, it&#8217;s not the job of old people to transfer the pain of history to young people. You should learn history, you should know history so you don&#8217;t repeat it, but you don&#8217;t have to live in history. My father hated Germans, he hated German people. Well I could understand that, he fought in World War two of course he hated German people. The Holocaust was a raw nerve for him, I totally get that, it&#8217;s not my job to hate German people, those people are all dead, the people who did that stuff are dead, the new people are not responsible. We won &#8211; when I say &#8220;we&#8221; I mean the good guys &#8211; won this fight. We understand there were injustices in this country, those injustices are over, people felt ashamed. Why won&#8217;t they let the wound heal? Well it&#8217;s obvious why, because they think they get power from it. If this was still Amos and Andy, if this was still minstrel shows I&#8217;d say &#8220;okay yeah, so that&#8217;s disrespectful&#8221;, but how is it disrespectful when your hero is somebody of a different color? We should all be dressing up as one another. Why? Because we are one another, there&#8217;s no difference! We&#8217;re all Americans, we should be able to dress up as one another. To say &#8220;oh in the old days it used to be one thing, therefore it&#8217;s still that thing.&#8221; The American people are much, much smarter than their commentators, they&#8217;re perfectly able to see things that aren&#8217;t, so to speak, black and white. This is ridiculous. Why these people think that they should have some power, some say, over what people do with their kids, what their kids want to do if they&#8217;re not their parents, I have no idea.</div>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<blockquote>
<div>There are people on the right agreeing with this, saying she said something stupid, I don&#8217;t think she said something stupid at all, I&#8217;m totally on her side.</div>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1540504959789000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH6KqjRvqpSNVr6STqww1404wNIVg" href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch more of The Andrew Klavan Show here</a>.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt%3D2&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1540504959789000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHVfH36COZjBpjkl4knIXPDLUUaWg" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Listen to more of The Andrew Klavan Show on iTunes here.</a></div>
</div>

WATCH: Andrew Klavan Slams The Left For Attacking Megyn Kelly

Andrew Klavan

Conservatism

On Tuesday, NBC News&#8217; Megyn Kelly got into hot water for commenting on darkening one&#8217;s skin for a Halloween costume in order to dress up as someone of a different race. Here&#8217;s what she said:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Megyn Kelly wonders what the big deal is about blackface <a href="https://t.co/07yvYDuAYe">pic.twitter.com/07yvYDuAYe</a>
&#8212; Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) <a href="https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1054725740476973057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Kelly was talking about Real Housewives of New York star Luann de Lesseps, who was called racist for darkening her skin to dress as Diana Ross. &#8220;And people said that that was racist. And I don&#8217;t know!&#8221; she said about de Lesseps. &#8220;I thought like, who doesn&#8217;t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don&#8217;t know how that got racist on Halloween.&#8221;
Kelly then went on the air to apologize:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;I want to begin with two words, I&#8217;m sorry..The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor..Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too.&#8221; Megyn Kelly <a href="https://t.co/6hHrvZLNvK">pic.twitter.com/6hHrvZLNvK</a>
&#8212; Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) <a href="https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/1055084273420722176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
Her comments drew heavy fire from other media members, who suggested that Kelly was racist for failing to take the problem of dressing in darkening makeup seriously enough. Al Roker of NBC&#8217;s Today said, &#8220;The fact is, while she apologized to the staff, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country. This is a history going right back to the 1830s minstrel shows to demean and denigrate a race. It wasn&#8217;t right.&#8221;
Now, a few things can be true simultaneously.
1. Blackface Was Horrific. The practice of racist white people donning black makeup to mock black people was a disgusting part of our history. The video of such activities makes the skin crawl. I&#8217;ve embedded such a video here to demonstrate that sensitivity toward blackface isn&#8217;t overstated in the slightest. This stuff is just the worst on every level.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-_swtbIi2F0" width="560"></iframe></div>
There&#8217;s no question that blackface was intended to demean black people as stupid and ignorant and lesser; blackface was evil. That history is relevant to discussions of whether it is appropriate to darken one&#8217;s skin today &#8211; and it&#8217;s perfectly understandable and justifiable why black Americans say no.
2. Ignorance Is Not Racism. Kelly&#8217;s comments were ignorant, by her own admission. But that doesn&#8217;t mean they were racist. If you knew nothing about the despicable history of blackface, and you donned black makeup to dress up as Michelle Obama, that might make you ignorant, but it certainly wouldn&#8217;t make you racist or anything close to it. In fact, we could fairly say that you were making a statement against racism by dressing up as a black person you admire. The question is whether you knew about the history of blackface and chose to ignore it anyway. If so, that&#8217;s at least racially insensitive, and perhaps racist. If not, ignorance does not equate to racism.
3. Ascribing Racist Motives To Non-Racists Is Wrong. Has anyone actually accused Megyn Kelly of being a racist? Of thinking that black people are lesser, or that they ought to be mocked for their skin color? To my understanding, not a single such accusation has been levelled at Kelly &#8211; which makes sense, since any such accusation would be unsupportable. There&#8217;s no evidence Kelly is a racist, and her comments were meant to point out that dressing up as Diana Ross in admiration for black Americans isn&#8217;t inherently racist. That&#8217;s correct. But activity doesn&#8217;t have to be racist in order for it to be racially insensitive.
Here&#8217;s the bottom line: black Americans have every right to be suspicious of people darkening their skin for costumes, given the history of blackface. But immediately ascribing racism to people who have no history of racism, and who are simply ignorant of that history &#8211; people who are, in the costumes they choose, attempting to pay tribute to particular black Americans &#8211; is both counterproductive and nasty.

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Megyn Kelly

Articles tagged with Megyn Kelly

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NBC News Reportedly Fires Kelly Over Faux-Outrage Concerning Halloween Makeup. It’s Just A Cynical Excuse.

Is Megyn Kelly About To Get The Boot From Her NBC Morning Show?

WATCH: Andrew Klavan Slams The Left For Attacking Megyn Kelly

Yes, Blackface Is Terrible. No, Megyn Kelly Isn’t A Racist.