Megyn Kelly came under fire recently for her bizarre defense of blackface during her show. Now, footage from 2016 thats shows Kelly criticizing a pastor over the use of blackface has made the episode even more puzzling.
During a panel discussion on her show Tuesday, Kelly argued that in the past, going out in blackface on Halloween was acceptable. “That was okay, as long as you were dressing like a character. You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person that puts on whiteface for Halloween.” The comments got the backlash you’d expect.
While Kelly appeared to be confused about why her pro-blackface comments met resistance, her tune was much different two years ago on Fox News when she criticized a pastor who tweeted out a cartoon that depicted Hillary Clinton pandering to black voters. Kelly called the cartoon “blackface,” and demanded he explain the post, asking him, “Originally you stand by the tweet with the blackface and then today you come out and say you’re sorry for it. Why the reversal?”
As the Daily Mail reported, during the interview:
“Kelly sharply cut him off saying he had twice had to denounce two of his social media posting, to which he replied: ‘People do make mistakes, like Facebook, they doing it to you right now on Facebook.’ Kelly was not having that, cutting him off again and stating: ‘Yeah, but you’re doing this. Your doing this. I don’t have Facebook here, I have you.’ Burns then explained: ‘The point that I’m making is, you know, people make mistakes. But the point is, the message is still true. I’m standing behind my message. I’m not apologizing for that. Somebody got to speak up and tell the truth. It’s going to be me.'”
Watch below:
Kelly has since apologized for her comments from earlier this week, telling her audience, “I was wrong, and I am sorry.”
While Kelly has largely been scandal free over at NBC, there must be a scandal over her ratings among upper management. NBC had invested $69 million into Megyn Kelly (through a three-year contract), and while her show has an above-average budget, her ratings are anything but. The combined salaries of previous hosts Al Roker and Tamron Hall were less than half of Ms. Kelly’s $23 million-a-year payday, and Kelly has averaged 2.4 million viewers an episode, 18% below what they brought in.
How much longer will NBC pay a premium for mediocrity? A high-ranking source at NBC told the Daily Mail in September that “Everyone has had enough and they want Megyn out.” When her contract runs out, it could be the last we see of Megyn Kelly for a long time.”
