Megyn Kelly, who became a household name in the media for asking then-candidate Donald Trump a tough question about his treatment of women, is now attacking CNN and Don Lemon for being biased against the Republican president.
Kelly, a former Fox News star, is without a job after getting fired by NBC in 2019 for saying insensitive things about blackface.
Here is why the former lawyer decided to go after Lemon and his employer. The host of CNN Tonight was addressing a tense exchange between President Trump and two journalists — Fox News’ Kristin Fisher and ABC News’ Jon Karl — during the latest White House coronavirus task briefing.
Lemon channeled the fictional character, newscaster Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch from the 1976 movie, Network.
He said: “I have to be honest with you. For the last couple of weeks, when I walk into this building, and I get in front of this camera, I swear I feel like I’m in the movie Network. I feel like Howard Beale. Americans are mad as hell. What are you going to — how much more can Americans take? Americans, are you mad as hell? How much more are you going to take?”
This commentary did not sit well with Kelly, who wrote on Twitter: “CNN still pretends he is an objective news anchor (yeah, sure) while the MSM recoils in horror at the bias of Fox/OANN, etc. Who do they think they’re kidding?”
Kelly’s tweet went viral. People on the right of the political spectrum sided with her and said they do not see Lemon as a real journalist.
However, critics on the left argue that after over 10,000 deaths in the country, Trump’s behavior and response to the coronavirus crisis deserved such criticism.
Naysayers also reminded her that she has a history of saying hurtful things like when she said Jesus and Santa could only be white men.
Four years ago, Lemon and Kelly used to be friends, but in 2018, in the middle of the blackface scandal, he threw her under the bus for lacking diversity in her staff.
Kelly’s comment could look like a form of payback because last month, she had also criticized Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
She said at the time: “I’m so frustrated right now … that we can’t trust the media to tell us the truth without inflaming it to hurt Trump … that Trump has misled so many times we no longer know when to trust his word … that even I as a journalist am not sure where to turn for real info on COVID.”
Kelly has said that she is working on TV comeback, but no one knows where she will land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaaMXumSS80
