No one should shed a tear over Megyn Kelly’s abrupt downfall. But we should at least acknowledge the real reason why her days at NBC News are numbered.
Although NBC honchos will predictably use the news anchor’s recent “blackface controversy” as a pretext to justify her termination, Kelly’s real sin was not going all-in when the #MeToo mob sought Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s scalp.
In politically charged eras, people who straddle both sides of the fence frequently get torn apart. This is what is happening to Kelly, who naively believed that the liberals who run NBC would respect her conservative-lite viewpoints after she departed Fox News. But, instead, her new bosses wanted her to submit body and soul to their liberal ideology.
When the high-priced anchor failed to do so — most notably by reminding her audiences that “not all women tell the truth“ and by pointing out the massive credibility issues with Justice Kavanaugh-accuser Julie Swetnick, her days at NBC were numbered.
In many ways, Kelly’s fate confirms an observation made in the aftermath of the French Revolution: leftist revolutions “devour their own.” For several years, Kelly served as a leading voice in the #MeToo movement. Liberals first swooned over her in 2015 when she criticized then-candidate Donald Trump during the first GOP presidential debate.
Holding herself out as a champion of “female empowerment,” Kelly was quickly lionized in the press, with Vanity Fair putting the Fox News host on its front cover and applauding her for “a string of satisfying male-ego deflations.”
Thus, by opposing Trump and “powerful white men” in general, Kelly instantly transformed herself into “a feminist icon of sorts,” glowingly described by liberals as “a woman of preternatural charisma, with star power closer to that of Julia Roberts than to … other beautiful TV newswomen who have made it big but have never exactly exploded.”
Kelly also enamored liberals by publicly castrating high-profile figures at Fox News — men who had made her career ascent possible. Like a female Brutus stabbing Caesar, Kelly blindsided Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes before his passing by claiming the senior citizen had physically assaulted and sexually harassed her.
And, not content with shanking Ailes — who had defended Kelly when she tussled with Trump — she also stabbed Bill O’Reilly in the back, accusing him of harassing women, even though she had previously sent him a handwritten note thanking O’Reilly for being a “true friend and mentor” and for supporting her for many years.
Kelly’s Faustian bargain — portraying herself as a victim and champion of other victims — was initially paid off handsomely because liberals love fake victims. Just ask Ta-Nehisi Coates, Serena Williams and the Black Lives Matter organization.
So, upon departing Fox News, Kelly received a whopping three-year deal for $69 million from NBC executives. But, despite this expensive dowry, Kelly’s new marriage was star-crossed from the beginning.
Unfortunately for the news starlet, despite her clashes with Trump many liberals still harbored a grudge against her for having espoused conservative views at Fox News. As a result, her NBC show initially had feeble ratings.
It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement took off with accusations against Harvey Weinstein that new life was breathed into her show. Shrewdly, Kelly “doubled down of the topic of sexual harassment and sexual assault” and her ratings surged.
Once again, she was donning the mantle of victimhood, thereby reminding liberals that she could be a useful blonde battering ram against “white male privilege.” Yet, having made her bed on a platform of victimhood and liberal outrage, Kelly refused to lie in it completely. Therein lay the roots of her downfall.
In particular, during the political circus that surrounded Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, Kelly did not act or talk like liberals want victims to act. She correctly mocked as “absurd” the idea that all women should be believed, even if there is no evidence. And she dared to defend “due process” in the face of a liberal mob salivating at the prospect of preventing Kavanaugh from ascending to the Supreme Court.
Kelly also accurately pointed out that the Obama administration had “swung the pendulum too far back against the accused, completely eroding their due process rights” on college campuses.
For espousing such “moderate” views and for failing to completely embrace the #MeToo mob mentality, Kelly will likely be kicked out of the bed she made for herself at NBC. Her comeuppance is reminiscent of the French moderates who initially led the mob against the monarchy but were later guillotined by their own followers for not being radical enough.
Like those leaders, Kelly rose to the top by embracing the #MeToo movement’s rabid attacks on “male privilege,” but when faced with its extremist message of #BelieveAllWomen she hesitated—and ended up trampled upon by the same mob she sought to lead.
The blackface controversy is just the nail in the coffin. After all, when liberals trust a fellow die-hard liberal, they quickly forgive or bury their racial gaffes. Just ask Chelsea Handler, Joe Biden or the Clintons.
Nick James is the nom de plume of a trial attorney in the D.C. area who formerly worked for the United States Department of Justice as an award-winning federal prosecutor.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.