Megyn Kelly

Fox News Pimps Megyn Kelly To GQ

Posted by on November 19, 2010 at 6:35 pm. 35 Comments :

Megyn Kelly
Much has been made about the curious “coincidence” that almost every female Fox News anchor is a young, attractive blond. I’m sure there is an innocent explanation for it. But anyone at Fox who complains about them being characterized as eye candy hired to exploit their sexuality had better first take a look at Megyn Kelly’s new spread for GQ Magazine. It’s not exactly a play for journalistic integrity.

Setting aside the cheesecake, Kelly is hardly a journalist. She makes headlines out of trivialities and seeks to sensationalize items that would be cut from the National Enquirer. Her stories about the New Black Panther Party never put into context that they were a tiny band of gadflies that no one took seriously. Her reports on the financing of the non-mosque that was not at ground zero were embarrassingly devoid of any evidence of the allegations she made. If you’re wondering why she hasn’t reported on that lately, it may be because her correspondent for the story, Charles Leaf, is in jail awaiting trial for sexually assaulting a four year old girl.

The feature in GQ includes an interview wherein Kelly reveals how seriously she takes her job as a journalist:

GQ: You sit behind a glass table that shows off your legs.
Kelly: Well, It’s a visual business. People want to see the anchor.

That must be why Bill O’Reilly wears those low-cut blouses. In another example of her commitment to news, she was asked…

GQ: Do you think the act of deciding what to cover and what not to is in itself a political act?
Kelly: It’s not political. Television is a service but it’s also a business. And in choosing what you’re going to put on your program, you have to figure out what’s going to appeal to your audience and what’s going to rate.


That explains the incessant bashing of liberals as well as the glass table. But how pathetic that she anchors a so-called news show and thinks that ratings should be the measure of what constitutes news. She goes on to boast about Fox being the number one cable news channel. But somehow she is not familiar with her colleagues on the network. She asserts that “I really don’t know much about the Glenn Beck empire.” However, she supports his right to free speech. To this GQ asked…

GQ: There’s the First Amendment and then there’s spreading obvious misinformation.
Kelly: That happens at a lot of channels. I think some of those allegations against Beck may have foundation and that some are blown up by detractors.
GQ: Which allegations have foundation?
Kelly: I’m not going to get into specifics.

That’s swell. Kelly just declared that at least some of the allegations about Beck spreading misinformation are true. Let that sink in for a minute. One news network anchor is accusing her colleague of saying things on the air that are obviously false. Can you imagine the uproar if Anderson Cooper were to have said that about Wolf Blitzer? But my guess is that no one will even notice this. After all, everybody expects to be misinformed if they’re watching Fox News. It hardly matters if it’s Beck or Kelly or Hannity or Cavuto or O’Reilly. In fact, Kelly can hardly complain because she is just as guilty as Beck of misinforming her audience.

I suppose that if you believe that misinforming viewers is no big deal, and that ratings should decide news content, and that partisan, sensationalism is a reasonable substitute for honest reporting, then it shouldn’t surprise anyone when you pose for risque centerfolds for men’s magazines. Just please don’t ask to be taken seriously as a journalist.

FOX News Plots Ultra-Partisan Election Night Coverage

Posted by on October 28, 2010 at 9:56 am. 6 Comments :

FOX/GOP Tea PartyThe FOX News Channel has announced their plans for coverage of the midterm election results next Tuesday. And it should surprise no one that they are plotting to skew their reporting by putting overtly partisan, activist personalities in the anchor chair and over-weighting their analysts with avowed conservatives and Republican operatives.

When election results start to roll in, Fox will have Bret Baier co-hosting a special edition of America’s Election HQ with Megyn Kelly. Kelly is one of the most reliably biased and aggressive advocates of GOP doctrine on Fox News. She is arguably worse than Glenn Beck in many respects. Her trademark is sensationalizing otherwise obscure “controversies” to smear Democrats or progressive issues. Her coverage of the New Black Panther Party and the non-mosque that is not at ground zero are two examples of her hyperactive approach to trivialities in the news.

At the analyst’s table Fox will feature weak pseudo-Democrats like Juan Williams, Joe Trippi, Geraldine Ferraro, and Kirsten Powers. Those are names that are unlikely to make any Republican nervous. They will also have neo-neanderthal Pat Caddell, whom they continue to identify as a Democrat despite his open hostility to the party. He is the poster child for Fox News Democrats who fail to represent the party’s views and are more often critical than supportive.

On the other hand, Fox News is bringing out their big guns to represent the GOP: Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Charles Krauthammer. And if that’s not enough uber-conservative firepower, they can turn to their primetime attack-dogs Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren. The notoriety of FOX’s hard right flank on election night, as compared to their tepid roster of “lefties,” puts the lie to their ludicrous claim of being “fair and balanced.” It also contradicts their prior assertion that ideologues like O’Reilly would ever have a role in election night coverage:

Irena Briganti, FOX News VP of Media Relations: The notion that O’Reilly would anchor election coverage of any kind is beyond absurd and wildly inaccurate.

Beyond absurd is just the tip of the iceberg. The FOX press release for their election coverage plans notes that they will also include stories from Eric Shawn and Mike Tobin. Shawn’s beat will be “reporting on voter irregularities in New York.” For a preview of his reporting, refer to his previous coverage of the issue that was aimed exclusively at alleged Democratic irregularities. Tobin’s duties are described as “reporting on the Tea Party influence.” So FOX is dedicating a reporter to cover the phony Tea Baggers, but they have no similar assignment for anyone to report on the influence of progressive activists like labor (or civil rights, or seniors, or gays, or environmentalists, etc).

I don’t think any fair observer expected FOX to cover the election in a manner that was remotely impartial. After all, this is the network whose parent company actually donated a $1 million to the Republican Governor’s Association, and another million to the conservative/GOP affiliated U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But they have really outdone themselves with this lineup. If it tells us anything, it is that they have stopped sporting any pretense of neutrality.

So look for FOX’s coverage to be sharply skewed to the right (as usual). And look for them to gleefully cheer Republican victories and maliciously charge that any Democratic gains were the result of fraud.

Megyn Kelly’s Kangaroo Court: Anita Hill Edition

Posted by on October 20, 2010 at 12:29 pm. 6 Comments :

On today’s episode of Megyn Kelly’s Court the subject was a bizarre phone call to Anita Hill from the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Virginia.

Hill received a voice mail on her office phone purporting to be from Ginny Thomas and asking that Hill apologize for “what you did with my husband.” That’s an odd phrasing that implies they did “something” together. Thomas also asked that Hill give a “full explanation,” as if several days of senate confirmation hearings about pubic hairs and Long Dong Silver weren’t sufficiently detailed.

Kelly and her panel took on this raging twenty year old scandal from a uniquely Fox News perspective. They didn’t address the possible motivation of Thomas reigniting this controversy after two decades. They didn’t discuss the propriety of the wife of sitting Supreme Court justice (and herself a Tea Bagging AstroTurf activist) making such a phone call in the first place. No, the issue that got Kelly fired up was that Hill had “called the police” on Thomas.

Well, as usual, Kelly is either lying or ignorant of the facts. Had she read the report that originated with ABC News she would have known that Hill “initially thought it was a prank.” And if it was “thought the authorities should know about it.” Hill clearly did not call the police on Thomas, she was concerned that it was somebody else. Yet Kelly’s Court was all over the phony notion that Hill had overreacted and turned Thomas in to the FBI.

Kelly then concluded the segment with her “ruling” on the case. Not surprisingly, Kelly exonerated Thomas and closed by stating, with typical Kelly indignation, that Thomas had done nothing wrong but that Hill had. This was an obvious allusion to Hill’s testimony regarding Justice Thomas’ alleged sexual harassment. So Kelly has now taken it upon herself to rule that Hill’s testimony was false despite having nothing to affirm that position.

In this one segment Kelly has impugned the integrity of Hill and asserted that she committed perjury. Kelly also misstated the course of events surrounding the phone call and how the authorities were notified. Consequently, my ruling is that Kelly is disreputable and dishonest purveyor of propaganda and should not be regarded as credible in any respect. Case closed.

Fox News Reporter Charles Leaf Arrested For Sexual Assault

Posted by on October 8, 2010 at 9:52 am. 5 Comments :


Alleged Child Molester Identified as Charles Leaf, Alleged Reporter for Fox News

Charles Leaf of Fox News is being held in New Jersey on charges of aggravated sexual assault on a four year old girl. He has been an investigative reporter with WNYW/Fox5 in New York and has also been featured on the Fox News Channel.

This is not the first time Leaf has been accused of assault. He was previously alleged to have assaulted a councilwoman in Mobile, Alabama, where he was working at the time for a local news outlet. There were no criminal charges filed in that case, but there was reportedly a substantial settlement paid by the station.

I profiled Leaf in September in an article titled, “Charles Leaf: The New Most Repulsive Fox News Reporter.” The article details his aggressive, dishonest, and unprofessional behavior in covering real estate developers associated with the Park51 project in Manhattan (the non-mosque that is not at ground zero). The coverage, featured prominently on Megyn Kelly’s Fox News program (as well as The O’Reilly Factor, The Fox Report, Fox & Friends, On the Record, and Geraldo at Large) was based entirely on innuendo and unsupported, sensationalist, allegations. I described his reports at the time as not even providing enough evidence to start a rumor:

First Leaf conducted an ambush interview on real estate developer, Sharif El-Gamal, that yielded nothing to support his contention that El-Gamal was corrupt. Leaf merely insinuated that something must be wrong because El-Gamal was a waiter eight years prior to investing in the Park51 project. The implication being that anyone who starts a small business, works hard for nearly a decade, and achieves success, is deserving of suspicion.

Then Leaf turned his focus to investor Hisham Elzanaty. Again, Leaf ambushed Elzanaty without acquiring any usable information. The only purpose for Leaf’s ambushes is to suggest something sinister when the target declines to talk to him. To that end Leaf made wild accusations about Elzanaty’s contribution to a Muslim charity. As it turns out, the charity, the Holy Land Foundation, was later investigated for ties to Hamas. But that wasn’t until two years after Elzanaty’s donation, and the feds acknowledged that contributors would not have known about the organization’s relationship with Hamas as it was deliberately concealed.

Both of these reports failed completely to produce evidence of any wrongdoing. They were exercises in insipidness and their only purpose was to insinuate and intimidate. They were utterly unprofessional and potentially libelous. Yet Leaf exalted himself as if he had exposed Watergate. And Fox News (particularly Megyn Kelly) went along by broadcasting Leaf’s empty innuendos and affirming the unsupported conclusions.

Megyn Kelly hosted Leaf on several occasions despite never having a verifiable story to report. This is further evidence of my contention that Kelly is at least as bad as Glenn Beck. It will be interesting to see if Kelly, or anyone at Fox, follows up on their new star reporter by covering his arrest. So far, the only comment from Fox is from a spokesman at the local Fox5 station who said that they are aware of the situation and are reviewing it.

Other Fox News perverts include Bill O’Reilly who paid a multimillion dollar settlement to a former producer whom he sexually harassed, and Dick Morris who was caught sucking the toes of a prostitute whom he let listen in on phone calls to President Clinton.

Is anyone taking odds on when Glenn Beck’s mug shot will rocket through the blogosphere?

Fox News Donates Free Air Time To The GOP

Posted by on September 17, 2010 at 1:29 pm. 3 Comments :

In a bit of creative synergy, Fox News has figured out a way to give Republican candidates a platform without appearing overtly political. This tactic permits the candidate to get national media exposure without having to spend any money or to engage in any kind of informative debate that impacts their campaign.

Here’s how it works: This morning Megyn Kelly aired a segment on a parent who was arrested after he blew a verbal gasket on a school bus. He was upset because his daughter was being bullied by other students and the school allegedly failed to do anything about it.

That’s an issue that tugs at the heart but really has little significance to anyone but the people involved and the tabloid set who watch Fox News for gossip and melodrama. What makes this segment unique is that Kelly brought in two lawyers to debate the matter. One of the lawyers just happened to be Pam Biondi, the Republican candidate for Attorney General in Florida. While Kelly did mention that Biondi is a candidate in her introduction, throughout the segment the on-screen graphic identified her only as a “former Florida prosecutor.”

There is no good reason for Biondi to make an appearance like this on national TV to discuss a situation that has nothing to do with her campaign. What’s more, there is no good reason for Kelly to select Biondi for this debate. Well, except for the fact that Biondi is the GOP candidate for Attorney General. She is a far-right ideologue who wants to repeal the health care bill, opposes gay adoption, and supports Arizona’s immigration law. And in a touching aside, she was sued by a New Orleans family when she refused to return their dog who was lost during Hurricane Katrina (the family did get their dog back, eventually).

Oh yeah…Biondi also has the endorsement of Fox News contributor Sarah Palin, which I guess makes her a mama grizzly.

To put this in perspective, try to imagine Fox News inviting Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for Attorney General in California, into the studio for six minutes of expensive airtime to discuss a local school matter. At the very least Kelly could give equal time to Dan Gelber, Biondi’s Democratic opponent. She could have him on to weigh in on the school’s cafeteria menu.

This sort of booking policy is a not-so-thinly disguised method of making an in-kind contribution to Republican office-seekers. Television is the most expensive form of political advertising, and having a network that doles out campaign welfare in the form of free airtime is a distinct advantage. Fox should have to report these bookings as campaign donations.

Megyn Kelly: Capitalism Is Only For The Rich

Posted by on August 25, 2010 at 4:22 pm. 1 Comments :

Megyn KellyOn today’s segment of America Live on Fox News, host Megyn Kelly presented a segment (video below) about the developer of the Park51 Islamic community center near ground zero. It was promoted as an expose about the person responsible for the project and suggested that there would shocking new information about its financing. Of course everything Kelly reports appears to be shocking because it is a permanent part of her vocal delivery. She is the human manifestation of Fox’s ever-present “FOX ALERT!” Here is how Kelly introduced the segment (bearing in mind that it is impossible to convey in text the panicky cadence of her voice):

“Five years ago this man was waiting tables in Manhattan! Today he is spending millions – IN CASH – on New York real estate! Including on the building where this mosque will go!”

Kelly then tosses to Charles Leaf of WNYW (the NY Fox affiliate) for the “MUST SEE” report on Sharif El-Gamal. Having been set up as a staggering work of investigative journalism, the viewer is primed for a roller-coaster ride along the tracks of a scandal that saw a one-time waiter become the Muslim Donald Trump. Leaf spins his tale of melodrama and mystery with this prologue:

“Naturally we wanted to meet Sharif El-Gamal. We wanted to know more about the man and his plan. But apparently he didn’t want to meet with us. We made repeated requests for a sit-down interview with him, left him multiple voice messages, and he never returned any of our calls. We even went to his office and talked to some of his colleagues but we were turned away. So we were left with no choice but to go find him.”

Actually, Leaf was left with no choice but to go stalk him. Leaf took a camera crew and followed El-Gamal around asking questions that it was clear he would be getting no answers to. It was as journalistically edifying as Geraldo Rivera’s excursion into Al Capone’s vault.

According to Leaf, El-Gamal left his job as a waiter in 2002 to become a real estate broker and within a year had his own company, Soho Properties. Leaf interviewed an old boss from El-Gamal’s waiting days who was entirely complimentary and impressed with his ambition.

Leaf also interviewed an anonymous source who spoke on camera in shadows and with his voice (hilariously) altered. It was a spooky sequence that cast El-Gamal as potentially dangerous. Leaf never provided any context for this anonymous source or verification of his concerns of retribution. And the only thing we learned from this source was that El-Gamal liked to meet celebrities and go to parties. Quick, someone call the District Attorney.

There was nothing whatsoever in this segment that raised even the slightest suspicion as to El-Gamal’s business dealings. The reporter merely tried to imply that El-Gamel’s desire for privacy was evidence of some impropriety. But in America it isn’t illegal for private individuals to mind their own business. If Leaf had some evidence that something untoward was going on, then I would have no problem with his aggressive tactics. But he had nothing, not even rumor.

What we have here is the story of a man who achieved the American dream. He worked hard as a waiter (and apparently a very popular one) while he sought to improve his life by learning to be a real estate agent. He graduated from that to property owner who received plaudits from his tenants. Eventually he hit the big time buying and selling high income properties in Manhattan.

Isn’t this the reward that America promises to those who strive to excel? Why is El-Gamal being disparaged and smeared by Fox News? Obviously Fox is opposed to this country’s great tradition of opportunity for all. Obviously Megyn Kelly thinks that a successful developer must be a crook if he were at one time a waiter. How could a lowly servant ever become a respected businessman? It doesn’t make sense. He should stay in his class and be grateful for some hotwings and beer. Kelly may not be a waitress, but she is clearly taking orders – from Rupert Murdoch. And Murdoch wants to assure that the message that goes out from Kelly and Fox News is that the rewards of capitalism are only for the elite and well-bred.

Megyn Kelly Spins Fox News Poll Out Of Control

Posted by on August 2, 2010 at 4:17 pm. 4 Comments :

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that Megyn Kelly was arguably as bad as her Fox News colleague Glenn Beck. Today she added weight to that theory.

In a discussion with Stuart Varney, Kelly introduced the results of a Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll to argue that Democrats are defying the will of the people by advocating the expiration of Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy. Kelly displayed this graphic from the poll:

In her discussion with Varney, both of them asserted that these poll results revealed the public’s opposition to letting the the tax cuts expire. However, the poll actually says the exact opposite. While 44% did say to keep all the tax cuts, a plurality of respondents (50%) said to let them expire either entirely (14%) or at least for those earning more than $250,000 (36%). So, contrary to Kelly’s distortion of the facts, respondents actually favor taxing the rich more by a 6 point margin.

Kelly was forced to mischaracterize the results of this poll even though Fox News made a valiant effort to skew the poll in order to return numbers that favored her bias. The question asked (pdf) by the pollsters inquired as to whether the respondent would…

  • 1. Continue the tax cuts for everyone.
  • 2. Continue the tax cuts for everyone except families earning more than $250,000 dollars a year.
  • 3. Allow the tax cuts to expire and let taxes go back up to their previous level.

The first problem with this construction is that it divides, and thus dilutes, the responses of those favoring expiration of the tax cuts. But more egregious is the phrasing. The first two choices offer options to “continue the tax cuts.” The third option inexplicably changes to allowing the tax cuts “to expire” and prejudicially adds “let taxes go back up.” A fair and balanced poll would have maintained a consistent tone and left out the commentary.

Of course, we know that Fox News has never really been interested in fairness or balance. But no matter how often I see it, it is still astonishing to watch these propagandists assert conclusions that are diametrically opposed to reality, even when the truth is right there on their own screen.

Why Fox News Is Racist

Posted by on July 26, 2010 at 8:53 pm. 9 Comments :

For the past few weeks Fox News has been ratcheting up the racial content of their tabloid fare. Megyn Kelly’s obsession with a trumped up story about the New Black Panther Party and their dozen or so members is a perfect example of the race-baiting that Fox passes off as journalism. They follow that up with the promotion of an Andrew Breitbart video that was blatantly edited to tar USDA employee Shirley Sherrod as a racist even though the opposite was evident when the video was viewed in its entirety.

Glenn Beck Deploring HonorBut these recent events are not aberrations. They are representative of an agenda that cannot be anything but deliberate. Recall Fox’s use of offensive rhetoric with reference to President Obama and his family like “terrorist fist jab” and “Obama’s baby mama.” Then there was the time that Bill O’Reilly tried to explain his reluctance to be critical of the First Lady by saying that he didn’t “want to go on a lynching party.” Or the time he attempted to praise patrons of Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem by noting that they didn’t shout for their “mother-fucking iced teas.” And who could forget Glenn Beck calling Obama a racist with a deep-seated hatred for white people? Beck is escalating his racial insensitivity by holding his self-glorifying rally in DC on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech next month.

Some people might wonder why Fox News would risk alienating a potentially significant portion of their audience. Well, we have the answer now. According to Brian Stelter of the New York Times, the African-American segment of viewers of Fox News in primetime this season is only 1.38%. That compares to 19.3% for MSNBC, and 20.7% for CNN, numbers that are much closer to the 14% of African-Americans in the population at large. These numbers also suggest that the black audience that might have been watching Fox have split evenly between MSNBC and CNN causing those networks to be over-weighted by about 6% each.

It is apparent that Fox News has little to lose by offending a segment of the television universe that doesn’t watch their programs anyway. Combine that with Fox’s political incentive to suppress Democratic votes and the strategy of inflaming racial animus doesn’t seem so bad in their warped perspective.

At the very least this explains why Fox persists in airing obviously offensive stories and why they think they can get away with it without adverse consequences. They have nothing to lose in financial terms, and much to gain by pandering to a prejudice demographic. It may be reprehensible to decent folks, but to Fox it’s just good business, and more importantly, good politics.

Media Plotting To Invent Liberal Media Plot

Posted by on July 20, 2010 at 1:54 pm. 1 Comments :

A new threat is being unraveled by the liberal media about a plot by the liberal media to advance the agenda of the liberal media against the dictates of the liberal media.

OK, if that didn’t make sense to you it’s because the the whole conspiracy being peddled doesn’t make sense. This breaking news first appeared in Tucker Carlson’s right-wing Daily Caller with this headline: Documents show media plotting to kill stories about Rev. Jeremiah Wright Not surprisingly, based on the shoddy record of Carlson & Co., there were no documents that said any such thing. What he had were private communications amongst individuals who were members of the JournoList listserv, a community of progressive columnists and academics, not powerful media barons. [The JournoList was recently discontinued due to the breach of privacy] But even these stolen, candid remarks did not amount to the conspiracy that the Caller alleged with unsupported assertions like this:

“According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate.”

The “radical steps” were nothing more sinister than like-minded colleagues commiserating amongst themselves about the sorry state of the media. They were mostly people recognized for their opinions, not straight reporting. They were not focusing on Rev. Wright, but on pointing out the “factual inaccuracies” of mainstream reporting and the abysmal performance of the anchors in the presidential debates. One comment on the JournoList even explicitly refuted the conclusion of the Caller:

“This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”

Serving the people. That’s the sort of depraved plot the Daily Caller is outraged by. The Caller’s embarrassing analysis totally fails to explain why the media, which they regard as hopelessly liberal, would need to take such measures to insert their bias into the reporting that they supposedly control. And how could the stories about Wright have saturated the airwaves as they did when it’s the liberals that control them? Clearly the all-powerful liberal cabal was not able to kill the stories as the Caller charged.

The real irony here is that the Caller is accusing liberals in the press of something that they themselves are doing with this very item. No sooner was it posted on the Daily Caller’s web site this morning than it suddenly popped up on Fox Nation, the National Review, Hot Air, NewsBusters, WorldNetDaily, Pajamas Media, and the Wall Street Journal. Of course Fox News got in on the act with the execrable Megyn Kelly carrying the water of the conservative propaganda machine. She is making a specialty of trumped-up scandals. [Add Glenn Beck to the ConservoList crowd].

So the question is, what list is the right-wing circulating that would produce this instantaneous barrage of reporting on a fabricated scandal? As they attempt to stimulate outrage with regard to a fearsome liberal plot, they are instead exposing the clandestine workings of their own confederacy. And somehow the media that is supposed to be tainted by unfettered liberalism is still all too happy to cover this nonsense.

Is Megyn Kelly Worse Than Glenn Beck?

Posted by on July 14, 2010 at 2:36 pm. 13 Comments :

It goes without saying that Fox News is a seething cauldron of sensationalistic propaganda. There have been innumerable examples of bias so egregious it would be more accurate to call it fiction. Still, the degree of separation from reality, or the Fox Fake Factor (3F) is not uniform across the Fox schedule. It can be segmented into three general categories that I define as…

  • Blatant Dishonesty (i.e. Sean Hannity)
  • Acute Idiocy (i.e. Steve Doocy)
  • Hysterical Dementia (i.e. Glenn Beck)

Defenders of Fox News argue that the network functions like a newspaper with clearly delineated sections containing straight news or editorial opinion. This includes Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who went so far as to say that…

“…it’s a mistake to look at Fox News Channel’s primetime opinion shows and say they represent the channel’s journalism.”

In support of Ailes’ admission that his primetime lineup should not be mistaken for journalism, Fox’s Sr. VP Michael Clemente drew distinct boundaries in order to identify the channel’s actual “news” content. He said that it is just the hours of 9am to 4pm, and 6pm to 8pm, that air straight news. Of course that would include such thoroughly opinionated programs as Fox & Friends, Your World With Neil Cavuto, and Glenn Beck. It would also include Megyn Kelly.

For the past week or so, Kelly has been rabidly attached to a bogus two year old story about members of the New Black Panther Party who have been accused of voter intimidation. She has hosted numerous interviews with W. Christian Adams, a notoriously partisan activist who claims that Obama’s Department of Justice has adopted a policy of not pursuing cases involving white victims. Never mind the fact that it was the Bush Justice Department that degraded the case against the NBPP and concluded that the evidence did not merit criminal prosecution. Kelly would not let up and continued, day after day, to present the story with an overt expression of shock and judgmental disgust.

Kelly’s demeanor was hardly what one could call objective. In yesterday’s program she nearly bit the head off of Fox News Democrat, Kirsten Powers, who soldiered on despite Kelly’s insulting declarations that Powers didn’t know what she was talking about. And in a bid for total domination, Kelly even threatened to cut Powers’ mic.

This is not an isolated incident for Kelly. A few weeks ago she displayed the same sort of wild-eyed obsession over speculation of whether Pennsylvania senate candidate Joe Sestak had received improper incentives from the White House to drop out of the race. Sestak didn’t drop out, and there was never any evidence of wrongdoing on his part or that of the White House. But that didn’t stop Kelly from pushing the story incessantly. On one occasion she devoted fully 75% of her two hour program to just the Sestak matter, never once reporting on the gulf oil spill, Afghanistan or the economy.

Add to these the following journalistic indiscretions that seem to characterize Kelly’s absence of standards.

  • The false assertion that the Department of Health and Human Services had authored a report that showed the costs of health care rising as a result of the new legislation, and the allegation that the report was suppressed by HHS and/or the White House prior to the vote in Congress. This story was debunked later by Fox’s own Bret Baier.
  • The suppression of a letter revealing the marital infidelity of Senator John Ensign. Kelly kept the letter, from the husband of Ensign’s mistress, secret for five days, thus protecting the Senator from scandal. The story broke anyway and there is a possibility that it was Kelly who tipped off Ensign about the imminently breaking news.
  • The promotion of a non-scientific survey on the military’s support of Obama as if it were a real poll. Kelly misrepresented the survey to disparage the President shortly after he received an endorsement from Gen. Colin Powell.

The behavior of Kelly in these examples is squarely in alignment with the mission of Fox News. However, it is directly contrary to what they claim. It is the antithesis of fairness or balance. And it puts Kelly in the running to surpass Glenn Beck on the scale of reportorial incompetence and deceit.

I know that’s a harsh assessment, but look at the facts. Beck is a purveyor of paranoid conspiracies. People expect him to be a hyperbolic nutcase. Kelly is on from 1:00pm to 3:00pm ET, smack in the middle of the news day. She is supposed to be, according to Ailes and others, a straight news reporter. Yet while Beck (who is also in the news daypart) can be placed into only one of the 3F categories above, Kelly may qualify for all three.

Sure, she’s not as bombastic as Beck, but Beck doesn’t have a law degree or the implied credibility that comes with it. And she’s not as inclined to present herself as a cult or spiritual leader, but she does impose her views on an audience that has been made gullible by fear and repetition. Her imputed authority, and the force of her argumentativeness, has the potential to sway people from realistic appraisals of current events. And she has the added benefit of not appearing to be as obviously disturbed as Beck, which helps her to advance her opinions.

The manner in which Kelly presents her reporting is every bit as phony as Beck’s hallucinatory drivel. But the only people who will believe Beck are those who are already inclined to accept delusion as truth. Kelly, on the other hand, manages to come off as a serious newscaster whose reports contain some semblance of substance. And that’s what makes Kelly worse, or potentially more dangerous, than Beck. While Beck casts himself as a rodeo clown, Kelly is portrayed as a wise and sober analyst.

In the larger picture, Kelly is merely following the Fox format which also has so-called “news” casters like Neil Cavuto, Jon Scott, Bill Hemmer, and Bret Baier engaging in observably biased broadcasts. It’s a deliberate and articulated strategy by Ailes, Murdoch, et al. It’s the Fox Way.