When it comes to broadcast journalism, it's tough to steer clear of all levels of controversy.
For Megyn Kelly, becoming a famous face for Fox News and now NBC has certainly had its
perks.
But there are also plenty of on-camera moments that the show anchor might come to regret.
White Santa
In 2013, Megyn Kelly landed herself in hot water when she reacted to a Slate article
by an African-American writer on how to make Santa more relatable to children of all races.
"And by the way for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person
is, just you know, just arguing that we should have a black Santa.
Santa is what he is"
As if her dismissal of any efforts to give Kris Kringle multicultural significance wasn't
bad enough, she went on to add:
"Jesus was a white man, too."
Experts quickly offered up historical evidence to contradict her claim, so Kelly would later
walk back her statements by saying that her remarks were only, quote, "tongue in cheek"
and were "lost on the humorless."
But that didn't stop late night hosts from having a field day with her words.
"You do know Jesus wasn't born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania right?"
"And Santa can't just change colors it's not like he's magic or anything."
Staying in the shallow end
In 2015, the Duggar family of 19 Kids and Counting fame was in serious hot water after
a police report revealed that oldest son Josh had inappropriate contact with his sisters
while he was a teenager.
To salvage their family brand — and their television careers — the Duggars turned
to Kelly for a primetime interview on Fox News.
It did not sit well with media experts.
Critics claimed Kelly wasn't "incisive" enough or even interested in getting to the bottom
of the scandal, but rather served as a puff piece for the embattled reality stars.
That wasn't the last time Kelly would be accused of throwing softballs to interview subjects.
In June 2017, Megyn Kelly made her big NBC News debut by interviewing Russian president
Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of interfering with the 2016 presidential election.
Kelly's interview was immediately controversial, as others in the media weren't impressed by
her inquiry style.
But the situation worsened when unaired footage from their conversation showed Kelly pandering
to Putin.
"Virtually every person we've met on the street, says what they respect about you is that you
have returned dignity to Russia."
Even CIA analysts lashed out after the segment, saying that she basically fed Putin's ego
and propaganda machine with the odd compliment.
To make matters worse for Kelly's new show, she also interviewed the controversial online
personality Alex Jones, the host of InfoWars.
In the days leading up to the interview, leaked audio recordings of Jones' preparatory conversation
with Kelly revealed that she offered words of flattery and made several promises to help
him look good in the interview.
Kelly might've held portrayed herself as a hard-hitter …
"And I certainly will not apologize for doing good journalism."
But these interviews made it questionable just how tenacious she really is.
Changing her tune
When Gretchen Carlson filed her sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes in
July 2016, her former coworkers defended the embattled CEO with the notable exception of
Kelly.
Turns out Kelly made the brave decision to inform investigators that Ailes had made unwanted
advances towards her during her early years at Fox.
Two days after Kelly's accusation was reported in New York Magazine, Ailes resigned.
But while her decision to speak up was considered commendable by the public, her rationale for
staying quiet about it for so long was not.
She told NPR, "I wasn't looking to go file a federal lawsuit about it.
I was looking to make it stop.
And in my experience … women don't tend to want to make this into some bra-burning
moment.
They just want to do their jobs.
They want to be left alone."
Some critics pointed out that not only was the victim-silencing aspect of her statement
troubling, but the timing of her revelation was a little too convenient.
She had a book to sell, her contract was ending with Fox News, and she was shopping herself
around to other networks at the time.
It wasn't the first time she reserved a cup of tea for an opportune moment, either.
Scuffling with Trump
During the Republican primaries, Kelly and Donald Trump became engaged in a public feud
after the then-candidate didn't like a question Kelly asked him during a debate.
And while it made for great drama and positioned Kelly as an "independent" journalist, she
would oddly end up withholding crucial information about Trump until after the 2016 election
when it appeared in her book.
According to The New York Times, not only did Kelly write Trump had received her debate
questions in advance, but she felt spooked by her disagreements with Trump and even increased
security after her children saw strange people "casing" her house.
"I thought it would never end. Right
I really thought it would never end."
Maybe now that all of these gaffes have been thoroughly explored and she seems to be feud-free
at the moment, Kelly can learn from it and re-launch her new NBC series will much less
controversy in tow.
Only time will tell...
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