Megyn Kelly defends blackface comments and says critics ‘wanted a scalp’

'[The media] presented it as though I was defending minstrel show blackface and wanted it to return to airwaves immediately,' she says

Danielle Zoellner
Monday 28 September 2020 20:14 BST
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Megyn Kelly addresses her 2018 blackface comments in the first episode of her self-funded podcast
Megyn Kelly addresses her 2018 blackface comments in the first episode of her self-funded podcast
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Megyn Kelly has addressed the 2018 blackface comments she made when she was the host of the now-cancelled NBC’s Megyn Kelly Today during the first episode of her self-funded podcast. 

On the podcast, entitled The Megyn Kelly Show, she was asked by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is most known for publishing a series of reports against the NSA based on unclassified documents from Edward Snowden, if she regretted apologising for her Halloween show that got her fired from NBC. 

“I’m not sorry that I said sorry,” she said. 

But Ms Kelly added how some of the public was just “reading the media interpretation” of what was said during the episode. 

“[The media] presented it as though I was defending minstrel show blackface and wanted it to return to airwaves immediately, which wasn’t anywhere close to the truth," she said. ”I was trying to start a discussion cause I noticed when I was a kid, and as it turns out very recently prior to my remarks, people were wearing blackface." 

MSNBC was putting out “at least five different shows as recently as a couple years of my discussion about it with characters in blackface.” 

“So I think it was a good discussion to try to start,” she said. 

Ms Kelly said that if people “misunderstood” points she made when on air, whether it was on NBC or Fox News, she made an effort to clarify the misunderstanding., 

“I’ve usually been quick to apologise as opposed to just stand in my principle,” she said, which is what she attempted to do in the NBC episode that followed the one discussing blackface. 

“However, I also think I made the mistake of believing all of my critics came to me in good faith,” she said, “and what I’ve seen since then is that wasn’t true.” 

She and Mr Greenwald then discussed the blackface controversy surrounding The View’s Joy Behar. Last year, a picture released of Ms Behar dressed up as what she described "a beautiful African woman" at a Halloween party in the 1970s. 

“The black community had my back,” Ms Behar said this month when defending the picture again. “They know that that was not blackface. That was an homage.”

The topic of intent for blackface was what Ms Kelly said she was trying to discuss during her 2018 NBC show. 

“That’s exactly what I was trying to ask. Would [intent] make a difference? I didn’t say, “Yes it would and we should all be doing that", All hell broke loose' Ms Kelly said. 

"So I sent out a tweet saying [Ms Behar] should be careful because even asking if intent matters can get you on The New York Times, The Washington Post … GMA and World News Tonight. I just wonder whether GMA and World News Tonight are going to cover their own host?

She added: “There was no good faith by the media outlets covering [my comments] and by the vast majority of critics that just wanted a scalp."

In 2018, Ms Kelly held used a segment of her NBC show to discuss a white reality star who got in trouble for previously dressing up as singer Diana Ross

"But what is racist?" Ms Kelly asked. "Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character."

Later in the discussion, Ms Kelly brought up The Real Housewives of New York star Luann de Lesseps dressing up as the black singer.

"There was a controversy on The Real Housewives of New York with Luann, and she dressed as Diana Ross, and she made her skin look darker than it really is and people said that that was racist," Ms Kelly said. "And I don't know, I felt like who doesn't love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day. I don't know how, like, that got racist on Halloween.”

The segment faced immediate backlash with people accusing Ms Kelly of defending blackface. In an episode following the aired segment, Ms Kelly apologised for the statements she made.

"One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get the chance to express and hear a lot of opinions," Ms Kelly said. "Today is one of those days where listening carefully to other points of view, including from friends and colleagues, is leading me to rethink my own views.”  
Her show was later cancelled and she received a $30m contract payout from NBC.

Ms Kelly launched her new podcast through her independent media company, Devil May Care Media.

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