UPDATED: The Me Myself And I Megyn-Kelly Production (Longer Version)

Donald Trump, Etiquette, Journalism, Media, Republicans

“The Me Myself And I Megyn-Kelly Production” is the current column now on The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine. (The shorter version on WND has been very popular.) An excerpt:

… Here’s what just happened: Donald Trump had not expected to be subjected again to Megyn Kelly’s ministrations, after the anchor’s missteps during the first prime-time Republican debate, in Cleveland, Ohio, last year.

The consensus among very many outside the Beltway bubble was that the smug Megyn Kelly had been rude and overbearing during that debate, clobbering Trump with sub-intelligent, war-on-women questions.

Donald Trump had implicitly, at least, expected the network to rethink its decision to unleash showy Ms. Kelly, once again, on the occasion of a Republican debate, scheduled for January 28.

It’s hard to believe Kelly’s higher-ups at FNC are so stupid as to put her in the moderator’s chair again. Given the woman’s profile, I suspect Fox’s Golden Goose had henpecked the boss, Roger Ailes, to have at it again.

Kelly’s central focus is to be center-stage. This her unbecoming conduct over months has made clear.

“The Kelly File,” Megyn’s eponymous show, has persistently ignored news about the news-maker of the day, Donald Trump. Yet just this once, Kelly elected to extensively cover Trump’s decision not to attend a debate moderated by herself, to whom she referred adoringly as “yours truly.”

“Yours truly” was the theme of the January 26 segment.

And the guests stampeded to her studio for a chance to genuflect to Kelly and diss the front-runner for the umpteenth time. This time it would be different. This time, Trump was going down.

Kelly’s “Breaking News” coverage entailed parading other candidates past and present to berate Trump’s actions—to call him a coward, running scared of a woman; to question the candidate’s commitment to Iowans, label him as someone who doesn’t show-up, when Trump has been in Iowa all along, showing Iowans The Love.

Especially asinine was the snarky Millennial-like press release Fox News chose to put out in response—a release that cemented Donald Trump’s decision to do something more useful and foil the Megyn Kelly extravaganza.

The notice was too frivolous for actor Sean Penn to have penned (we recently discovered Penn could write). Perhaps the ghost writer was goofy, late-night show host Jimmy Fallon? . …

Read the rest. “The Me Myself And I Megyn-Kelly Production” is the current column now on The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine.

UPDATE (1/29):

The Megyn Kelly-Michale Moore interview is one of the more nauseating moments in TV; it’s a flirt and a genuflection to Kelly. All that glitters is not gold. Kelly may be beautiful but she cheapens everything she touches.

I spared myself the specter and watched it after the column was written, commenting on Facebook, last night.

I should have steeled myself. The Kelly-Moore exchange is forensic evidence, too.

Week’s Tweets, 22 To 28: MegaloMegyn, Markets, Cleavland

America, Free Markets, History, Media, Republicans

One of the best president was Democrats Grover Cleveland:


FREE MARKETS

The Cult Of Megyn Kelly Crumbling Thanks To Trump

Donald Trump, Media, Neoconservatism, Republicans

Just as I thought Donald J. Trump was done taking a wrecking ball to establishment politics, The Donald goes and bifurcates Fox News Channel. CNN’s Don Lemon was the only one among his dumb-as-doornail guests to notice that Trump was destabilization the media organ that shapes Republican politics. Hooray.

My WND column, tomorrow, deconstructing the “Me Myself And I Megyn Kelly Production” (a longer version will be at Unz Review, Thursday night), takes a similar tack to the one taken by Salon writer Sophia Tesfaye, focusing on megalomaniac Megyn Kelly and her enablers as culprits:

… “the network is split between Kelly’s allies like Brit Hume and conservative anchors that are furious that Kelly — who graces the cover of Vanity Fair this month — has become the face of the network.” According to Sherman, one of Kelly’s fellow anchors took her to task for hosting liberal filmmaker Michael Moore as Trump announced his boycott on Tuesday evening. “That would be like Rachel Maddow laughing along with Charles Koch as he trashed Hillary Clinton!” the anchor told Sherman.

MSNBC’s resident Republican Joe Scarborough echoed the unnamed Fox anchor’s disbelief. “Fox are really twisted up at about how this has gone down and how Megyn Kelly, has somehow, with Michael Moore, taken over the network,” Scarborough said on “Morning Joe” Wednesday, applauding Trump’s boycott.

“I would rather set myself on fire in front of the Fox News studio than go on a debate stage with that,” Scarborugh continued, blasting Kelly’s past debate moderation.

Sherman goes on to report that “one producer speculated that Fox could go ‘National Review’ on Trump and start attacking him,” and according to some early responses, Fox seems to be doing just that.

Fox News analyst and outspoken Trump critic Brit Hume immediately lashed out at Trump’s temper tantrum against the network …

On “Fox & Friends” Wednesday morning, co-host Brian Kilmeade pleaded with the Republican National Committee (RNC) to broker a peace deal to bring Trump back to the Fox debate stage:

“This thing could still be saved. Since — there’s a relationship with everybody. You could get somebody to step in or, get this, the RNC could actually do their job and make sure the people of Iowa get a full debate stage and jump in on both sides and get Donald Trump on that stage. It could still be done.”

But others in conservative media are not so quick to seek a resolution, instead applauding Trump’s diss of the media giant. Breitbart has devoted the majority of its coverage Wednesday morning to the feud, with a heavy tilt in favor of the Donald. …

Except that my upcoming column looks at the principles of journalism Kelly flouts.

Missing The Megyn Kelly Production Doesn’t Hurt Trump One Bit

Donald Trump, Journalism, Media, Republicans

I don’t believe the higher-ups at the Fox News Channel are so stupid as to put Megyn Kelly in the moderator’s chair, after the ego-activism and showy exhibitionism of her first prime-time Republican debate, in Cleveland, Ohio. I suspect, Fox’s golden goose must have henpecked the Bosses at FNC for a chance to have at it again. Kelly’s central focus is to be center-stage again. The woman is self-obsessed.


Nevertheless, it’s bloody stupid of FNC to put a snarky Millennial in charge of composing a press release in response—a release that cemented Donald Trump’s decision to do something more useful and foil the Megyn Kelly extravaganza.

“We learned from a secret back channel that the Ayatollah and Putin both intend to treat Donald Trump unfairly when they meet with him if he becomes president — a nefarious source tells us that Trump has his own secret plan to replace the Cabinet with his Twitter followers to see if he should even go to those meetings …”

Come again?

Either way, the left is going to love Kelly even more for supposedly intimidating Trump. For Kelly to love herself more than she does is impossible, so no change on that front.

STILL, TRUMP SHOULD MAKE IT CLEAR that it’s not Kelly’s turgid war-on-women, waste-of-time, sub-intelligent questions he fears. Rather, it’s the posturing and preening that goes with the Kelly Production that he would rather avoid.