Multiple black colleagues of Megyn Kelly's at NBC have expressed their shock and anger over the news that the host is fighting to get a full payout of her contract after her shameless comments defending blackface earlier this week made her position at the network unviable.
Some of the employees said their feelings were "deeply hurt" or they were "appalled" at reports that Kelly might claim that her coverage of the #MeToo movement could have played a major role in her termination from the news station. On October 23, Kelly defended the use of blackface during a roundtable discussion which featured an all-white panel.
Not one of the other panel members spoke about how racist and hurtful the history of the practice was in the US. One NBC employee told the Daily Mail: "How dare she? Who the hell does she think she is? Her blackface comments were bad but falsely playing the #MeToo card is the worst form of white privilege I have ever seen." Another employee said: "She had no respect for the African American staff on her team and her apology was both fake and dismissive."
48 hours after Megyn Kelly appeared to defend the use of blackface, reports now suggest that the anchor may be out at NBC.
She apologized on-air the next day, but NBC colleagues had publicly criticized and distanced themselves from the remarks. @Jerickaduncan has the details
A source at the network told the Daily Mail that after a meeting took place with Kelly and her staff on October 24, many of the employees of color spoke out about their frustration and anger with the host to the human resources department. The insider said: "Lots of people were willing to give her a clean slate after the whole white Santa thing, but she showed her true colors this week."
The same insider also said that what Kelly is trying to do is not only hurtful to her black colleagues but also the men and women of the #MeToo movement.
The National Association of Black Journalists responded to Kelly's blackface comments in a statement that was issued on October 25. Sarah Glover, the president of the organization who is also an NBC employee, said: "Megyn Kelly's flip comments on blackface were inexcusable. It is imperative that media organizations work to maintain the trust of audiences. The media industry has the power to inform, and an awesome responsibility to dispel ignorance and not encourage it."
Kelly delivered a tearful apology live on October 24 morning which was followed by another roundtable discussion. The panel, this time around, featured an all-black panel who spoke in length about the history of blackface. The first NBC employee who spoke to the Daily Mail noted: "If she truly had remorse and felt like she was wrong she should take no money and go into hiding. But she’s greedy and entitled. What the hell does she have to fight for? She’s been fired for being racist on national television. She’s not coming back and she needs to accept that."
Megyn Kelly looks like a hostage instructed to read out an apology. It’s so obvious that she is genuinely afraid. We are in the age of Orwell’s 1984. Deep in the middle of the PC tyranny.
The second employee who spoke to the publication believes that Kelly's exit was a done deal long before the racist incident took place on October 23. The employee said: "We knew this was coming. It had been the talk of NBC for months that she’d use the gender card to protect herself. She knew she was failing so she needed a fail-safe plan - so pretending to be the #metoo champion who aggressively confronted the bad guys was all a ploy to ensure she was never fired."
The employee continued: "But her dark underbelly showed through and she did this to herself. Her passionate defense of Kavanaugh was the first stage of revealing her faux #metoo outrage as it reinforced what we all knew - the only woman she cared about was herself." The first employee also spoke about the Kavanaugh hearing and how the on-air talent started getting extremely uncomfortable around Kelly.
They said: "The only highlight of the Kavanaugh hearings was watching Chuck [Todd], Savannah [Guthrie], Lester [Holt]and Andrea [Mitchell's] body language every time Megyn opened her mouth to speak. If she wants Ronan [Farrow] in the room great, then NBC should have Al Sharpton handle the final negotiations with her."
Kelly is right now in the middle of getting her legal team ready for a battle with NBC and she has many supporters standing by her. Sources have told The Hollywood Reporter that the meeting between the two camps is said to take place on October 26. Multiple sources have already confirmed to Daily Mail that Kelly is out of the network already.
An NBC executive with inside knowledge said: "Megyn Kelly is done. She is not ever coming back. We are just working out timing of the announcement but mark my word – she is gone and will never be seen on NBC live again. Here’s the worst part – her deal is a non-break deal – so she walks away with all that money. It’s disgusting and heads should roll here because of it."
The Daily Beast obtained a transcript from a town hall held on October 24 in which Andy Lack, NBC News Chairman, did not mince words when speaking to Kelly. He said: "There is no other way to put this, but I condemn those remarks. There is no place on our air or in this workplace for them. Very unfortunate. The team did an excellent job covering it properly. I thought Craig [Melvin] and Al [Roker] brought a thoughtfulness and a context to it that was sorely missing, and they really did this company and our audience a real public service."
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