Megyn Kelly talked about the “de-legitimization” of the media” in an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross broadcasted Wednesday.
“I think it’s dangerous,” Kelly said. “People need good, strong, skeptical journalists to be covering whoever it is — whether it’s Barack Obama or President Donald Trump — and we’re in a dangerous phase right now, where too many millions of Americans aren’t listening at all to what the press tells them.”
Kelly also talked about Trump’s “problematic” relationship with the First Amendment, “fear” minority groups are feeling, the president-elect’s “history of comments on women that go well beyond the line,” and more.
“Donald Trump and the First Amendment, it’s not a beautiful match; it’s not a match made in heaven. Between the free speech rights that he has not defended and the freedom of the press, which he has not defended, it’s problematic,” Kelly told NPR.
Interview highlights, via NPR:
On how Trump’s rhetoric represents a backlash to the notion of “PC culture”
KELLY: There are a lot of people in our society who have had it with PC culture … and I, Terry, am one of those people. I think we have gone too far into the PC culture, but there’s a limit to how far we can take that. …
My general sense is [Trump voters] feel they’ve been lectured to enough on how they’re supposed to speak and how things that were very innocuous or innocent over the past several years were spun back to them … and so when Trump came up as this PC-buster they said, “Yes! He’s our champion.” He was given a permission slip for everything he said and did because of that. The gradations of what was appropriate or not seemed to get completely lost. …
But I would submit to you that Trump’s history of comments on women go well beyond the line, if you look at them in their entirety, past the normal backlash to PC culture.
On the fears minority groups have expressed following the election
KELLY: The relative lack of power of certain minority groups and the fear they’re feeling in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, I think, is something we really need to take a look at, because, while I don’t think Trump wants to target any particular minority group, I understand their fear, because he spent many months stoking it. And so I think that’s a legitimate thing we’re going to have to deal with and ask ourselves how far he can go in enacting certain politics that target specific groups.
On the threatening and misogynist tweets Kelly received from Trump supporters
KELLY: The c-word was in thousands of tweets directed at me — lots of threats to beat the hell out of me, to rape me, honestly the ugliest things you can imagine. But most of this stuff I was able to just dismiss as angry people who are trying to scare me, you know. However, there were so many that rose to the level of “OK, that one we need to pay attention to,” that it did become alarming. It wasn’t like I walked down the street in constant fear of someone trying to take my life, but I was very aware of it.
The thing I was most worried about was that I have a 7- and a 5- and a 3-year-old, and I was worried I’d be walking down the street with my kids and somebody would do something to me in front of them; they would see me get punched in the face or get hurt.
On how to cover news from Trump’s Twitter feed
KELLY: It’s a challenge, there’s no question, because some of these tweets I would submit to you are bait, you know? Maybe an attempt to distract from a news story that Donald Trump doesn’t love, and he’s holding the shiny object up in an attempt to say: “Look over here! Look over here!”
We saw him do this many times throughout the primary campaign, so my approach on The Kelly File is to try to use my judgment as to whether that’s what this is. Is this a head fake to distract from something that’s in the news, or is this worthy of us running and chewing on it, like a dog with a bone? …
Donald Trump and the First Amendment, it’s not a beautiful match; it’s not a match made in heaven. Between the free speech rights that he has not defended and the freedom of the press, which he has not defended, it’s problematic.
On how Trump’s election has empowered white nationalists and the “alt-right” movement
KELLY: It is also a dangerous game to empower them, as clearly has happened. I mean, Steve Bannon is the chief adviser to our president-elect, and I understand the argument that he’s just a provocateur and he comes up with these crazy headlines and they want clicks, but if you look at what’s happened to Breitbart [News] over the last three years, it’s shocking.
I knew Andrew Breitbart very well and he was great. I loved him. He was a true provocateur who would be fun about it, you know. He’d show up at a democratic protest and engage with the protesters and then he’d go have a beer with them. This is something else entirely, and I don’t know that Trump can stop it. I don’t know who, if anyone, can stop it. I think right now the answer is for good people to exercise their own voice and their own power.
“… we’re in a dangerous phase right now, where too many millions of Americans aren’t listening at all to what the press tells them.”
Unchallenged.
But it’s communist scum like you who are in danger from it, jewb#tch.
I’ve always hated the POS puke. She has an smug, arrogant attitude and a jutting jaw that just BEGS for a good roundhouse swing from a Louisville Slugger.
BAAAAATTER UP!
CAN I PINCH HIT FOR YA???????????????????/
I don’t know all that is really going on, but, these days when these people like Meagan spew the b.s. out of their mouth they demonstrate their desperation. And, how since they don’t ‘report’ facts as evidence, they do the ad hominum attacks. Of course fear is always on their menu.Like Hilary they always accuse others of the things they are guilty of doing.
April 1st ALREADY!!??? How the hell did I miss Christmas and New Year’s!!???
NO ONE HAS HUNG THIS HONKY CRACKER BITCH YET???????????/
Hahaha! What a dumbass bitch.
I was gonna say the same thing!
I guess Kelly defines “freedom of the press” and the freedom to print exactly what the White House tells you……
How ‘typically Amerikan’ these days. ‘Freest nation on earth’ – if you do exactly as you’re told.
Invoking my right to free speech, Megyn Kelly is a dumb c*nt. What arrogance! “They aren’t listening to me!” What does she want, mandatory listening sessions?
If you want to be dumbed-down, exploited, manipulated, spit upon, degraded, and pissed on by a cow, listen to Megyn Kelly on CNN.
“Megyn Kelly: “Too Many Americans Aren’t Listening At All To What The Press Tells Them,” “Dangerous””
THATS CAUSE WE ALL LISTENED TO SO MANY OF YOU ASSHOLES……..WELL…… WE FINALLY CONTRACTED HEARING AIDS…….. KISS OUR ASS MEGEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!