Megyn Kelly presents at NBC's "Today" show, says source: NPR

Megyn Kelly, who left Fox News last year to work at NBC, has been the subject of controversy many times, including her remarks about whites wearing Blackface.

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Phillip Faraone / Getty Images for Fortune

Megyn Kelly, who left Fox News last year to work at NBC, has been the subject of controversy many times, including her remarks about whites wearing Blackface.

Phillip Faraone / Getty Images for Fortune

We have already talked about Megyn Kelly as the future face of NBC News – perhaps as the next main news anchor. Now, according to one person with direct knowledge of the matter, she lost her pole as NBC host Today & # 39; hui show at 9am

Negotiations between NBC and Kelly are underway, said the person.

"It's clear that she will not come back on the network," the person told NPR.

Over the past two days, Kelly has sought in vain to limit the damage caused by several statements she had made during her time. Today & # 39; hui defend the desire of whites to dress in blackface suit for Halloween.

Her colleagues and members of social media reacted indignantly to her remarks, often highlighting her past as a Fox News host who periodically made racist remarks.

"What is racist?" Kelly asked Tuesday during a conversation with other panelists on her show. "Really, you have problems if you are a white person who puts a blackface for Halloween, or a black person who put a whiteface for Halloween.When I was a kid, it was OK, as long as you dressed like a character. "

Kelly, 47, grew up outside of Albany, N. The TV star resumed debate more than once during the debate, defending a doomed white reality star. to be dressed in Diana Ross and overflowing with an oversized afro wig. Her remarks drew from a painful vein of American racial history that Kelly said, apologizing, that she was quite realizing.

The network gave no answer to NPR's questions about Kelly's status, although a NBC News official told NPR that his show would be rebroadcast on Thursday and Friday, due to the controversy.

The incident recalled past controversies at Fox News. In 2013, Kelly made an infamous racial claim for both Jesus Christ and for Santa Claus: "For all children who look at home, Santa Claus is all white," said Kelly during 39, a discussion on Fox News in 2013. "Jesus was a white man, too."

At first, she said that she was joking. Last year, once at NBC, she told Business Insider that she regretted these remarks.

In some respects, NBC spoke most directly through its broadcasts, in which Kelly's colleagues had condemned his remarks. NBC Nightly News' Lester Holt, the only African-American evening presenter among the country's three major broadcast networks, devoted a long segment of the controversy, including critical quotes from the NAACP leader.

NBC News president, Andrew Lack, his biggest supporter in the news division, had hired him at Fox News in early 2017 amidst a ton of fanfare and an annual salary. more than $ 16 million. Missing has notably refused to defend her at a meeting this week with staff members.

On the Today & # 39; hui show, whose program is part of it, two African-American colleagues offered scathing reprimands on Wednesday.

Al Roker said his excuses sent by email to his colleagues were inadequate. "It owes a bigger apology to the people of color of the country, because it's a story dating back to the 1830s. The Minstrel shows," said Roker. "Lowering and denigrating a race was not right."

"There was yesterday's online criticism that it was politically correct," said Craig Melvin, a new co-host at Today & # 39; hui. "It's silly, and it's hypocritical, and it's just as ignorant and racist as the statement itself."

At the opening of her show Wednesday, just 90 minutes after Melvin and Roker spoke, Kelly apologized to the viewers. It has not been seen on the air since the end of this episode.

In retrospect, Kelly's implosion seems almost preordained. She was hired as part of Lack's efforts to demonstrate that NBC would not be left-listed, despite the liberal prospects of MSNBC. It came from the country's largest media outlet among Republicans and cultural curators: Fox News.

Kelly could also claim a sense of independence; Despite his affinity for President Trump, Fox News had clashed with him during the campaign. And she had embraced the # MeToo movement. Indeed, his charge in July 2016 that Fox News president Roger Ailes had sexually harassed her, in addition to former Fox animator Gretchen Carlson, had ensured the referral of the charges. wings.

Still, his story at Fox News followed him. In the summer of 2010, Kelly made the meal of a threatening but very small group of hate called the New Black Panthers, claiming that a campaign of intimidation of voters had taken place. Several of them were prosecuted for an incident in 2008, but charges against the group were dropped after US Justice officials said there was no convincing evidence the group's participation. One member has been legally sanctioned. But no voter seems discouraged to vote.

Kelly spent hours with the New Black Panthers for three weeks, attacking other media for not covering the story – and shouting at a colleague who was not in agreement. She apologized for that too.

Still, she was serving red meat to the main Fox News viewer and these programs were part of a record that helped her propel herself quickly from journalist to daytime animator to prime time. And she was never able to take the turn to offer the milder rate required of the morning guests.