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Less than two years ago, Megyn Kelly was the most important new star of NBC News and was supposed to revolutionize the network talk show format. By Monday, she will probably not even be allowed to visit the Rockefeller Center's unescorted building, and the news-driven televised debate is probably dead for the foreseeable future.
All this is supposed to happen because of the controversy over the "black face" in which she intervened during a seemingly innocuous segment on Halloween costumes. But in the real world, it had almost nothing to do with his disappearance.
Let's be clear. She did not do her IN blackface show. She did not ask the kids to use the blackface in their Halloween costumes. All she really did was kindly, a question which, under better conditions, might have allowed an interesting discussion.
Immediately, a huge fire storm erupted on Twitter, fueled by forces that had almost nothing to do with the outrage over the question. Much of it had all the features of a purely political, multi-level return on investment.
It is no coincidence that many of the "journalists" who fueled the "blackface" controversy are just the most active in the #MeToo movement, of which Kelly was once considered a major funder. However, when she supported Brett Kavanaugh in her confirmation battle, she would have been stripped of her # MeToo card and the protection of those who are in favor of this cause.
With her #MeToo card revoked and having long lost her conservative credit in telling the world of Fox News, she had no partisan worship she could count on to rush to her defense. Since her notes were never very good, she was immediately vulnerable to internal attacks when her blood began to seep into the water.
Because she was grossly overpaid and had taken airtime from Today & # 39; hui show staff members at NBC, there was clearly internal resentment against her. Contrary to popular belief, I do not think she helped herself in this area when she recently went out of her way to attack people already beheaded. Matt Lauer, which is still very popular among some of the show's personalities (there are in fact striking similarities between how Kelly and Lauer may have been organized by NBC for a fall).
What happened next was all the hallmarks of Kelly's orchestrated catch. She was forced to apologize in tears (though there is one lesson that the general public should learn from President Trump, that is, the excuses almost never work because they are perceived by the media crowd as a plea of guilt), which has only made matters worse. keeping the story alive.
Most striking, it is NBC itself that has done the most to maintain the exaggerated controversy. the Today & # 39; hui clean show Al Roker – One of those who had lost airtime when Kelly's show was added – was strangely given to an on-air platform to state that Kelly's apology was inadequate.
At that time, almost everyone at NBC had what he wanted. Kelly had damaged property with no means of retaliation, the costume managers had an excuse to get rid of her in a way that did not force them to admit that the show itself was a mistake and the rest of the staff NBC had their personal revenge.
But this story is much broader than the end of his career, which took a disastrous turn when Kelly became too big for his "conservative" media. It is also the disappearance of the entire talk show format on a "general public" network.
If a star the size of Megyn Kelly can be ousted two days after simply asking an unwritten question, it's simply not possible for a talk show-based show to survive on a network like NBC. A real talk show, even one that has done its best – in a misguided logic to try to avoid the "Trump trap" – so as not to be openly political, must be able to feel free to challenge at least slightly public or it quickly becomes extremely predictable and boring, while losing its audience.
In other words, by hiring Megyn Kelly to participate in a semi-serious talk show, NBC tried to make sure everything went well and did not please anyone. It ends up offending the apolitical crowd too much, while not being allowed freedom of speech and the subject to attract an audience that might have wanted something less certain than the typical blind blur that usually comes from early morning talk shows. network.
So, with the experience of Megyn Kelly having failed dramatically, it's very difficult to see how such a thing can be tried again. NBC will quickly return to something completely devoid of substance and politically correct at the time of Kelly, and everyone will keep his concerts safely, whatever the contents of the content.
As someone who wants a network gives a legitimate essay, the sad thing about this fiasco is that the format disappears now without anyone really trying to run it correctly (by analyzing Kelly with , say, Van Jones would have been successful programming). We are now living in a media landscape where opinion-based content must be designed to appeal to partisan worship, and all the rest must be safe enough to never offend anyone.
This reality is as dull as it is unhealthy.
John Ziegler hosts a weekly podcast focused on the media and is a documentary filmmaker. You can follow him on Twitter at @ZigManFreud or write to him at [email protected]
This is an opinion piece. The opinions expressed in this article are binding only the author.
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