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Exit looms for Megyn Kelly after racism comments

Updated: NBC anchor said to be negotiating exit following comments about blackface.

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NBC News and US anchor Megyn Kelly are in talks about her leaving the network, after she defended the use of blackface during Halloween.

“What is racist? Because you get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween,” she said during a segment. “When I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up like a character.”

Following a backlash on social media and from NBC colleagues, Kelly apologised on during her show, Megyn Kelly Today.

“I’m Megyn Kelly and I want to begin with two words: I’m sorry,” she said. “I learned that given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country, it is not OK for that to be part of any costume, Halloween or otherwise.”

But NBC has since switched Live episodes of Megyn Kelly Today to repeats.

Kelly is reportedly negotiating her exit from the network where she is paid $23 million per year (AU$33m) , and has a three year deal  signed in January 2017.

Today show veteran Al Roker, said, “She owes a bigger apology to folks around the country of colour.

“This is a history going back to the 1830s minstrel shows to demean and denigrate a race. It wasn’t right.”

NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said, “There is no other way to put this: I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them.”

Updated: NBC has since cancelled Megyn Kelly Today.

15 Responses

  1. Any comment about the danger of celebrating evil through turning Halloween into a kids’ party?
    Just one more thing about America that we want to be very careful about allowing into Aus.

  2. First they came for Apu, then they came for Megyn, wonder who is next? Can you see entertainment in a few years? No-one game to say anything…….. I was brought up to understand that “sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you”. Poor sad snowflakes these days can’t cope with “bad” words!

  4. Tbh I have not seen her whole segment with the comments, but I tend to agree with her. If a white kid wants to dress up like Michael Jordan or the guy in Blade etc, isn’t that a good thing?? And wouldn’t it seem kinda silly if they didn’t include darkening their skin a bit? Althoigh would a black kid dressing up as Harry Potter whiten their skin? It’s really hard to honestly answer those questions living in Oz though as we don’t have nearly as many ‘black’ people here & it’s a completely different history.
    But I think it should be judged by the intent, if it’s to pay tribute to someone or to merely moch, well there’s a fine linemi guess….

      1. Her freedom of speech isn’t in jeopardy, since that only applies to the U.S. government. She works for a corporation and they have every right to remove her, whenever they want. Comcast might have to pay her millions of dollars to totally get rid of her, but that’s their business.
        I’m frankly surprised by the outrage because she made similar claims on-air when she worked for FOX.

  7. i understand the history of it in the US, but blackface was a style of entertainment that I agree is racist. But if a white person is paying genuine homage to a black person through a costume, that is not blackface.

    1. Need to look at the context, which is not visible through text. Her point wasn’t “we did this before but times have changed,” her point was effectively “we did this before, and I don’t see the problem in dressing up.” Also not her first time re these type of comments.

      1. Ah yes got to love the postmodern rhetoric, manufacture a false context based solely on the absence of facts and your own prejudices to claim that what she said is the opposite of what she meant, rather than just arguing against her. Now you can burn her and intimidate anybody else from expressing their beliefs when they disagree with you. Thus ending rational debate. Now that the Far Right are successfully playing the same game, many on the Left are realising where this ends up and are getting sick of these games too.

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