During Tuesday’s edition of The Kelly File on the Fox News Channel, host Megyn Kelly and liberal syndicated radio host Richard Fowler spared over a list from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that included drawings of women who have denounced radical Islam that include conservative authors Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham.
At numerous points during the heated five-minute-and-15-second segment (with the video being something that I highly recommend viewing), Kelly and Fowler found themselves repeatedly talking over each other, with Kelly denouncing the SPLC as a “careless organization that cares not at all about the safety of the people it condemns” and uses “far left websites that hate these women” to justify their arguments.
Meanwhile, Fowler accused women such as Coulter and activist Pamela Geller of “spreading hate” by “us[ing] the Bible and the cross” to attack “the Muslim faith” when they claim to “have a problem with a small subset of Muslims.”
One of the more headed portions began when Kelly brought up her FNC colleague Judge Jeanie Pirro as one of the women on the list and demanded Fowler to explain why someone like her would be on the list (as he largely defended the SPLC’s actions):
KELLY: Judge Jeanine Pirro is on that list because she had a guest who said something crazy for which she was caught off guard by on the air. Then, she came out and apologized for it. What is she doing on that list?
FOWLER: I'm not talking about Judge Pirro. I am talking specifically about Ms. Gellar.
KELLY: But she’s on the list, Richard. You’re defending the list. This is a careless organization that cares not at all about the safety of the people it condemns nor their reputations –
FOWLER: No, no, that’s wrong, Megyn, to call it a careless organization –
KELLY: – nor the truth.
Fowler ducked the question by instead choosing to cite how the SPLC has “done expansive work in condemning the KKK as well as the Black Panther Party as well as groups that speak hate and groups that inspire folks like Dylann Roof.”
Clearly frustrated, Kelly continued on the offensive by alluding to the double standard in the SPLC citing the Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in compiling their list when they back the terrorist organization Hamas.
After at least four attempts by Kelly to have Fowler answer her question, Fowler finally admitted that he hasn’t been “saying [that] the Southern Poverty Law Center does everything right” as “[n]obody does anything right.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s The Kelly File on June 24 can be found below.
FNC’s The Kelly File
June 23, 2015
9:39 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking Tonight; Critics: Southern Poverty Law Ctr’s List “Women Against Islam” a Jihad Hit List]
RICHARD FOWLER: Millions – billions, rather, of Muslims live peacefully in this country but, sadly, they’ve been lumped in, whether it be by Ann Coulter or by Ms. Geller, as radicalized or radical and they’re not and you’re hating on their entire religion because you hate a small subset of their religion. That is outright wrong.
MEGYN KELLY: Richard, they attacked –
FOWLER: That is the same justification.
KELLY – they attacked several women on here – I’m not going to – I don’t know the –
FOWLER: That is the same thing –
KELLY: – they attacked – no, let me speak. They attacked several women on here who have been critical of radical Islam, not all Muslims and you tell me, does that make you an extremist who belongs on a hate list?
FOWLER: Oh, no, but here’s the point of the Southern Law Center is trying to make is what they justify as saying that just because the Black Panther Party hates all white people, it means I hate all white people and that’s just not true.
(....)KELLY: Judge Jeanine Pirro is on that list because she had a guest who said something crazy for which she was caught off guard by on the air. Then, she came out and apologized for it. What is she doing on that list?
FOWLER: I'm not talking about Judge Pirro. I am talking specifically about Ms. Gellar.
KELLY: But she’s on the list, Richard. You’re defending the list. This is a careless organization that cares not at all about the safety of the people it condemns nor their reputations –
FOWLER: No, no, that’s wrong, Megyn, to call it a careless organization –
KELLY: – nor the truth.
FOWLER: They condemned the KKK. They done expansive work in condemning the KKK as well as the Black Panther Party as well as groups that speak hate and groups that inspire folks like Dylann Roof to go into a church –
KELLY: You know what?
FOWLER: – and massacre nine, innocent black people.
KELLY: They – one of the sources is CAIR. Do you they think the Southern Poverty Law Center is – is concerned about the hate coming from CAIR, which supports Hamas?
FOWLER: This is the thing, Megyn. I think when you look at this debate –
KELLY: No, no, what is your answer to that?
FOWLER: When you look at this debate –
KELLY: No, no, what is your answer to my question?
FOWLER: – after what we saw last week –
KELLY: No, no. Richard, answer that question.
FOWLER: – and the only way we’re going to corral it –
KELLY: Alright, I’m going to wrap you up.
FOWLER: – is by having honest conversations.
KELLY: No, we’re not doing that. Either answer the question or let's end. Do you think the Southern Poverty Law Center has condemned CAIR and what many have documented as its support for Hamas which the U.S. recognizes as a terrorist organization?
FOWLER: Well, listen I'm not saying the Southern Poverty Law Center does everything right. Nobody does anything right, Megyn, but the point here is that you can’t mix the two.
