It seems improbable that the left might have too high an opinion of a Fox News personality, but it’s happened with Megyn Kelly, argued Jack Mirkinson in a Wednesday article for Salon.
Mirkinson noted that liberals have enjoyed several “extremely fun episodes in which [Kelly] made mincemeat out of (usually male) right-wing pundits,” but claimed that those instances have “helped obscure the fact that, far from being some objective oasis in a conservative desert, [The Kelly File] is usually just as right-wing and authoritarian as anything else on Fox News,” which in general he considers “a crude propaganda machine” peopled by “braindead hacks.”
From Mirkinson’s piece, headlined “Megyn Kelly is an evil genius: How the Fox News host won America’s trust (by being slightly less horrible)” (bolding added):
Kelly is…perhaps the greatest example of the sneaky, complicated brilliance of…Fox News…
It’s easy to think of Fox News as a crude propaganda machine, and most of the time it lives down to that reputation. But the network also remembers to offer up just enough little twists and nuances to temper that caricature. Like it or not, it’s filled with formidable, highly watchable broadcasters. Whether it’s Shep Smith railing against drones and praising gay marriage, Chris Wallace making Marco Rubio uncomfortable over Iraq, or any of Kelly’s famous throw-downs, Fox News always adds some spice to the mix to keep things interesting.
Say what you will about the man, but Roger Ailes definitely knows that you can’t only employ braindead hacks if you want people to stay tuned in. And Kelly is emphatically not a braindead hack. She is a ruthlessly compelling presence onscreen, and she uses that to her advantage…
…It’s a common feeling among the left-leaning crowd — the idea that Kelly is somehow better than the place that made her name.
Kelly has earned that admiration through a series of extremely fun episodes in which she made mincemeat out of (usually male) right-wing pundits. There was her torching of the odious blobs known as Erick Erickson and Lou Dobbs over some particularly odious comments they’d made about women. There was her efficient filleting of radio host Mike Gallagher after he’d criticized her for going on maternity leave. And, most memorably, there was her tour-de-force humbling of Karl Rove at the 2012 election, when she marched through the Fox News hallways in an effort to silence his baseless assertion that Mitt Romney might have won Ohio…
The liberal set cheered after each of these moments, and they helped Kelly reach the dominant position she has now found herself in. Crucially, they have also helped obscure the fact that, far from being some objective oasis in a conservative desert, her show is usually just as right-wing and authoritarian as anything else on Fox News.
Take just the past week, for instance. Kelly did an hour-long special on policing. The title? “America’s Finest Under Fire.” Here’s how she described the protest movements that have emerged following the killings of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Eric Garner and so many more:
“Many times they rush to judgment, ignore the results of investigations or dismiss the verdict in order to feed what has become a narrative about out-of-control cops with racist intentions.”
Not exactly a dispassionate introduction. Kelly then brought on Mark Fuhrman — most famous for lying about his use of the n-word — to back her up.
Of course, these things float by because they’re neither crude enough nor unexpected enough to excite the blogosphere. Kelly knows how to keep tight control of her material. She’s only let herself get in real trouble once, and that was about Santa Claus.
