NEW YORK (AP) — NBC’s Megyn Kelly swiftly apologized Tuesday for a morning show segment that questioned why dressing up in blackface for a Halloween costume is wrong.
Following a social media backlash, Kelly wrote in an email to NBC News colleagues that she realized such behavior is wrong, that the history of blackface in culture is abhorrent.
Earlier today, Megyn Kelly said: “Back when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character.” pic.twitter.com/iPzLX6bKCv
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 23, 2018
On her morning show, the 47-year-old news host said that dressing up in blackface was OK when she was a kid as long as you were impersonating a character. She questioned why it had been considered racist when a character on “The Real Housewives of New York” darkened her skin for a Diana Ross costume.
“I felt like, ‘Who doesn’t love Diana Ross?'” she said.
On social media, several critics drew comparisons to Kelly’s insistence while at Fox News Channel that Santa Claus was white. “I was born in the same decade as Megyn Kelly and do not recall blackface being acceptable anywhere, anytime,” tweeted Alex Wagner of CBS News.
I was born in the same decade as @megynkelly and do not recall blackface being acceptable anywhere, anytime. https://t.co/uN061Uo9cS
— Alex Wagner (@alexwagner) October 23, 2018
In her email, Kelly said that she’d never been a “PC” person, “but I understand that we do need to be more sensitive in this day and age. Particularly on race and ethnicity issues which, far from being healed, have been exacerbated in our politics over the past year.
Y’all out here acting shocked that Megyn Kelly is acting like Megyn Kelly.
“When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.”
—Maya Angelou pic.twitter.com/VmXMdvSyd4
— Natasha Rothwell (@natasharothwell) October 23, 2018
“This is a time for more understanding, love, sensitivity and honor, and I want to be part of that,” she wrote.
here’s the note megyn kelly sent to her colleagues, in which she apologizes for her comments about blackface and describes herself as someone who is not “pc” pic.twitter.com/I9v7hjmWp7
— Remy Smidt (@remysmidt) October 23, 2018
Kelly’s transition from Fox News to her own 9 a.m. hour as part of the “Today” show has been anything but smooth, and Tuesday’s incident doesn’t help.
She had an edge from the beginning of the offending segment, where she discussed Halloween costumes with a panel that included Jenna Bush Hager, Melissa Rivers and Jacob Soboroff.
Megyn Kelly makes $23 million per year and is currently the highest paid news anchor on television. Her ratings are 18% lower than the show she replaced hosted by Tamron Hall and Al Roker.
It’s time to fire her.
— Denizcan Grimes (@MrFilmkritik) October 23, 2018
“The costume police are cracking down like never before,” she said, ridiculing a college that suggested wearing a cowboy outfit was inadvisable. She noted that one safe suggestion was to go dressed as a letter of the alphabet, and that she had discussed that with her husband.
“I’m going to go as ‘F’ and he’s going to go as ‘U,’ she said.
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