MEDIA BLAMED FOR CAPITOL RIOT

Megyn Kelly Shifts Capitol Riot Blame to Media, Says Trump 'Hatred' Caused Erosion of Trust

 

By Christina Zhao

 

Newsweek

January 23, 2021 

Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly has expressed her belief that the media should assume blame for its alleged role in giving rise to the Capitol riot by a pro-Trump mob.

In a recent interview with BBC's Newsnight, Kelly, who was also a host at NBC News from 2017 to 2018, railed against the mainstream media for failing to cover former President Donald Trump objectively, and concluded that its actions led to the Capitol insurgence earlier this month.

"Part of the reason why we saw what happened on the Capitol here two weeks ago was because there was a complete lack of trust, destruction of trust in the media and people don't know where to turn for true information," she said. "They don't trust the media anymore and it's a major problem."

Kelly said the "media destroyed themselves but Trump certainly helped."

"I remember listening to all his disparaging comments about CNN when he first became a national figure as a presidential candidate. And I watched a lot of CNN, and I was like, 'this is unfair. CNN may be a little boring but it is fair and it's factual and it's not biased against Trump,'" she explained. "Then they spent the next four years proving him right, proving me wrong."

"They hated him so much they checked their objectivity. And it wasn't just CNN, all of them did. They just couldn't check their personal feelings about him."

A mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, as Congress was convening to certify President Joe Biden's Electoral College win. Five people died in the riot.

The House of Representatives impeached Trump for inciting the insurrection against the federal government just one week before he left office. Ten Republicans in the lower chamber crossed party lines to vote with Democrats in favor of impeachment. The Senate impeachment trial has been scheduled to begin in the second week of February.

Kelly criticized Biden's call for unity as a "nonsense" idea on Friday.

"We're not gonna unite," she said on Glenn Beck's Glenn TV. "It's all nonsense. I like a good inauguration and a good speech just as much as anybody and I feel patriotic whenever I witness them and I root for the president and I root for America in the way that you described."

"But unity is fool's gold," Kelly added. "Even if they generally mean it, they don't change Washington—Washington changes them. And Joe Biden is Washington—he's been there for 50 years."

Kelly rose through the Fox News ranks from journalist to news anchor, before leaving for NBC News in 2017 to take over the third hour of the network's Today program. NBC pulled Megyn Kelly Today in October 2018, after she appeared to defend the use of blackface for Halloween costumes.