Megyn Kelly Insists On Charlie Rose That She Is "A Journalist," “Not An Opinion Maker” Or “Issues Advocate”

Kelly: "I'm Certainly Different Than O'Reilly And Hannity" Because "I'm Not An Ideologue Nor ... An Opinion Maker." On the October 7 edition of PBS's The Charlie Rose Show, Kelly told host Charlie Rose that, unlike her prime-time colleagues Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, she is a “journalist,” and “not an ideologue nor ... an opinion maker”:

CHARLIE ROSE: Are you in your own mind different than your fellow Fox anchors? Are you somehow a blend? Are you somehow more independent? Are you somehow in your mind different, you know. There is O`Reilly, there is Hannity, and there is Kelly.

MEGYN KELLY: Well, I'm certainly different than O`Reilly and Hannity in many ways. I mean they are opinion guys. So Bill will go out there and call for Kate's Law and say this needs to be drafted in the wake of the murder of Kate Steinle. And Hannity is an open and avowed conservative who stands for conservative principles and has been talking about that for years. I am not an ideologue nor am I an opinion maker. I'm a news person. I'm a journalist. [PBS, The Charlie Rose Show, 10/7/15]

Kelly Dismissed A Question About Equal Pay For Women, Saying "I'm Not Really An Issues Advocate When It Comes To Women Or Anything Else." During the same interview, Kelly declined to answer Rose's question about her stance on pay equity, saying that “it's not appropriate given my role ... I don't speak out on those things,” and adding, “I'm not really an issues advocate when it comes to women or anything else.” She went on to add that she doesn't like women who try to “demonize men” adding, “I don't like that label, 'feminist'”:

CHARLIE ROSE: You are seen as a strong woman, a woman who is very good at her craft. Do you like that idea that young women are looking at Megyn Kelly and saying, “that's who I'd like to be? She's respected. She's strong. She has a remarkable presence. She loves what she does?”

MEGYN KELLY: Yes.

ROSE: But it does not transcend, I mean, a sense--when I have lots of friends who are also strong women, and they want to be constantly making us, and helping us remember how much we need to do with respect to women and equal pay. And you saw what happened at the Academy Awards.

KELLY: Right, right.

CHARLIE: Where are you on that frontier?

KELLY: I am not really an issues advocate when it comes to women or anything else.

ROSE: Even pay.

KELLY: No, no. I mean it's not appropriate given my role. It's really not. I don't speak out on those things. I'll let other people take those positions because I have to cover those stories. I have to cover them objectively and fairly and I shouldn`t be weighing in on that as a personal matter.

But having said that I'm all for female empowerment and not at the expense of men. I don't like the women who stand up for the empowerment of women at the expense of men. They try to demonize men and they try to suggest men all want to keep us down which is one of the reasons why I don't like that label feminist. [PBS, The Charlie Rose Show, 10/7/15]

Kelly Stood Up For The “Christian Values” Of A Prominent Hate Group

Kelly Defended Josh Duggar's Anti-Gay Hate Group, Family Research Council.On the June 4 edition of Fox News' The Kelly File, Kelly defended the Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, the Family Research Council (FRC), as well as its president, Tony Perkins, as supporters of “strong, Christian values.” When Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman called FRC a hate group, Kelly said that was “a matter of opinion”:

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: They've been hatemongers on their position. Josh Duggar, for example, belongs to a hate group called the Family Research Council.

MEGYN KELLY: Well, that's a matter of opinion. You know, Tony Perkins runs that group. And he advocates for strong, Christian values that he thinks are based in the Bible. You know, he's an advocate for those principles, and I realize that others see it as nothing but hateful. [Fox News, The Kelly File, 6/5/15]

Kelly Has Repeatedly Defended Police Against Allegations Of Racism And Brutality

Kelly On Sandra Bland's Arrest: “Even If You Know The Cop Is In The Wrong, Comply And Complain Later.” On the July 23 edition of Fox News' The Kelly File, Kelly found fault with Sandra Bland -- a black woman who was found dead after being arrested following a confrontational traffic stop by a white police officer whose behavior has been widely condemned. Kelly said, “Even if you know the cop is in the wrong, comply and complain later.” [Fox News, The Kelly File, 7/23/15]

Kelly On Incident Where Police Officer Violently Manhandled A Black Teen: “The Girl Was No Saint Either.” On the June 8 edition of Fox News' The Kelly File, Kelly cast doubt on whether a white McKinney, Texas police officer's excessive use of force while arresting a 14-year-old black girl at a pool party was a “race thing,” asking, “Where is the evidence that this is a race thing as opposed to excessive force thing?” Later in the segment Kelly added, “The girl was no saint, either.” [Fox News, The Kelly File, 7/28/15]

Kelly Dismissed DOJ Ferguson Report Findings By Arguing That Racist Emails Circulate At Most Companies. During the March 9 edition of The Kelly File, Kelly downplayed a Department of Justice report that found racial bias and stereotyping in the Ferguson, Missouri police department. Kelly opined that it was unfair to “tar the entire organization” because “there are very few companies in America, whether they are public or private” where “you won't find any racist emails [or] any inappropriate comments.” [Fox News, The Kelly File, 3/9/15]

Kelly Bemoaned The “Anti-Cop ... Thug Mentality” She Sees In “Black Communities.” During a September 4 discussion on her show about the Black Lives Matter movement, Kelly mused about black, inner-city communities: “There's also a culture that develops where it's anti -- it's 'us versus them,' it's anti-cop. It's sort of -- people have called it the 'thug mentality'”:

MEGYN KELLY: And there's also culture, there's also culture that develops, where it's anti -- it's them versus us, it's anti-cop. It's sort of -- people have called it the “thug mentality,” and that's a controversial term. But, you know, that it's cool to sort of hate the cops, and hang out -- and be somebody who doesn't necessarily prize being there for your family, and so on. And how do you reverse that? [Fox News, The Kelly File, 9/4/15]

Kelly Defended The Abundant Use Of Pepper Spray On UC-Davis Protesters, Describing It As “A Food Product, Essentially.” On the November 21, 2011, edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Kelly defended the use of pepper spray on students sitting in on UC-Davis' campus, describing pepper spray as “a food product, essentially” and characterizing the liberal use of pepper spray as a “reasonable use of force to effect compliance with an arrest”:

BILL O'REILLY: Well, now the chancellor of UC Davis and the police chief there are both being called upon to resign. Here now, attorney and FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly. You see her 1 p.m.each weekday.

First of all, pepper spray just burns your eyes, right?

MEGYN KELLY: Right. It's like a derivative of actual pepper. It's a food product, essentially. But a lot of experts are looking at that and saying is that the real deal? Has it been diluted, because...

O'REILLY: They should have had more of a reaction than that.

KELLY: Yes. That's really beside the point. I mean, it was something that was obviously abrasive and intrusive.

O'REILLY: And they wanted them --

KELLY: Several of them went to the hospital.

O'REILLY: They just wanted them to get out of there and stop blocking what they were blocking. Wanted to scatter them.

[...]

KELLY: Yes. And it is a crime. They were charged, 10 of them were charged with unlawful assembly and failure to disperse, because they were posing a, you know, sit-in, a student protest. And you can do that. That's very American. But it may also break the law.

[...]

KELLY: Listen, I know the tape looks bad. I agree it looks bad. All I'm saying is that, from a legal standpoint, I don't know that the cops did anything wrong. We're going to have to learn more about the facts. But the cops are allowed to use reasonable force to effect compliance with an arrest. [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 11/21/11]

Kelly Aggressively Promoted The Conspiracy Theory That Obama Worked With The New Black Panther Party To Intimidate White Voters

Kelly Devoted 45 Segments In Two Weeks To Fanning The Flames Of A Discredited Voter Intimidation Anecdote. During the summer of 2010, Kelly repeatedly tried to scandalize an investigation about a New Black Panther Party member who stood outside a polling station on Election Day 2012 allegedly intimidating voters. Kelly claimed that her sources would shed light on the Obama administration's “decision to not pursue serious charges against members of the New Black Panther Party” and that “politics and race” were potentially to blame. [Media Matters, 6/30/10, 7/16/10]

Kelly Called The Affordable Care Act's Contraception Mandate Part Of A “War On The Religious Right”

Kelly Defended Hobby Lobby's Challenge To The ACA's Contraception Mandate, Calling It Part Of A “War On The Religious Right.” On the June 30, 2014, edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Kelly mocked law student Sandra Fluke for advocating for greater access to contraception and defended Hobby Lobby's challenge to the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, calling it part of a “war on the religious right”:

MEGYN KELLY: It doesn't matter whether it's true if she just says it over and over again people are not going to believe it. That's not true. Just don't believe that. She doesn't know what she is talking about.

BILL O'REILLY: She doesn't care -- she doesn't care to know.

KELLY: They limited it in small corporations. These corporations that are basically 50 percent of the stock is owned by five people or less.

O'REILLY: Yes.

KELLY: All right those corporations alone. And granted it's about 50 percent of the U.S. corporate -- 90 percent of U.S. corporations that employs about 50 percent of the American population -- so it's a lot of corporations that can be affected. But only those that feel strongly about their religious believes those folks aren't going to have to provide abortion-related drugs.

[...]

O'REILLY: Why can't they buy their own?

KELLY: What happened here -- they were buying their own for the past 20 years and beyond.

O'REILLY: That's right.

KELLY: They've been buying their own.

And then what happened was we passed Obamacare and then Kathleen Sebelius had some of her HHS minions go down to the basement and write a regulation that said as part of Obamacare you have to cover 20 out of 20 birth control drugs 20 out of 20.

O'REILLY: Yes all of them.

KELLY: And then women like Sandra Fluke started saying I'm entitled. Oh my God I never realized how victimized I was all those years when I was paying for it on my own. And then Hobby Lobby, which is an Evangelical company, came out said all right we'll do it -- we'll do it for all of them except for four --

O'REILLY: Right.

KELLY: -- that end a fertilized egg going forward.

O'REILLY: Right.

KELLY: Right they lost their minds. The Supreme Court said you are right. This law passed by President Clinton that all these Democrats who are now objecting signed on to also voted for. That law protects you Hobby Lobby and Kathleen Sebelius' minions in the basement don't get to take your rights away from you.

O'REILLY: That's right.

KELLY: This is about the attempted war on the religious right not the war on women. [Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, 6/30/15]

Kelly Accused Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor Of “Reverse Racism”

Kelly Misrepresented Sotomayor's Commencement Remarks, Accusing Her Of “Reverse Racism.” During the May 26, 2009 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, Kelly described then-Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor's remarks at the University of California, Berkeley as “reverse racism.” In graduation speech, Sotomayor had stressed the importance of diversity on the judicial bench, saying, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” [Fox News, America's Newsroom, 5/26/09]