Earlier this year, Fox’s Howard Kurtz penned a horsesh** article entitled “Why Megyn Kelly is leaving Fox News for NBC". It exemplifies what we've all come to expect from the right-wing network:
As she talked about her thinking, it became clear that a top priority was a schedule that would allow her to spend more time with her three young children rather than returning home after their bedtime.
Yeah, it was the kids. Or to sum up what the Fox say:
Kurtz, of course, made no mention of the sexual harassment she received from human toad Roger Ailes, who earlier chased off Gretchen Carlson—among others—at that human slime factory. Yet that apparently wasn’t the big reason why Megyn left either: she was a big enough celebrity at that point to refuse sexual accommodations from the ugly perverts masquerading as news executives.
We just learned the big factor in her decision from an actual journalism outfit, The New York Times. The O’Reilly Factor, to be more precise.
O’Reilly ranted against Megyn Kelly for being disloyal to Fox by writing about the company’s despicable record of dysfunction over its treatment of female employees through the years (forced dates, demands for oral sex, etc). According to four insiders, whose accounts were verified by the Times, Megyn complained about O’Reilly's behavior to top executives in an email. Megyn said it would have a "chilling effect” on women at the company—who clearly have enough problems working at Fox. She apparently also said that blind loyalty was the whole reason that the network was in trouble to begin with.
O’Reilly responded by doing this on his show:
“If you don’t like what’s happening in the workplace, go to human resources or leave.”
Keep in mind that this rant is from the mouth of Bill O’Reilly, the man responsible for Fox News having to pay five different women over $13 million in damages. According to O’Reilly, money was paid to these women not because he did anything wrong, but because he’s "a father who cares deeply for my children and who would do anything to avoid hurting them in any way” and wanted to “spare them” from having him dragged through the mud.
Or—to put it another way...
Yeah, O’Reilly is such a great dad that he lost custody because his kids don’t want anything to do with him. His own daughter testified that she witnessed O’Reilly choking her mother in front of her.
So getting a lecture on how to handle sexual harassment from Bill O’Reilly was apparently a bridge too far for Megyn Kelly. The fact that O’Reilly was able to do his rant against her with no consequence showed that Fox's hostile culture was not going to change. She bolted.
Despite being offered a whopping 100 million for a 4-year contract at Fox, Megyn took a much lesser amount at NBC. That says a lot. Just yesterday, Megyn said she was ready to get back to work and “do some news”.
That would be a welcome change, indeed.