Friday, October 26, 2018

Two versions of racial justice in American television


Meet two people who will interact


This is Megyn Kelly



She was a Fox News Anchor

This video was uploaded by ABC News on October 26, 2016.  It's a collection of short videos of her disputes with Donald Trump, who was then a presidential candidate.

One of the video clips shows her asking questions of Donald during a Republican debate.



She talked with a panel on her new show

This video was uploaded by the Wall Street Journal exactly two years later, October 26, 2018.  It was recorded on October 23, 2018.

She talked with a small group of people on her show about changing attitudes toward Halloween costumes, specifically the criticism of some costumes by a university.

This is Al Roker

 Al, doing something that he was good at doing.

He was the meteorologist for The Today Show for many years.

This video was recorded sometime in 1990 and uploaded on September 18, 2010.

He and late-night talk-show host David Letterman had some fun on the set of the Today Show.

He had two sets of standards about race and racism, but he hid them very well.



Version #1 of racial justice


Al Roker calls Megyn Kelly a racist

These are the first four paragraphs of an October 24, 2018 Huffington Post article.  The links in these paragraphs were in their article.
“Today” show host Al Roker on Wednesday called out NBC colleague Megyn Kelly for defending blackface Halloween costumes.

“The fact is while she apologized to the staff, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country,” Roker said on the show, a day after Kelly apologized in a memo to NBC colleagues for wondering why blackface in Halloween costumes was considered racist.

Soon after Roker’s comments, Kelly did apologize on air, then convened a discussion about the history of blackface that included black panelists.

“I was wrong,” she told viewers.

This is the first part of the second paragraph.

“The fact is while she apologized to the staff, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country,” Roker said on the show ....

"She owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country,” Roker said on the show.


If racism is based on the concept of race ....

I'm color-blind, so I don't know the meaning of the phrase "folks of color", but Al has his own definition in his mind of the meaning of that phrase.  Whatever that definition is, I'm using it, for now, as the definition of the phrase.


Find the white person in the photo above, then find the black person in the same photo.

I don't see any white people in the first photo.

I don't see any black people in the first photo, either, but Al, as I said, has his own definition of "white people", "black people", "brown people", and perhaps the people who were born and raised in southeast Asia, too.

I wonder what color Al assigns to them, and I wonder whether he sees any difference between the people of China, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia, and other countries in that geographic area.  Each country has its' own culture and genetic history.

For now, all I ask is that Al's definition of "folks of color" is consistent.  This phrase and every standard of behavior for people who interact with these "racial groups", whoever they are, should apply to everyone equally.

This is the top of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.


Equal justice is the standard that is expected in courtrooms, where anyone who is accused of a crime is judged guilty or innocent based on the evidence and the wording of the law, not on the name of the defendant, his personal history, his ancestry, his lifestyle, or what he looks like.


Megyn Kelly gets fired for her comments

This is a tweet that was posted October 26, 2018 by NBC News.  If you click on the date at the end of this tweet, you'll see it posted on their timeline.


These are the first five paragraphs of an October 26, 2018 Rolling Stone article.  The links in these paragraphs were in their article.
Megyn Kelly is out at NBC after making controversial comments about blackface and Halloween costumes during an episode of her morning show Tuesday.

“‘Megyn Kelly Today’ is not returning,” according to an NBC statement. “Next week, the 9 a.m. hour will be hosted by other TODAY co-anchors.”

During her 9 a.m. hour of the Today show Tuesday, Kelly claimed that blackface was acceptable in the context of Halloween costumes, saying it was “OK when I was a kid as long as you were dressing like a character.”  The backlash was swift and even drew criticism from longtime Today co-host Al Roker, who said, “While she apologized to the staff, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country because this is a history going back to the 1830s.”

During her Wednesday show, Kelly tried to make amends, saying, “I want to begin with two words: I’m sorry.  I defended the idea [of blackface], saying that as long it was respectful and part of a Halloween costume, that it seemed OK.  Well, I was wrong, and I am sorry.”

Despite the apology, NBC decided to call of Kelly’s show for the rest of the week, choosing instead to air reruns on Thursday and Friday.  On Wednesday, Kelly dropped her talent agency, CAA, over several issues, including concerns over conflicts of interest stemming from CAA’s representation of other NBC talent and executives.  Kelly signed with a different agency, UTA, soon after, and hired entertainment attorney Bryan Freedman.
This is the subtitle of the previous article.

Morning show anchor made controversial comments about blackface, Halloween



This is the complete text of an October 26, 2018 statement on the NBC website.  The links in these paragraphs were in their article.
NBC News and Megyn Kelly are in talks about the anchor leaving the network, according to a source familiar with the situation.

"Conversations have already started about Megyn's exit from the network," the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Thursday night.

NBC News declined to comment on the talks but noted in an earlier statement, “Given the circumstances ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ will be on tape the rest of the week.”

Representatives for Kelly are scheduled to meet Friday with company executives, according to another source with direct knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly.  The same source said it looks “extremely unlikely” that she will stay at the network. A representative for Kelly declined to comment.

Executives will likely be weighing whether Kelly will receive a financial package, or whether she breached her contract with the network.  Kelly is paid $23 million per year, and has a three year deal that was signed in January 2017, according to a source familiar with the contract.

The anchor drew immediate criticism on Tuesday after she defended the use of blackface during Halloween.

"What is racist?  Because you get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween," she said during a segment.  "When I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up like a character."

Her comments set off a firestorm on social media and also drew rebuke from her colleagues on “Today.”

Kelly apologized on Wednesday during the opening of her show.

“I’m Megyn Kelly and I want to begin with two words: I’m sorry," she said.  "I learned that given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country, it is not OK for that to be part of any costume, Halloween or otherwise."

On Thursday, Kelly's show aired a repeat.

Her initial comments led to condemnation from her NBC News colleagues on air, including Al Roker, who spoke on Wednesday's episode of "Today" about the historical context about why blackface is offensive.

"She owes a bigger apology to folks around the country of color," Roker said.  "This is a history going back to the 1830s minstrel shows to demean and denigrate a race.  It wasn't right."

NBC News Chairman Andy Lack addressed the comments on Wednesday at a pre-scheduled Town Hall event.  "There is no other way to put this:  I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them,” he said.

On Wednesday night, Kelly fired her talent agent at Creative Artists Agency and was in talks to be represented by United Talent Agency, before that agency ended conversations.

Kelly joined NBC News in January 2017 after having risen to a prominent role at Fox News as host of “The Kelly File."

Shorly after joining NBC News, Kelly generated negative headlines for a number of reasons, including her interviews of Russian President Vladimir Putin and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

Kelly's interview with Jane Fonda also drew criticism after asking the Academy Award-winning actress about Fonda's plastic surgery.

Kelly’s show, which replaced the “Today” show hour anchored by Tamron Hall and Roker, has not attracted the same ratings.  Their time period drew 2.68 million total viewers in the first seven months of 2017, while Kelly’s show year-to-date drew an average of 2.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
Remember, Megyn made comments about the topic of "blackface".  Comments.



Version #2 of racial justice


Jimmy Kimmel wears a costume and makeup

 He was never a basketball player.

This video was uploaded on October 12, 2017.  It has been watched almost 870,000 times.


Jimmy Kimmel refuses to apologize

This is the 14th paragraph of the NBC statement that was posted on their website and which was quoted earlier on this page.

NBC News Chairman Andy Lack addressed the comments on Wednesday at a pre-scheduled Town Hall event.  "There is no other way to put this:  I condemn those remarks; there is no place on our air or in this workplace for them,” he said.


Megyn Kelly and Al Roker, summarized

“I want to begin with two words: I’m sorry. I defended the idea [of blackface], saying that as long it was respectful and part of a Halloween costume, that it seemed OK. Well, I was wrong, and I am sorry.”

- Megyn Kelly


This is what Al Roker has never said since he criticized Megyn Kelly two days ago.

“The fact is that Jimmy Kimmel never apologized to anyone, so he owes an apology to folks of color around the country, and I owe an apology to Megyn Kelly for having two sets of standards about race."


Jimmy has never apologized for what he did.  Al Roker has never asked him to apologize.  Andy Lack, the NBC News Chairman, has never condemned Jimmy's actions, which are racist by the standards of NBC News.  Do any of them really think that Megyn was wrong to talk about Halloween costumes that people wore decades ago?

It's obvious.  Jimmy, Al, and Andy all hate Megyn for her conservative politics.


September 30, 2018 update

While retweeting some of the tweets that were posted by Laura Loomer, I discovered that she had publicly asked Twitter's owner, Jack Dorsey, to take some action on this person for posting this tweet months ago.  This tweet is still available for any racist to look at, and this person can still show his hatred for Jews any time he wants.


This is one man's reply.

This is another man's reply.

Jack Dorsey, who is the CEO of Twitter, says that hate speech isn't allowed on his social-media platform, but yes, he does allow exceptions to his anti-hate-speech policy, for reasons that he hasn't told us about yet.


October 17, 2019 update

Two tweets were added today.

This is a link to the Kindle edition of Ronan Farrow's book, on the Amazon website, which is mentioned by Megyn Kelly in her tweet.




January 5, 2020 update

Megyn's color-blind criticism of this ex-NFL Quarterback is appropriate.
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