美国国家公共电台 NPR Megyn Kelly Out At NBC's 'Today' Show

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Megyn Kelly and her NBC morning talk show may soon be off the air. Kelly was hired away from Fox News in 2017 with much fanfare¹ and a big paycheck. Yet her time at the network has seen some controversy², including comments she made about blackface just this week. Yesterday, an emotional Kelly apologized.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TODAY")

MEGYN KELLY: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the show. I'm Megyn Kelly. And I want to begin with two words - I'm sorry.

CORNISH: Now NPR's David Folkenflik is reporting her employment by NBC appears to be over. David joins us from our studios in New York City. Hey there, David.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE³: Hey, Audie.

CORNISH: So describe exactly what Kelly said that caused this latest controversy.

FOLKENFLIK: Well, Kelly obviously - as host of the 9 a.m. hour of the "Today" show, she's had - was having a chat a couple days ago with several panelists about Halloween and costumes and talks about how she's not PC, and then started to talk about what it was to dress up as somebody of a different race. Here's what she had to say.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TODAY")

KELLY: What is racist⁴? Because truly you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yes.

KELLY: ...Blackface on Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yes.

KELLY: ...For Halloween. Like, OK, back when I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing⁵ up as, like, a character.

FOLKENFLIK: And that of course tapping into a rich vein⁶ of pain in terms of the course of American history, depiction⁷ of African-Americans by whites.

CORNISH: How did her fellow NBC colleagues react to all this?

FOLKENFLIK: Pretty sharply. It was notable in two ways, one of which was the significant coverage⁸ that was given to the story both by - on the "NBC Nightly News" - obviously it's anchored by Lester Holt, the only African-American anchor among the big three broadcast American networks - and also on "Today" show in the hours preceding her own show two of her African-American colleagues really weighed in. First let's hear from Al Roker. He noted⁹ that she had apologized to colleagues but said she needed to do more.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TODAY")

AL ROKER: She owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country because this is a history going back to the 1830s minstrel shows. To demean and denigrate¹⁰ a race wasn't right.

FOLKENFLIK: And then also Craig Melvin, perhaps the newest co-host at "Today" show - he weighed in as well.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TODAY")

CRAIG MELVIN: There was some criticism yesterday online that this was political correctness run amok. That's silly. And it's disingenuous¹¹. And it's just as ignorant and racist as the statement itself.

FOLKENFLIK: NBC News Chairman Andy Lack at a meeting with staffers this week on the subject refused to defend her as well.

CORNISH: This isn't the first time Megyn Kelly has faced criticism while at NBC. Why do people think this was the last straw?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, I think there are a couple of things going on. First off, it tapped in as well to her own history in terms of remarks on race from her days as a Fox News host, a much sharper-edged Fox News host. She had insisted that both Santa Claus and Jesus Christ were white back in 2013. She said she regretted that last year once she was at NBC. But also, her show has been ailing¹². It's had rather tepid¹³ ratings. And she had - her relationship had cooled with executives as she had really embraced at times the #MeToo movement, including accusations¹⁴ of sexual harassment¹⁵ against some of the NBC's biggest stars - not only Matt Lauer, who was fired, but the former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, a much-beloved figure who retains his ties to the network.

CORNISH: What have you learned about what's next for her?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, I want to be very clear about this. A source with direct knowledge of the matter says it's clear she won't be returning. It seems impossible to imagine, but these things aren't quite concrete yet. You know, Andrew Lack has been her biggest champion despite the fact that she had a fairly cool and conflicted reaction and welcome from employees at NBC. She displaced a couple of popular figures in Tamron Hall and Al Roker at that 9 a.m. hour, and her ratings didn't do a heck of a lot for it. In addition, she was paid an extraordinary amount of money for the thing. And she really took on a lot of fire as a figure who brought on ideological¹⁶ baggage, who brought Fox News baggage and, it turned out, didn't bring a whole lot of success at the box office.

CORNISH: That's NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thank you.

FOLKENFLIK: You bet.

1 fanfare   

n.喇叭；号角之声；v.热闹地宣布

参考例句：

• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide.这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。
• A fanfare of trumpets heralded the arrival of the King.嘹亮的小号声宣告了国王驾到。

2 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

5 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

6 vein   

n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络

参考例句：

• The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
• The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

7 depiction   

n.描述

参考例句：

• Double rhythms, resounding through the lyric depiction and connecting with each other, indicate the thespian place of mankind and the cognition of the writer to this thespian place. 这双重旋律互为表里，表明了人类的某种悲剧性处境以及作家对这种悲剧性处境的感受和认识。
• A realistic depiction of scenes from everyday domestic life. 日常家居生活的写实画。

8 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

9 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

10 denigrate   

v.诬蔑，诽谤

参考例句：

• It was unkind to denigrate her achievement.贬低她的成就是刻薄的。
• To assert this is to denigrate the effectiveness of the police.坚持这一点就是贬低警方的办事能力。

11 disingenuous   

adj.不诚恳的，虚伪的

参考例句：

• It is disingenuous of him to flatter me.他对我阿谀奉承，是居心叵测。
• His brother Shura with staring disingenuous eyes was plotting to master the world.他那长着一对狡诈眼睛的哥哥瑞拉，处心积虑图谋征服整个世界。

12 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

13 tepid   

adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的

参考例句：

• She bent her mouth to the tap and drank the tepid water.她把嘴伸到水龙头底下去喝那微温的水。
• Her feet firmly planted on the tepid rough brick of the floor.她一双脚稳固地立在微温而粗糙的砖地上。

14 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

15 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

16 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。