Yesterday, Megyn Kelly appeared on BBC defending Piers Morgan's right to "free speech."
The way she had it, he was ostracized for stating an unpopular opinion. In a ladylike fashion, she said she didn't have to agree with Morgan, but she defended his "right" to speak freely.
But Piers Morgan wasn't "speaking" freely. He was having a tantrum. He was ranting. He was one minute from flopping on the floor, kicking and screaming, toddler style.
If Morgan had quietly stated that he didn't believe a word Meghan Markle said about feeling suicidal, people would have listened and wondered. If he'd had the slimmest of facts to back up that opinion, he'd have been on a roll. But stomping off into the wings yelling "not doing this!" and yelling (not stating calmly, but exclaiming angrily) "I wouldn't believe her if she were reading the weather report!"--that's just bad behavior. Volcanic, Morgan was spouting hatred, not articulating any particular thought.
Think how a woman behaving that way would be treated. Not sympathetically. Try to imagine Christiane Amanpour or Oprah Winfrey or Katie Couric tantrumming the way Morgan did. They wouldn't get a second set of interviews the very next day. They'd be silenced.
The way Meghan Markle was silenced. Megyn Kelly, too--she made a mistake thinking blackface was okay in a Hallowe'en costume because, as I recall, "Who doesn't wanna be Diana Ross?" Wham! Was she OUT.
But she's defending Morgan--not for inadvertent crassness, not for unconscious racism, but for a childish, rage-filled rant, for which he should be ashamed. At the very least he should offer reasons for his beliefs instead of casting Meghan Markle as Darth Vader.
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