STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly: On the Road to Fame and Fortune

Type A Woman with a Sharp Wit!

I have already written about what I consider to be a fiasco of journalism: The First Republican Debates. As much as I respect Roger Ailes and Brit Hume, I was annoyed that Megyn Kelly, a beautiful woman of great potential got herself in a ‘pissing contest’ with Donald Trump. Clearly, her questions were well rehearsed and simulated for counter-responses, both intended and unintended. She felt that she must give truth to some salacious statement that Trump [also an A Personality] made about women in general and one woman in particular.

From my perspective, Megyn unwittingly revealed far more about her own psychodynamics than did Trump who basically said ‘go f..k yourself’ [in much nicer words]. The truth was that Trump restrained himself from his usual verbal scherzos on the incompetency and pandering nature of reporters who in better times tend to “suck up to him”.

It must be challenging to be a reporter these days when anyone with a brain can make a decent investigative video and post it on Youtube.  I don’t believe that Journalism in the 21st Century is a viable profession in which one has to contemplate, reflect and write.

So what separates a Megyn Kelly from the round-of-the-mill ‘journalist’?

Her highly coiffured good looks combined with a Mae West/Joan Rivers type of sassiness. We really don’t listen to what she says because it borders on the absurd, if not the hysterical. Call me a male chauvinist and ask me why I may tune to her program from time to time; because I am tired of seeing mulatto skinned she/men on boring CNN. I will say that Anderson Cooper presents himself as a gay newsman who has at least earned his battle stripes having covered more of the world than most TV journalists.

But, Megyn?
No such gravitas. She is a pure product of Syracuse University where she was a star athlete.  She is overly conscious of her own good looks which has encumbered her intellectual development.  Her insecurities prevent her from maturing and that’s why she has to prove herself by taking on a man like Trump.

Trump is unique. He says and does what he wants to do. That’s his prerogative. He earned it by hook or crook.When he made statements about women or a woman it was not as much a misogynist as it was a point of disgust at having been attacked as self-made celebrity… much like Megyn herself. Megyn has a problem with dominant men. I think that is understandable. She is not the first beautiful high powered woman to have a problem with the opposite sex (abandonment/disappointment/control issues) and she won’t the last one.

However, if she expects to grow in her position as an anchor woman, she must understand why it is that she acts like a ‘field hockey player’ [which is what she was in High School] and less like a mature individual who happens to be a woman and happens to have earned the limelight of fame as a celebrity journalist. If she continues down that road of a group cheerleader, giving her Fox News little brothers an inappropriate ‘high five’ then her credulity will start to wane as rapidly as she had ascended.

I do not wish her any ill will. Yet, self-consciousness on the air is not an admirable trait to watch, especially on a woman who attempts to flaunt her beauty over her intellect.  I guess its a maturity thing or an insecurity thing, or both.  She is more comfortable as the wise-ass miss smarty pants than a serious journalist. Megyn must become more professional. Yet it will take a man like Bret Hume [who has interviewed me before] to continue to teach her how to act maturely and credibly.

We already are beset by the Kardashian phenomena of extroverts and selfies. We don’t need a blonde-haired ace-jock to join the club of empty narcissism. Megyn: beauty is truly fleeting. So is a sassy personality, they both tire the eyes and ears. Sobriety with humor is a gift that few journalists have tried to develop. Eventually, you need to loose the hooker extensions, the 60s style false eyelashes and realize we would love to see an elegant woman with brains and nerve ask alpha male power brokers really tough questions.  Time for a make-over.

“Goodnight and Good Luck!”