Editorial: Kudos to Megyn Kelly after a nasty year for women

Follow @csteditorialsDuring a nasty year in politics for women, Megyn Kelly would not be cowed. She stood up to a future president who bragged of groping women. She stood up to his patronizing surrogates. She stood up to her boss.

Kelly is moving on from Fox News to NBC News, out of a right-wing bubble in which she never fully fit and into a more honest world of journalism. Here’s hoping she keeps on annoying everybody, on both the left and right, in the best possible way, by asking tough questions.

As a host at conservative Fox News, Kelly was in an excellent spot to call out Donald Trump for his bad attitudes and behavior toward women. She could not be dismissed as some politically correct lefty. In a question to Trump at the first Republican presidential debate, she said to him, “You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.”

Trump was so angry that he later complained “there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” That appalling comment, of course, exactly made Kelly’s point.

Every now and then, with increasing frequency, Kelly had a way of abandoning the Fox News agenda. She lectured Sen. Rand Paul about his penchant for arguing with women reporters. She told former Vice President Dick Cheney that “history has proven that you got it wrong” on Iraq. Best of all, she drew a line on women’s issues.

Kelly once asked Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, what he had to say about Trump’s boast that he could freely grope women because he was a celebrity. A sneering Gingrich replied that Kelly was just “fascinated with sex.” To which Kelly shot back: “You know what, Mr. Speaker? I’m not fascinated by sex. But I am fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office.”

Last summer, came the news that Kelly’s own boss, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, had been accused of sexual harassment by female employees. Kelly confirmed that she, too, had been subjected to his harassment. Two days later, Ailes resigned.

Often when the news is most discouraging, good journalists come into their own.

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