by Alex Solari, Staff Writer
On Tuesday, October 25, Megyn Kelly did an interview with Newt Gingrich on her show, The Kelly File, where he was supposed to speak about his 2016 presidential election predictions.
During this interview, Newt Gingrich talks wonderfully about his hero, Donald Trump, and how ridiculously unfair the media has been to him.
When Kelly attempts to explain why the sexual assault allegations against Trump are important, he yells at her, saying, “you are fascinated by sex, and you don’t care about public policy!”
I don’t want to make this article about these sexual assault allegations, because there’s not much to say except if Trump did commit those disgusting acts, he deserves to be in jail, not in the Oval Office.
But what happened in this interview has a lot of people talking, and it shows us a glimpse into the huge bias against women in the media.
Megyn Kelly is a journalist for Fox News, and as of 2016, she has hosted The Kelly File on Fox. Though she identifies as an independent, she is well-liked by the conservative community. Well, until last Tuesday night that is.
Kelly makes it abundantly clear in this short interview that she refuses to let men graze over the issue of Trump’s sexual assault allegations.
Though she let Gingrich spit nonsense about Trump and the “biased” media, she made sure to insert herself at the right times to let him know just how ridiculous he sounded. But, you know what? She shouldn’t have had to.
Gingrich was so disrespectful simply because he was talking to a woman. As an article by Bustle says, “Realistically, you can’t imagine Gingrich saying [these things] to a man, much less with the tone and body language that he used.”
The degrading language, and constant disregard for Kelly’s explanations felt like he didn’t even view her as an equal human being, which proves why talking about Trump’s sexual assault allegations is so important.
This interview is just one example of the bias against women in media, particularly against women journalists.
According to Journalist’s Resource, in 2004 there were seven female top editors at the 25 largest daily newspapers, but in 2014, there were only three. Also, on evening broadcast news, men are on camera 68 percent of the time, which means women are only on camera 32 percent of the time.
Women appearing less in media could be just a coincidence if when women appear in the news, they were taken seriously.
A great example of this is when Mark Levin, a strong conservative that said on his show, “[Megyn Kelly] is auditioning, in my opinion, for a bigger forum. That’s not exactly a state secret… Fine. But please don’t pretend you’re a journalist.” Levin accusing Kelly of not being a journalist is incredibly sexist and offensive, considering Kelly has worked in the field since 2003.
As a group of researchers from University of Bristol and Cardiff University wrote, “When women do show up in the news, it is often as ‘eye candy,’ thus reinforcing women’s value as sources of visual pleasure rather than residing in the content of their views.”
Megyn Kelly, a woman who is seen as traditionally attractive, may have been chosen for just her looks alone, which is an insult to her and all talented, educated women.
Megyn Kelly stood her ground during her interview with Newt Gingrich, which is incredibly admirable considering how undoubtedly intimidating Gingrich is.
But, the fact that Kelly had to defend herself against his attack, especially when she simply mentioned the allegations against Trump, shows how poorly women are treated in the media.
This interview should help us make a first step in treating women in the media equally, and allowing them to speak freely and openly about their views, just as men do.