The Fox News, Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump battle is raging again with Donald Trump calling Kelly "sick" and "the most overrated person on TV," and Fox News defending her and accusing Donald Trump of having an "extreme, sick obsession" with her.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
It all started on August 6, 2016 at the first Republican debate, the relevant clip of Kelly's first question to Trump shown below:
PRESENT DAY - THE BATTLE RAGES ON
After almost daily negative coverage by Kelly on her nightly show with Trump responding via his social media accounts as is his habit, on Friday he tweeted the following message "Everybody should boycott the @megynkelly show. Never worth watching. Always a hit on Trump! She is sick, & the most overrated person on tv."
A look at Kelly's Twitter page shows the majority of what she posts has something to do with Trump, as well as most her coverage at Fox News.
After Trump's tweet on Friday, Fox News issued the following statement:
Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land. Megyn is an exemplary journalist and one of the leading anchors in America — we’re extremely proud of her phenomenal work and continue to fully support her throughout every day of Trump’s endless barrage of crude and sexist verbal assaults. As the mother of three young children, with a successful law career and the second highest rated show in cable news, it’s especially deplorable for her to be repeatedly abused just for doing her job.
The Trump campaign instantly responded, via Philly.com:
"Megyn Kelly is a highly overrated reporter and anchor that constantly disparages Mr. Trump with negative and inaccurate reports. Despite the fact he wants nothing to do with her and will not appear on her show due to her extremely biased reporting, much of the program is about him anyway on a nightly basis. In fact, FOX News has begged Mr. Trump to do a prime time special to be broadcast on the FOX Network, not cable, with Megyn Kelly. He has turned them down."
They added, "Likewise, they recently called for an unsolicited and unplanned debate with Kelly as a featured moderator. He turned them down and they immediately canceled. On the FOX debate that Mr. Trump did not do, they received by far their lowest rating. Unlike Megyn Kelly, who resorts to putting out statements via FOX News, Mr. Trump will continue to defend himself against the inordinate amount of unfair and inaccurate coverage he receives on her second-rate show each night."
Trump also took to Twitter again to respond, saying ""@Ma1973sk: Actually, no @FoxNews, @megynkelly has a sick obsession with Trump. Every day, every show, trashing, negative, hate."
According to that Philly.com report "Fox News officials are growing increasingly concerned for Kelly's safety as Trump continues to target the anchor," but there is no mention of their concern over the "safety" of Trump's children and grandchildren after threatening letter was delivered to his son Eric's home with a direct threat against his children.
Fox News doesn't seem overly concerned with the fact that Trump's 78 year-old sister, Maryanne Trump Barry who is a judge with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, who also received a threatening letter in Philadelphia on Friday.
Using Fox News' logic that they are concerned for Kelly's safety because Trump is targeting her, then would that make Kelly responsible for the threats against Trump and his family due to her constant attacks on Trump?
THE VICIOUSNESS OF MEGYN KELLY
Is Kelly just doing her job as a reporter or has her focus on Trump been a bit "obsessive," and vicious? Has her reporting been balanced or are the stories, as Trump suggests, all negative and "trashing."
A couple of responses on her latest Facebook posting dated March 15, 2016 about an article titled "'The Kelly File' Fact-Checks the 'D-Minus Rating' on Trump University," before the latest statements by Trump and Fox News, seem to suggest that many agree with Trump on this.
The FB posting before that was on March 12, 2016, where Kelly interviewed Michelle Fields on her claim that she was manhandled at a Trump event, which ANP covered when a video showed the exact moment of the supposed "violation" against the former Breitbart reporter. To date, Kelly has never addressed the conflict between what Fields said on Kelly's show and the footage released.
The same pattern is being seen on the Facebook page for The Kelly File:
Directly before that FB posting, The Kelly File has... yes, another Trump story, dated the same day, March 18, 2016:
A couple of other questions come to mind, the first of which is does Trump treat Kelly any differently than other journalists that write or report negatively about him?
A look through his twitter postings shows Trump responded to a critical article written about him in the NYT by David Brooks, saying "While I have never met @nytdavidbrooks of the NY Times, I consider him one of the dumbest of all pundits- he has no sense of the real world!," then following up with "Reading @nytdavidbrooks of the NY Times is a total waste of time, he is a clown with no awareness of the world around him- dummy!"
On the flip side when he likes what a reporter writes about him, he is quite complimentary as evidenced by a March 19, 2016 Tweet stating "@AndreaTantaros- You are a true journalistic professional. I so agree with what you say. Keep up the great work! #MakeAmericaGreatAgain."
Going through Trump's Twitter feed we see more attacks on Kelly than other journalists, generally they come directly after she has done a negative segment on Trump, just as his criticisms of other journalists directly follow a report from them that is negative against him.
As you will see below from the screen shots of The Kelly File's website front page, it seems she viciously attacks Trump far more than he responds on Twitter to those attacks.
BOTTOM LINE
After going through Megyn Kelly's Facebook page, as well as The Kelly File Facebook page, along with her Twiiter page and Donald Trumps Twitter page, it appears that the majority of her reports on Trump are negative and his corresponding responses are delivered via social media for the most part, while she uses the Fox platform of a nightly weekday show.
Is Trump obsessed with Kelly or is Kelly obsessed with Trump? A look at her Kelly File front page, right side under transcripts shows the following:
From the left side, Kelly's featured story from Friday night: