Intelligenc e G Q

and legs—of the network. And she’s okay with that

Megyn Kelly has become the ver y blonde face—
Media
piñata’d by The Daily Show, Fox News anchor

Greg Veis
Abhorred by the left, adored by the right, frequently

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We Decided
She’s Hot
She Reports,
Alexei Hay
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So I heard something about you being in an
infomercial back in the day…
It wasn’t an infomercial! It was an abs tape!
In another life—and as I like to say, another
body—I used to teach aerobics. I was paid
one whole dollar to be Backup Girl #1.
Glamorous. Why would you ever want to
get into journalism, then?
I thought the profession had some nobility
in it, but it’s also one in which you have to
get your hands dirty.
You like the hands-dirty part?
I didn’t want anything that was too high-
brow or elite. My dad was a college pro-
fessor, and he constantly had the Ph.D.
students over for these great esoteric dis-
cussions. But I wanted to be with the peo-
ple, not just with the Ph.D.’s.
You worked as a lawyer for a while, but
once you became a reporter, you quickly
reached the big time at Fox.
I sent my tape to Kim Hume, and she called
me in the next day. While we were talking,
her husband, Brit Hume, swung by the
o∞ce and said, “Saw your tape. Loved it.
How soon can we get you up to New York?”
And I was like, I love him.
There were rumors about you two. He was
psyched that people thought you were
sleeping together, apparently.
I think Brit knew how preposterous it was
to anyone with two nickels in between their
ears. The first thing he said at his retirement
dinner—this big a≠air down in D.C. with
Vice President Cheney, Fred Thompson,
P L AT F O R M S A N DA L S : C H R I S T I A N LO U B O U T I N
Brian Williams—was “I haven’t been this
honored since that rumor about me having
an a≠air with Megyn Kelly went around.”
Niiiice.
And then he said, “I remember when that
rumor first came out, and the Fox PR people
called me and said, ‘We have to tamp this
down.’ And I said, ‘Well, do you have to tamp
it down right away?’ ”
Fox News doesn’t strike me as a place that
minds a little locker-room talk.
It’s certainly not an uptight place. Like to-
day, I said “big-boobed” on air—I was quot-
ing someone, in my defense—and you don’t
get in trouble for things like that at Fox.
And you sit behind a glass table that shows
off your legs.
Well, it’s a visual business. People want to
see the anchor.
You caught a lot of flak this summer for
covering the New Black Panther Party
case so aggressively. Kirsten Powers, a
correspondent on your network, said you
were doing “the scary-black-man thing.”
This is a story in which not one but two civil
rights attorneys within the Department of
Justice had come forward to say that the
DOJ essentially has a racist policy when it
comes to enforcing the laws. If that is true,
then the department itself is breaking the
law. That is a story. Period.
Do you think it was a political decision by
MSNBC not to cover it as much as you did?  the people who think all that.
I can’t speak for what was in their heads.
But you can’t make the decision that this is
a nothing-burger because it hurts someone
you like politically.  mation is coming from or what they base
Fox makes a big deal about how its daytime
shows aren’t political at all, how they’re
just news shows. But do you think the act
of deciding what to cover and what not to
is in itself a political act?  Not by me.
It’s not political. Television is a service, but
it’s also a business. And in choosing what
you’re going to put on your program, you
have to figure out what’s going to appeal to
your audience and what’s going to rate.
Roger Ailes said that only thirty people
would’ve shown up to Glenn Beck’s rally if
he were still on Headline News.
They do have a lower viewership than Fox
News. You may have heard that we’re num-
ber one—we’re pretty good at advertising
that. But I really don’t know much about
the Glenn Beck empire, other than that it
is one. Sure, his star has taken o≠ since he
got to Fox News, but he has so many view-
ers because people want to hear what he
has to say. I always marvel at people who
hate Glenn Beck, the same way I marvel at
Media
people who hate the other prime-time hosts
on the other channels. What part of the First
Amendment do you have a problem with?
There’s the First Amendment, and then
there’s spreading obvious misinformation.
That happens at a lot of channels. I think
some of those allegations against Beck may
have foundation and that some are blown
up by detractors.
Which allegations have foundation?
I’m not going to get into specifics.
How do you and Hannity get along?
We’re friends. Even if you’re a dyed-in-the-
wool liberal, I’m sure you would enjoy him
socially. At functions, he has time for every-
one. He stops and says, “Tell me about your
family, where you’re from.” He also has this
line: “What are you a lib for? I’m going to
Hannitize you!”
Would you ever run for office?
That is something I’ve never considered
remotely from the time I was 17 years old.
It sounds odd, but I’m too private a person.
Are you a secret Muslim?
Maybe.
What do you make of the folks who still
think that about Obama?
I don’t have any thoughts about this.
C’mon, it’s loony. He’s clearly not Muslim.
Right. But I don’t have any thoughts about
Because a lot of them watch Fox?
I just think, I don’t know where their infor-
their views on. I don’t want to judge any-
body. He’s clearly not a Muslim.
It was something that was, at times, cov-
ered as a question on your network.
Ever get any gross fan mail?
Definitely. Some of them just say, “You’re
hot”—which, you know, I don’t find insult-
ing. [laughs] But the ones that go a little
over the top get deleted right away. My rule
is, if anybody writes in asking for a head
shot and compliments me or the show or
just wants one, that’s fine, they can have a
head shot. But if they write anything per-
verted, they’re not getting one.
Drawing a line in the sand.
Of course! I know what’s going to happen to
that head shot.
greg veis is a writer living in New York.
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