Topic category:  Corruption of American News Media

President Theodore Roosevelt,who ran as a third-party presidential candidate when he thought it appropriate, famously declared:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

During last Thursday's prime time debate among the top ten Republican presidential hopefuls as determined by Fox News, Fox News star Megyn Kelly was supposed to be one of three moderators.

Unfortunately, Kelly, who told Howard Stern on his show that she needs to be adored, thought of herself as a person in the arena, like Donald Trump.

Trump was center stage in the arena as a result of ranking first in the polls compiled by Fox News.

Kelly told Fox News' Howie Kurtz on his Fox News show after the debate that she had been in the arena, and she had, because she eschewed the job of moderator for the role of diva.

Merriam-Webster defines a diva as "a famous and successful woman who is very attractive and fashionable; especially : an attractive and successful female performer or celebrity" (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diva).

Kelly certainly qualifies as a diva.

Unfortunately, Kelly also qualifies as a hit woman, for basically asking Trump during the debate how he could expect to win the presidency after having referred to an unnamed woman as a "fat pig" and opined that another woman had "the face of a dog."

Trump promptly joked that he had said such things only about Rosie O'Donnell,with whom he famously feuded years ago.

Kelly was not amused. She insisted there were other women, stating that "for the record."

If Kelly was on a mission to draw attention to herself, she succeeded.

If she was on a mission to torpedo Trump in the polls, it didn't work.

A moderator is not supposed to be "in the arena" or to find facts for the audience.

There's a good reason for that.

The moderator can deceive the public and impact the debate by serving as fact finder, as CNN's Candy Crowley did during the last presidential debate in 2012.

Kelly is a commentator, like Bill O'Reilly, who, to his credit, publicly acknowledged that he should not be moderating the debates.

If Fox News needs a woman to fill the middle seat between Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, it has Martha McCallum, who appropriately moderated the earlier debate among the other seven Republican presidential hopefuls with Bill Hemmer (a much better choice that Baier and Wallace, based on their performances as Kelly's fellow moderators).

Fox News also has Harris Faulkner.

Perhaps McCallum and Faulkner flanking Hemmer for the next Fox News Republican presidential debate?

Why look for replacement moderators?

Howard Stern's 2010 interview of Kelly is on the public radar now, and it's not pretty.

Excerpt from 2010 Politico article about that vulgar interview (www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0410/Megyn_Kelly_does_The_Stern_Show.html):

"Before Kelly walks in:

"Howard: 'The reason she's here is because she's the hottest TV person I've seen in a long time.'

"Robin Quivers: 'And she's promoting that!'

"Howard: 'I just want to see a hot chick.' Adding: 'She is the hottest newscaster. ... I feel a little nervous Robin.'

"Kelly walks in:

'Baby, look at you...'

"Highlights:

"H: 'Are you attracted to my wife at all? ... Have you been with another woman?'

"M: 'I can honestly say I haven't. ... Maybe [Howard's wife] will be the first. ... I'm into guys.'

"M: 'I'm not into porn.'

"H: 'Have you always had a boyfriend?'

"K: "Pretty much. ... Maybe it's an insecurity thing. ... I do need a little attention. I like to be adored.'

"K: 'They Fox-ify you over at Fox News. ... Fox is full of beauties. ... They're all beautiful, honestly.'

"H: What happens to you at Fox News when a woman gets ugly?

"K: 'They take you down to the basement, beat you and kick you out the door. ... No! ... I mean, honestly, it's TV. It's a fickle business. ... I do feel pressure to look my best."'

"K: 'I believe what Kevin Bacon said: Keep the fights clean and the sex dirty and you have happy marriage.'

"K: 'They say that newscasters often get stalked more than celebrities because you're looking right in the camera so they feel like you're talking right to them.' On stalkers: 'That's the dark side of TV news but it's worth it.'

"K: Some people want to discredit women's succcess in TV news 'by saying you slept your way to the top. They either say you're an idiot or you slept to you top. ... Some people said I slept my way to the top.' [Kelly categorically rejected that...'on a stack of Bibles.']

"K: Bill 'Hammer's a good looking guy.'

"Howard also played a game with Kelly called 'F**k, Marry and Kill,' in which Kelly was asked who she would sleep with, whom she would marry, and whom she would kill amongst these three Fox talents: Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. The results? She'd marry Hannity, sleep with O'Reilly and kill Glenn Beck. Why marry Hannity? 'He probably has the most dough and he's the youngest.' Why sleep with O'Reilly? 'Because he wrote a book that had some saucy sex scenes in there.' Why kill Beck? 'Because I know Glenn the least.'

"Who else is hot at Fox, asked Stern. Julie Banderas, responded Kelly, calling Banderas a 'hot mama.' 'She's a beautiful woman. She's got the Latina thing going on, the saucy vixen.'

"K: 'I'm conservative on some things and I'm not on others. ... I'm not going to say how I vote. ... I love that people make these assumptions about you because you work at Fox. ... That's my job, to be contrarian, to push people.'

"K: 'You don't get on air at Fox unless Roger [Ailes] interviews you personally. ... I think he's looking for people who are interesting, who are smart, who'll be good on television.'

"K: 'Who knew that one eyebrow was freakishly higher than the other? ... Why is that? That's all I can look at when I look at myself on TV. ... You want to know what I love most about myself? I'll tell you the truth: My clavicle. I thin I have a nice clavicle.'"

Should Kelly moderate the next debate?

No.

There's enough hypocrisy in politicians without having hypocritical moderators.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.