Megyn Kelly is a good looking woman. I don’t say this to objectify her, I say it because I have eyes. While it would be absurd not to notice this, that doesn’t take away from the fact that she’s certainly a capable broadcast journalist. I would not want to be in the position of having to answer questions from her if I had something to hide.
Anyway, she did a fine job moderating the debate last night. But a lot of people were commenting on the fact she was wearing some very large fake eyelashes. Including me, sitting on my couch, opining on Twitter:
I’m worried Megyn Kelly’s eyelashes are going to stab me through the TV.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 29, 2016
Almost immediately afterward, I followed it up with this:
That said, she looks pretty good.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 29, 2016
While lots of people were commenting on her eyelashes, I didn’t think much of the comments I made about her appearance. (I also compared Ben Carson’s rhetorical style to the old caveman lawyer sketch on Saturday Night Live and made various other comments about the political carnival last night.) So imagine my surprise when I wake up today, and the Daily Mail’s website is leading with the story: “Witty Twitter users lash out at Megyn Kelly over the ‘ridiculous’ and ‘over-the-top’ eyelashes she modeled during the debate.”
Guess whose tweet is leading the piece? Should I be flattered the Daily Mail called me witty?
Look, Megyn Kelly doesn’t need me to ride to her rescue; my harmless snark won’t change the fact that she’s attractive, talented, and rich. (For what it’s worth, I aspire to the latter, can make a modest case for the adjective in the middle, and won’t be posing for the cover of romance novels anytime soon.) But suffice to say, when I tweeted that I couldn’t imagine the largest newspaper in the world leading with such a ridiculous and throwaway comment.
But what gets me is that the article isn’t a just lighthearted series of jokes about a famous person’s appearance. The tone of the article quickly devolves into how Kelly’s eyelashes can be used as a pawn in the public battles between Trump and Kelly. I know Fleet Street loves to play Agent Provocateur and egg on celebrity feuds, but c’mon.
I’m a journalist, and I’m well aware Twitter is public, and I’m not going to pretend I didn’t say what I did. But I hope it’s clear that, if Trump loves to make nasty personal digs in order to get at people (I can’t even bring myself to repeat the things he’s said about Kelly), I want no part in enabling him and that’s not what my comment was about.
In conclusion, let me leave you with this parting bit of advice: never tweet. Some of us have a professional interest in Twitter, but it’s mostly full of garbage people with garbage opinions. No wonder it’s Donald Trump’s preferred medium for communicating.
