Hall gets call to kick out Kelly
The Bethlehem Central School District had fielded at least one request to have beleaguered NBC talk show host Megyn Kelly bounced from its high school’s Alumni Hall of Fame after her recent assertion that Halloween costumes that incorporate blackface were all right when she was growing up.
The district waited until Monday to respond to two questions about Kelly’s status posed by the Times Union last Thursday.
“The district is aware of the request to remove Ms. Kelly from the Alumni Hall of Fame,” a district spokeswoman said in a brief email Monday. “No decision has been made.”
The spokeswoman was not able to say who made the request, and hung up before any other questions could be posed.
Kelly’s morning show — an extension of the “Today” franchise — was canceled last week by NBC, which is reportedly in negotiations to bring about her exit from the network after less than two years.
After making her remarks on last Tuesday’s show, Kelly apologized on Wednesday’s program and in an internal email — but was battered by criticism from network chief Andrew Lack and several of her “Today” colleagues.
The Times Union reported on Sunday that NBC had posted an online opinion piece from a group of Bethlehem students denouncing Kelly’s assertion that white people dressing up in blackface — or viceversa — had been acceptable when the anchor was growing up in the community in the 1980s.
Kelly was inducted into Bethlehem Central High School’s Hall of Fame in 2015, when she was a primetime anchor for Fox News. The school’s hall of fame also includes actress Eva Marie Saint (“On the Waterfront”) and former NBC News president Neal Shapiro.