Media bigs mix ’n’ mingle

MEGYNKelly mixed with her former Fox News colleagues at Mediaite’s Most Influential in Media 2017 party. Kelly, who defected to NBC earlier this year, was spotted at the bash to celebrate the list, chatting to Kimberly Guilfoyle, Harris Faulkner and Ainsley Earhardt — her show “Fox & Friends” and co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade topped the list as most influential, given President Trump’s propensity to use the Fox News show for his morning Twitter talking points. Others at the Mediaite soiree, hosted by its founder Dan Abrams, included Fox TV head Jack Abernethy, ABC’s James Goldston and CNN’s Jeff Zucker. Also there: Eric Bolling, whose former Fox colleagues were happy to see him, we are told. Those who made the top 10 included Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, Zucker and Jake Tapper. But no media list can be published without controversy. A few were stunned to see Judge Andrew Napolitano, Guilfoyle and Jeffrey Toobin all ranked above the Murdochs (who own the New York Post), while Kelly, who had a rough start at NBC, was ranked ahead of Ronan Farrow, whose star has soared because of his groundbreaking coverage of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Abrams explained, “It was the editorial team, not me, deciding the list. It is about who has been covered by Mediaite this year . . . This isn’t a list of business influencers, this is about people who make comments over a year that impact the political news cycle. So the cable news talking heads have more influence than the main network anchors, and often even the network presidents.”