Reprinted from Media Matters
Fox News' combustible feud with Donald Trump began with a bang last August when Megyn Kelly pressed the candidate on his ugly history of misogynistic language. The hostilities ended with a whimper though, when Kelly last week obediently walked Trump through the now-infamous softball (or "airball") interview as part of her first Fox Broadcast special.
Media observers have been lining up to describe just how awful and boring and disappointing Kelly's sit-down with Trump was, especially after she had made the media rounds promoting herself as a strong, independent journalist who wasn't going to be intimidated by Trump.
Instead, she practically bowed in Trump's presence and produced the kind of "journalism" that Fox News is famous for -- The New Yorker called the interview "a useless exercise, except, perhaps, for those watching from one group: Republicans looking for a script for how to surrender to Donald Trump."
Professionally, Kelly's wilting performance may have set back her dream of becoming the next Oprah or Barbara Walters; of breaking out of the Fox News conservative media word and establishing herself as a TV brand that can appeal to huge swaths of viewers. And maybe bank $20 million annually.
Based on how the special flopped, she may not have that appeal. Ratings for Kelly's first primetime television special were meh: she drew approximately five million viewers. The only real buzz the show created was the public mocking of Kelly's inept interviewing style. ("A carefully modulated kindergarten-teacher demeanor.")
While Kelly huddles with her manager and agent and tries to figure out what went wrong after a long-running media love fest, the larger story that's come into focus is how Fox News, led by Kelly's genuflection to Trump, has signaled its institutional surrender to the presumptive GOP nominee. Fox News has been bullied and beaten into submission by a Republican front-runner who had the audacity to pick a fight with Roger Ailes and the mass media mouthpiece of the Republican Party.