A Megyn Kelly Staffer Was Fired After Reporting Workplace Harassment
The first few months of Megyn Kelly’s new third-hour segment on the Today show haven’t exactly been all sunshine and roses. The former Fox News anchor got off to a rocky on-screen start when she visibly irked guests including Jane Fonda and Debra Messing in some cringe-worthy segments. Since then, there have been other awkward live moments, iffy ratings and reports of discord between Kelly and NBC executives. And the latest news out of Megyn Kelly Today reveals that the issues extend beyond Kelly herself. On Thursday, the Daily Mail reported that a staffer was fired from the show after reporting a “toxic and demeaning environment” in a letter and dossier of complaints to NBC HR and NBC News president Noah Oppenheim.
After being fired from his position as a writer for Megyn Kelly Today, Kevin Bleyer, who is also a former writer for The Daily Show, shared his letter with other colleagues via email. The email, which was then passed on to the Daily Mail, includes serious allegations against the show’s co-executive producers, Jackie Levin and Christine Cataldi.
“I’m sad to say, speaking candidly and confidentially, the executive incompetence continues — as does the dysfunctional management, abusive treatment, maddening hypocrisy, staggering inefficiencies, acidic and deficient communication, and relentless scapegoating,” Bleyer said in his initial complaint letter. “Jackie Levin persists in creating a toxic and demeaning environment, and Christine Cataldi enables and reinforces it.”
Among a laundry list of specific instances, Bleyer noted that Levin called him a “f***ing whiner” when he offered a suggestion, that Cataldi often refers to her assistant as “an idiot,” and that both are regularly distracted by their personal lives during key work moments (like “poring over pictures online about Christine’s bathroom renovation” 20 minutes before airtime).
Bleyer didn’t give any indication that Kelly herself plays any role in fostering the “toxic” environment, or that she’s even aware of it (which an “NBC News insider” reiterated to the Daily Mail). He did, however, point out the hypocrisy of the show’s ongoing coverage of the #MeToo movement and sexual harassment in the workplace juxtaposed with the constant behind-the-scenes bullying he alleges. “It is a special absurdity — and what some find a hard-to-swallow injustice — that as a team we’ve been lauded for covering harassment stories daily on air, while the staff producing those stories feels so embattled and bullied themselves,” he wrote.
Kelly has indeed focused on workplace harassment on her show, including by inviting Time's “Person of the Year” honorees — the “silence breakers” — to share their stories and stress the importance of speaking out against workplace harassment. Bleyer said executives on her own show are actively deterring their staff from doing exactly that — and punishing those who do. “I know Jackie and Christine previously intended (and perhaps still do intend) to replace staffers who offer any kind of pushback or speak up for themselves,” Bleyer wrote in his letter before he was fired. “I have personally overheard these conversations myself.”
He also suggested that if that pushback were to occur, “there may be further action through official legal avenues,” implying NBC may have a lawsuit on its hands in the near future. For its part, the network defended Levin and Capaldi, with a representative for the network stating, “Jackie and Christine are being attacked unfairly. They are both excellent and experienced producers, and have the full support of everyone here.”
It remains to be seen whether Kelly herself will ignore these reports or address them. However much truth these claims hold, Kelly may have a hard time painting herself as a crusader against harassment in the workplace without responding to serious allegations about her own.
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