We should take note of Megyn Kelly’s recent interview with Tara Reade—and not just because it was the first time Joe Biden’s accuser agreed to an on-screen interview since making her allegation that the presumptive Democratic nominee for president sexually assaulted her in 1993. The ability of the former Fox and NBC hostess to bypass mainstream media channels and reach millions of viewers through social media and the internet speaks volumes about a shifting media landscape.
No major media outlet controlled the information Kelly released to the public. Instead Kelly’s interview transmitted right to the American people without mainstream monopolization. They didn’t control the information the public received and they didn’t get to tie a nice little bow around their perfectly framed story or line it up in such a way that suited their own interests.
Social media, when not being censored by tech executives, has enabled political leaders and public figures alike to bypass traditional means of sharing information and instead speak directly to the people—whether that’s through Twitter, YouTube, or another platform.
That’s exactly what Megyn Kelly just pulled off.
And that’s why mainstream media appears to be throwing a tantrum reminiscent of a spoiled toddler who didn’t get his way.
Liberal news channels cannot twist Tara Reade’s story with any semblance of credibility, though they have tried. The bias is blatant as we all have access to the interview itself without media outlets controlling the narrative or, through careful editing, the extent of the information we receive.
Online news magazines and other platforms that allow for direct-to-viewer content seem to be the way of the future. Reade saw this as a preferable alternative to sitting down with a mainstream news outlet. For one thing, she knew it would reach just as many people—the interview received as much coverage and views as any story on a major news outlet.
It’s likely that Reade viewed this method as an opportunity to share her story freely without the “gotcha” questions she might expect from pseudo-journalists or the ever-constant need for channels to stop a guest’s line of argument midway through just because they’re up against a commercial break.
The adage from the song “Waiting on the World to Change,” has never been more true: “When you own the information, you can bend it all you want.”
People on both sides of the political aisle are fed up with the spun narratives on television news. Television news is often so rife with bias and hard commercial breaks that many Americans can’t stomach it. We want to know what is going on, plain and simple, without any fancy packaging. We aren’t stupid. We don’t need news hosts telling us how to think.
News broadcasting like what we just witnessed allows us to take a step back and rethink our news consumption. We could all learn some lessons from Megyn Kelly’s interview with Tara Reade.