Megyn Kelly, who gave up the news network grind to focus on podcasting, says she’s been set free. In her Wednesday Forecast LIVE! session with WABC Radio Host, Juliet Huddy, Kelly suggested “Wild West Journalism”, could signal the end to traditional media.
“The 24 hour news cycle changed things. In the past you felt you could trust news anchors; you can’t anymore. We’ve gotten harshly partisan. Vitriol has replaced information. The media has lost credibility. Trump didn’t kill it, but he was the Kevorkian. Podcasting is a new lane where we can tell the truth and build an audience.”
Kelly, who has an attorney shingle, says her background has forced her to deal with provable facts; something she believes networks have slipped away from.
“I still think you need to be rooted in fact to survive. If news can’t work with a core section of facts, they do so at their own peril. There is a difference about being ‘in the tank’ on something and having a strong POV. CNN made a mistake — boring and biased is unforgivable. Misunderstanding POV hurts. People want their POV affirmed but they also want information.”
Starting Devil May Care Media, earlier this year and her own podcast; is her move into the ‘new lane’, where she believes journalism can thrive.
“You can’t keep good journalism down. The rise of ‘journalistic warriors’, the ones fighting for the truth; are going to explode in the new space. Allowing freeform discussions is starting to happen already.”
So where will news find itself in the future?
“Cable news has a little time left, but not much. Traditional broadcast is much shorter. Young people aren’t consuming media as before. They want direct relationships with personalities, instead of wholesale thoughts.”
“Podcasting is a new lane where we can tell the truth and build an audience.”
Therein lies the inherent contradiction. Building an audience requires you to diverge from the truth. Telling the truth is often ugly, dull, and not very commercial. So you have to decide what you want to do. There is no high demand for real truth. There’s high demand for confirmation of opinion. That’s what you mainly find in podcasting, and a lot of it is being done by people who have knowledge and experience, but also have a desire to build an audience.
Dork
interesting that Megyn speaks of bias and cites CNN, while not mentioning FOX, who set the tenor and the tone of bias and vitriol with hosts like Hannity and O’Reilly. What makes her think that the highly charged biased influencers like Alex Jones won’t take over the podcasting space and overrun the “truth seeking journalists” she refers to?
The part of this that everyone is forgetting is that these hosts were successful before they started their podcast. The traditional media gave them exposure and fame/name status. Is Howard Stern the same if he didn’t have the NY market before he went to satellite? It was because of his success that he was able to make that move and continue his success. The reach of traditional media propels people to the top. Reach is something that a flegling podcast produced by a no name host does not have, and few achieve. Do they, of course some do. Now can they sustain it. I am not downplaying podcasts. They are here and viable. However, if you look at the number of podcasts as compared to what would be considered successful podcasts, that ratio is very low. Just like the reach.