December 19th 2019

Bill Berkowitz and Gale Bataille

Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly were subjected to incessant sexism and repeated sexual harassment during their tenure at the Fox News Channel, and were brave to ultimately stand up and speak out against it. And I understand, from reading the review by the well respected and longtime film critic Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle, that the new Jay Roach movie “Bombshell,” which portrays some of the above mentioned events at Fox may be a “superb drama.”

Bombshell tells the story of the rise at the Fox News Channel of both Carlson (played by Nicole Kidman), Kelly (played by Charlize Theron), and a composite character called Kayla, (played by Margot Robbie) -- who describes herself as a “Millennial evangelical” -- as the major female faces of what became Roger Ailes’ carefully crafted right-wing television behemoth.  The late Ailes was the former Fox News chief executive and chairman who was ousted from the network in 2016 after Carlson sued him for sexual harassment and multiple women later came forward with similar allegations.

How much should we expect from a movie like Bombshell? It is, after all, taking on the pernicious culture of sexual misconduct at Fox News and Carlson and Kelly are to be credited with helping to fuel the #MeToo movement.  The critical parallel but relatively unaddressed story is that Carlson and Kelly were key players in the rise of the influence of highly conservative Fox News as the most watched cable news channel. 

The dilemma is that these #MeToo role models were willing and significant promoters of Fox News’ reactionary news delivery and talking points, helping to shape today’s toxic political landscape including direct and “dog whistle” racist and anti-immigrant hysteria.  We recognize that this is a dramatic movie and not a documentary or polemic, but given the political and cultural influence of Fox News, should we expect something more than a dramatic portrayal of a specific narrative; the sexual harassment culture at Fox?

“Me too has gotten much fuel from the public testimonials of women in the media and entertainment, however it is important to remember this movement’s origins.  Tarana Burke, an African American civil rights activist  from The Bronx, New York, began using the phrase “Me Too” on social media to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault in society in 2006. She credits her awakening to her own experience of sexual harassment and her inadequate response to a young African American woman revealing her story of sexual assault. In 2017 #MeToo went viral as a hashtag after women began using it to tweet about the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse. Tanara Burke with other “silence breakers” was named Time Person of the Year for 2017.  

Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly, the protagonists of Bombshell were/are highly paid white media female personalities —and yes they too, even from their perch of privilege, experienced and took huge risks to fight the debasement of sexual harassment.  The Carlson and Kelly characters are portrayed as #MeToo role models; righteous women taking on an odious old white man and speaking truth to power.  But they must also be understood as highly flawed role models for the majority of women that #MeToo speaks to. 

The film, which is already generating Oscar buzz, “is rare for a big production in that it’s focused on gender and power in a corporation, but it doesn’t really provide a more nuanced contextualization of the stakes around Carlson’s and Kelly’s stories,” BuzzFeed’s Pier Dominguez recently wrote. “Instead, the movie ends up being, in some ways, an infomercial for their post–Fox News incarnations while also promoting the idea of a kinder, gentler Fox News without Ailes at the helm.”

Dominguez noted that “The Megyn Kelly we meet here is decidedly not the one who deployed her prosecutorial skills on her show ‘The Kelly File’ to stoke racist conspiracy theories or lecture viewers about the whiteness of Jesus and Santa. Instead, she is presented, in her own words, as a tell-it-like-it-is journalist who puts powerful people in the hot seat, and faces sexism because of it.” In the world beyond and after this movie, Kelly quickly flamed out at NBC and was abruptly pulled from the morning show line up after wondering why blackface shouldn’t be considered okay for Halloween. 

During her years at Fox, Gretchen Carlson, a longtime co-host of Fox & Friends,  was a conservative’s conservative. As The New Republic’s Lyz Lenz reported in June of this year, “Carlson worked for Fox for 13 years and often touted anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, fed into birtherism fears, and anti-Muslim attitudes.”

Dominguez noted that in the film Carlson “is not the habitual peddler of racist conspiracy theories [raising questions about whether Obama was a Muslim ]

and anti-gay [she called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act an Obama-initiated cheap political "distraction"] and anti-trans [opposing laws protecting the basic rights of transgender students talking points,” like she was during her Fox broadcasting career. “Instead, Carlson is an ideological maverick who faces pushback from Ailes for advocating for (some) gun control, and for appearing makeup-less on an episode about empowering young women. ‘Nobody wants to watch a middle-aged woman sweat her way through menopause,’ Ailes admonishes her.”

In July 2016, Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes. Three years later, Ailes had been fired from Fox, and Carlson was awarded a $20-million settlement against 21st Century Fox, and received an extraordinary public apology from her former employer, while agreeing to sign a NDA (non-disclosure agreement). 

Carlson has written a book, Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back, and was portrayed by Naomi Watts in the recent Ailes-centered Showtime series The Loudest Voice. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, she has recently returned to television with “series of topical documentaries” on Lifetime.  

The Los Angeles Times also reported that Carlson, a former Miss America, “also weathered a controversial run as the chairwoman of the Miss America Organization, where she pushed to drop the swimsuit competition, but was accused [and later cleared for] of ‘silencing’ and ‘marginalizing’ then-reigning Miss America Cara Mund (an investigation cleared her of wrongdoing).”

Carlson to her credit has continued her advocacy against sexual harassment and has become a champion for overturning NDA’s. She recently wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times titled “Fox News, I Want My Voice Back.” Carlson calls on Fox to release her from the non-disclosure agreement so that she can talk about her experiences. She co-created the “Lift Our Voices” initiative with fellow Fox alumna Julie Roginsky. Earlier this month, she attended The Hollywood Reporter's Power 100 Women in Entertainment event and presented Ronan Farrow with the Equity in Entertainment Award.

Bombshell may be a well-crafted  drama – with brilliant performances -- and one that deftly explores important issues for our time.  “But,” as BuzzFeed’s Juan Dominguez pointed out, “by failing to bring race into its analysis, it falls into the same simplistic empowerment narrative,” of white celebrities fighting the good fight.  

The story of Carlson and Kelly is told through the lens of two privileged white women, who during their time at Fox helped spread a culture of growing racism, white supremacy, and challenges to our democracy, all of which continue to be the daily playbook of the network.  Once again disenfranchised women remain out of the picture. 

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Bill Berkowitz is a longtime and regular contributor to BuzzFlash. Gale Bataille is a long time advocate for health care and women’s rights and former mental health director for San Mateo and Solano Counties in California.