Megyn Kelly slams HBO for removing 'Gone With The Wind' over its racial depiction: 'Where does this end?'
Former FOX News anchor and NBC News host Megyn Kelly, on Wednesday, June 10, expressed outrage in a series of tweets after HBO Max removed the film 'Gone With The Wind' from its platform. The decision was taken by the network in the wake of widespread George Floyd protests highlighting systemic racism in the United States and across the world. The 1939 film has been criticized by many for romanticizing the horrors of slavery.
Shortly after the announcement, Kelly took to Twitter on Wednesday morning, writing: "Are we going to pull all of the movies in which women are treated as sex objects too? Guess how many films we’ll have left? Where does this end??
“Ok @hbomax – let’s do this – every episode of ‘Friends’ needs to go right now," she continued. "If not, you hate women (& LGBTQ ppl, who also don’t fare well on ‘Friends’). Obviously Game of Thrones has to go right now. Anything by John Hughes … Woody Allen… could go on & on… & on…& on…”
The TV show host also bemoaned the cancellation of law enforcement-centric reality television shows like 'COPS' and 'Live PD'. She wrote: "If you don’t like it, don’t watch.” These reality shows have been long criticized for their dramatization of real life law and order situation and critics have often pointed that the shows portray police officers in a positive light and often show black and brown people as the offenders.
The move came days after Floyd, an unarmed black man, was killed on May 25 in police custody after an officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes while Floyd pleaded with the cop to let him breathe. Floyd's death triggered rampant protests in the country and across the world demanding an end to police brutality and systemic racism.
Kelly, after multiple sarcastic tweets about shows that should also be removed, stated: "For the record, you can loathe bad cops, racism, sexism, bias against the LGBTQ community, and not censor historical movies, books, music and art that don’t portray those groups perfectly. Ppl understand art reflects life… as we evolve, so do our cultural touchstones.”
Shortly after her Twitter rant, many social media users slammed her tweets while some called her a racist. One user wrote: "Megyn, you can still watch your favorite racist movies via various streaming services." While another said: "Megyn Kelly only ever trends when she gets on her racist shit." The tweet referenced her previous brushes with racially sensitive issues, including her statement in October 2018 that she did not know blackface was wrong and defended it as a Halloween costume, and once stating that Jesus and Santa were white.
"Remember this when you're fired and the world has "evolved it's cultural touchstones" by ensuring you no longer have a platform to spread your lies and disinformation. Megyn Kelly, you're a hack who sold out years ago," another tweeted.
One user pointed out that she did not outrage as much when Floyd died: "For the record, Megyn Kelly has now expressed more shock and horror over a racist period film getting temporarily yanked in order to add a disclaimer than she has for an African-American man getting murdered in broad daylight by a white police officer."