The #MeToo era may be a fading memory for many, but it’s still a raw subject for those who were its victims.
Case in point: Some of the women who accused political pundit Mark Halperin of misconduct in 2017 are expressing renewed outrage over Halperin’s latest comeback deal, this one engineered by Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News and NBC host. Kelly announced this week that Halperin would host audio and video programs under her MK Media banner.
Kelly said in a statement she was partnering with Halperin and two other personalities—Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan and ex-ESPN anchor Sage Steele—to “help sane, reasonable, good-humored people build their own followings in this new media space.” She added, “I’m a huge fan of Mark’s.”
Which is not what Kelly said in late 2017 when Eleanor McManus appeared on Megyn Kelly’s part of NBC’s Today show at the height of the #MeToo era. McManus went on the program to describe Halperin’s harassment of her more than a decade earlier when he was political director at ABC News. She was one of 12 women who accused him of various predations, from groping to physical assault. Halperin has acknowledged some of the lesser allegations but has denied others, including sexual assault. He apologized to McManus in late 2019.
Kelly rebuked Halperin repeatedly on the Today segment, saying at one point, “I’m wondering where his apology was to his victims.”
In response to McManus’ story, Kelly said women had wrongly convinced themselves that “this is the price of admission” in politics and the media, “that you have to let someone [abuse] you this way.” She later said on the air that she had spoken to some of Halperin’s accusers and concluded, “They’re still scared that he is going to stay in power and exact some kind retribution on them.”
McManus told me that she was hurt by Kelly’s agreement with Halperin—and told Kelly as much in a lengthy text on Thursday.
“I was deeply disheartened to learn about your partnership with Mark,” she wrote. She called it “a betrayal” in light of what McManus described as a “promise” Kelly gave her during her 2017 appearance: “You assured me that you would do everything in your power to ensure he would never work again. Your words gave me hope and strength during an incredibly vulnerable time.
“Now, seeing you not only collaborate with him but publicly praise him as part of your new venture is deeply hurtful to myself as well as the other women he preyed upon. It undermines the trust survivors placed in you and the integrity of the #MeToo movement that you once championed…Giving a former sexual predator a platform like yours puts him in a position of authority and prominence [and] is a slap in the face to many of his victims, as well as those who believed in you and your commitment to justice.”
Kelly hasn’t replied to her, McManus told me. “I was a huge fan of Megyn’s,” she said. “She stood up for a lot of women on her [Today] program. But the hypocrisy is a big issue in this case.”
Kelly and representatives for Halperin didn’t respond to requests for comment.
McManus’ sense of betrayal is shared by Dianna Goldberg May, who was harassed by Halperin when she worked for ABC News. May also received an apology from him in late 2019. The partnership is “a shocking abdication of all that she espoused during the MeToo movement,” May told me. “We believed she was an ally, a critical voice in a significant generational moment.”
May said she met with Kelly in April 2018 as part of a group seeking support for an anti-harassment advocacy organization called Press Forward. Kelly, she said, “championed what we were doing.”
Kelly detailed her own harassment in her 2016 memoir, “Settle for More.” She wrote that Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes made sexual comments to her, tried to grab her and offered her “professional advancement in exchange for sexual favors.” When she resisted, he said threateningly, “When is your contract up?” She later said she wrote to Fox’s management to accuse fellow host Bill O’Reilly of harassment.
Kelly also wrote that she received death threats after asking then-candidate Donald Trump about his mistreatment of women while co-moderating a 2015 debate on Fox News. Trump later criticized her and said, “She had blood coming out of her…whatever." Kelly publicly endorsed Trump at a rally a week before the 2024 election.
Halperin was a regular on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the co-host of a Showtime show about politics and bestselling author of Game Change when the accusations against him emerged in 2017. He was quickly dropped by his blue-chip roster of employers.
He has slowly climbed back to his former prominence, despite periodic objections to his return. Gretchen Carlson, who successfully sued Roger Ailes for harassment in 2016, said the decision to publish a book by Halperin in 2019 was “a slap in the face to all women."
More recently, Halperin struck out on his own, co-hosting a streaming show and launching a subscription newsletter. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he was in demand as an analyst, appearing on NewsNation, Newsmax, and Michael Smerconish’s satellite radio program. He has also appeared multiple times on Kelly’s popular podcast.
Kelly’s nascent podcast business builds on her own podcast’s success. She became a podcaster after being fired by NBC in the second year of her show for defending blackface, with her exit including the remainder of her three-year, $69 million contract.
