Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly is interviewed by Howard Kurtz for Newsweek for its “My Favorite Mistake” column. Written in the first person, Kelly recalls getting beaten up by “mean girls” in middle school, and also a defining moment in her broadcasting career. After a mistake in one of her first stories for Fox, Kelly was called into the office of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes:
I was stunned. I barely knew him. It was like he was using X-ray vision to peer into my soul. He told me not to fear making a mistake, just admit it to the audience and move on. “You can’t be afraid to be vulnerable,” he said.
It was what Oprah would call an “aha moment.” I slowly came to grips with the notion that my bravado was having the opposite effect than I intended. When a woman in the Washington bureau reduced me to tears—which, believe me, doesn’t happen often—Brit told me my problem was that I projected zero vulnerability.
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