(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly reflected on chasing down Duke lacrosse rape hoaxer Crystal Mangum more than one decade ago as a Fox News reporter.
Mangum, a former stripper, admitted Wednesday that she lied about her March 2006 story in which she falsely accused then-students David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann of gang-raping her at a party.
In an episode of her podcast posted Saturday, Kelly recalled only she and Court TV reporter Dan Abrams reported “honestly” and “accurately” on the case as it unraveled before the country. She added, “I reported this exclusively.”
“Everyone. Everyone else in the media rushed to judgement,” she said.
Kelly referred to Mangum’s lie as the tipping point when news outlets began to racially politicize journalism through trials by media without assumption of innocence before guilt.
The SiriusXM star said she has known lacrosse players herself at Syracuse University, having dated the captain of her school’s team. She said the athletes “certainly weren’t a bunch of rapists.”
“The general atmosphere of debauchery did not seem impossible to me, and a bunch of guys drunk at a party, who’s to say it’s impossible?” Kelly commented. “So, I wasn’t ready to condemn them knee-jerk, but I also wasn’t of the thought, ‘No way.’”
Kelly was assigned to the Duke lacrosse allegations beat by her bosses at Fox News. She explained that she was sent to North Carolina to cover the story, citing one time when she and her colleagues visited Mangum’s neighborhood in hopes of getting a reaction from the rape accuser.
A police officer initially warned her team of Mangum’s dangerous neighborhood when they approached, Kelly said, but they pursued the story regardless. Mangum did not answer the door, but Kelly and her colleagues caught the rape accuser driving away, so they trailed her until they reached a stoplight.
“These guys’ pictures were all over everywhere. Their career as lacrosse players had already been brought to an unceremonious, early end and we did not think she was off limits,” Kelly told her listeners.
Kelly said her team decided to abort the mission when Mangum threw herself into the passenger seat to avoid being seen by the Fox News team.
“I think chasing her initially was the right call. But at some point, as a reporter, your humanity kicks in,” Kelly said, explaining why she and her colleagues left at that moment.
Mangum has been in prison since 2013 for killing her boyfriend. She is set to be released in 2026.
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
