(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) SiriusXM podcast host Megyn Kelly is accusing Fox News of plotting a smear campaign against former host Tucker Carlson by leaking unreleased footage to leftist news watchdog Media Matters.
Kelly, a former Fox host herself, explicitly name-dropped a Fox News public relations executive as the mastermind of the footage leaks against Carlson.
“This ‘drip drip drip of kill him’ is backfiring,” Kelly said on Thursday episode of her podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show. “Everything they’ve released. And I’m sure it’s them. It’s my opinion. I don’t have proof but I’m sure in my head that it’s Irena Briganti who’s pouring through Tucker’s on-camera but off-air mode moments to try to find anything to make him look bad.”
Briganti, who Kelly previously called “as vicious as they come,” serves as the chief of public relations at Fox News.
“One of the reasons I suspect Irena Briganti is a) I think she’s a very terrible person,” Kelly continued, adding that the Fox News executive attempted to tape an exclusive 2019 interview she gave Carlson, who was abruptly dismissed by the network on April 24. In the interview, Kelly opened up about working for NBC News.
“[Irena Briganti] taped me,” a fired-up Kelly said. “Tucker’s team had protocols in place. They were in DC at that time. She’s up in New York. They had protocols in place to protect their on-air feed which would go up to New York from being bastardized or taped or you know so that nobody could use anything against Tucker or anybody else in those days.”
Fox News’ attorneys issued a cease-and-desist letter to Media Matters for releasing the off-air clips of Carlson’s former show, Tucker Carlson Tonight.
“We write on behalf of Fox Corporation to clarify any misunderstandings Media Matters may have had regarding previously unaired footage that Media Matters has published in a series of articles headlined “FOXLEAKS,” the attorneys wrote on Friday.
“That unaired footage is Fox’s confidential intellectual property; Fox did not consent to its distribution or publication; and Fox does not consent to its further distribution or publication,” the letter continued.
Fox has previously denied having any involvement in the leaking of Carlson’s tapes. “This is completely false and an outright lie,” Fox News spokesman claimed on Wednesday.
