I have always liked Megyn personally and more importantly, respected her as a news anchor and reporter. She has the sort of journalistic range, and charm, that is rarer than many understand. So it came as no surprise to me that there was a bidding war for her services.

If you just read the reviews of her first week, however, one would leave with a very different impression. From Jane Fonda to the Washington Post to some of the folks right here at Mediaite, so many seemed to seek out hiccups with the sort of glee typically reserved for hypocritical politicians. After all, she is making between 15 and 20 million per year and is a smart, confident, attractive woman — a perfect recipe for loathing everything about her. But the rhetorical missiles that clouded her debut felt like more than just petty jealousies; the vitriol directed at her in social media and beyond has an angrier, more personal tone.

Even the sunny demeanor expected from a network morning show anchor is questioned when employed by Kelly as phony, or mocked as cringeworthy and contrived.