Can Megyn Kelly escape her past?

Fox news can turn a nobody into a star—but only of a certain size. You can’t become a Katie Couric or a Diane Sawyer or a Barbara Walters at Fox, so Megyn Kelly is off to the big time, which will crush her. NBC is not going to let her roll her eyes at black activists, or tell her audience that Santa is white, or hector a Planned Parenthood supporter with a horrified “Where’s your humanity?” Her recent adoption of Sheryl Sandberg–style “you go, girl” feminism isn’t going to help her either. There are only so many uplifting reports on workplace mentoring you can file before sleepy viewers start clicking around. The reason Kelly was so great at Fox is that, unlike just about every other woman to be called this, she actually is a badass. Settle for More aside, she’s spent her career really not caring if you think she’s a racist or a pro-lifer or a bully. She’s a strong, strong woman—but she won’t be one at NBC. She’ll be like everyone else.

No matter, it’s still the honeymoon. Kelly has been approved for general consumption by The New York Times (“unlikely feminist heroine”) and Vanity Fair (“feminist icon of sorts”). She gave an interview to Terry Gross in which she sounded not like Fox’s avenging angel but like a good liberal, saying that she was concerned about the “relative lack of power of certain minority groups and the fear they’re feeling in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.” She had a brief badass moment soon after that, at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast, where she told the audience she had “high hopes” for Donald Trump, and that there was “much to admire about the man.” But the Women of Hollywood booed her, and Kathy Griffin flipped her the bird. They’ll get her in line. And who knows? Maybe all this time she was just a gun for hire. If so, she took some very cheap shots over the past few years. And she hit the target.