Fired Staffer Claims The Working Environment On ‘Megyn Kelly Today’ Is ‘Completely Toxic’

Megyn Kelly’s show “Megyn Kelly Today” isn’t doing as bad as it was. In fact, I’ve heard her ratings aren’t terrible. At least, they’re better than they were a few months ago. I suppose that’s good. She should have stellar ratings. She’s NBC’s highest paid personality, for crying out loud!

Lately, her show has focused on victims involved in the #MeToo movement. However, a former staffer says that’s a joke, because the behind-the-scenes environment of the show is “completely toxic.”

The email was sent by the show’s head writer to colleagues after he was fired this week following complaints he made to NBC News president Noah Oppenheim and to NBC HR.

Multiple sources inside NBC News passed the email, which included a detailed dossier of complaints sent to HR, to DailyMail.com.

In the email, the show’s head writer (Kevin Bleyer) claimed that two of the show’s senior executives, Jackie Levin and Christine Cataldi, verbally abused staffers.

Among his claims are that Cataldi regularly calls her assistant Katrina ‘an idiot’ while Levin makes impossible demands – such as demanding that her assistant Phoebe provide answers to questions that she never previously asked.

The writer said that on one occasion when he provided constructive criticism to a mistake that Levin had made, he was called a ‘f****** whiner’.

They sound like NIGHTMARES to work for.

An NBC insider told DailyMail.com: ‘The working environment on Megyn Kelly Today is completely toxic. It is hypocritical that a show that has positioned itself as a safe place for those who are victims, has staff that feel like they are being harassed and abused.

‘Megyn harps on about people having a voice and shining a light in dark places, so that’s what Kevin did. Here’s the problem, Megyn’s show doesn’t practice what she preaches – you do that on her show, you get fired! It’s a joke.’

Predictably, an NBC spokesperson denies the claims.

“Jackie and Christine are being attacked unfairly. They are both excellent and experienced producers, and have the full support of everyone here,” the spokesperson said. “They, and the team, are fully focused on continuing the show’s momentum as it continues to climb in the ratings.”

Bleyer, who has previously worked for Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and President Obama, sent the email to staff on NBC’s Megyn Kelly Today on Tuesday.

It described Levin as having lost the faith and support of staff due to ‘her incompetence and persistent abusive treatment’. DailyMail.com understands that the email was not sent to Kelly and Levin.

In his HR complaint, Bleyer claimed that the management of the morning show meant that the operation was regularly on the brink of chaos.

Bleyer alleged that thanks to senior management there was a poisonous atmosphere on a day-to-day basis.

It gets worse. He claims that the two executives planned to fire anyone who complained.

He claimed a ‘number of talented people’ at the staff level were keeping the wheels on the production but described the executive level of the show as ‘amateur hour’.

And he said that he had overheard conversations between Levin and Cataldi in which they were planning to push out staffers who complained.

He wrote: ‘It is a special absurdity – and what some find a hard-to-swallow injustice – that as a team we’ve been lauded for covering harassment stories daily on air, while the staff producing those stories feels so embattled and bullied themselves.’

It sounds absolutely miserable.

I should note, Bleyer didn’t say that Megyn Kelly was aware of the “toxic environment,” but…how could you not be at least a TINY bit aware?

Bleyer did not suggest Kelly was herself aware of the problems he allege dog her show.

That was backed up by one NBC News insider who told DailyMail.com: ‘We don’t believe that Megyn had any idea that this is happening. Jackie manages up well and Megyn is no doubt under the impression that all is well on her show. Put simply – it’s not.

‘We hope that Megyn sees this and speaks up. She has the power to change this and have Jackie removed from the show.’

A second source said that NBC News management and the company’s HR department were ‘panicking’ that the dossier would be made public as the email was BCC-ed to recipients so no one knows who or how many people actually received it.

The insider added: ‘It takes balls to send an email like this to all staff, but for Kevin, enough was enough. No one is happy here and he stood up for all of us.’

There are two sides to every story. Some NBC staffers claim Bleyer is nothing more than a disgruntled former employee who’s actually a huge sexist.

‘This is a recently fired temporary employee, who has never worked in a high-pressured news environment, and was not up to performing his job,’ one said.

If that criticism was true, it is unclear who employed Bleyer in such a senior role. Another added: ‘He has a clear ax to grind.

‘Sadly, these kinds of distorted complaints are all too often alleged against women in management.’

It’s hard to know what to believe. I’ll leave you with this– the final part of Bleyer’s email:

‘And to you, people I respect, in the interest of full disclosure of the plain facts – though in confidence – I have attached the last email I sent to human resources, just prior to being fired by Jackie Levin yesterday morning.

‘I sent the same email to Noah Oppenheim shortly thereafter. It is the most recent in a series of communications with Erin Hogan and Noah over the past months in which I indicated that, for good reason, Jackie Levin had lost the faith, support and goodwill of many on the staff including myself. The reason, in sum: her incompetence and persistent abusive treatment.’

What do you think?

h/t Daily Mail