Megyn Kelly recently invited me to appear on her true crime podcast, MK True Crime.
For most media figures, that invitation would be an automatic yes.
I said no.
And no, it wasn’t an easy decision.
Kelly commands a massive audience across her platforms.
I host a fast-growing true crime show, Surviving the Survivor. Appearing on her program would introduce my work to tens of thousands of new viewers and listeners.
In other words, it would bring clicks.
Clicks are the central currency of modern media. Attention determines who rises, who fades, and who remains relevant. It fuels algorithms, revenue, influence, and reputation.
I spent nearly 30 years in broadcast news – some in the same role as Kelly at Fox News – and the bottom line is it’s a business. So is podcasting nowadays.
But after thinking carefully about her invitation, having appeared once before on Kelly’s true crime show, I declined this time around.
When I was weighing my decision, I was reminded of Herman Melville’s most quietly defiant character, Bartleby, the Scrivener, and his famously simple yet powerful line: “I prefer not to.”
It’s a profound response that I first read with my father as a teenager. It’s also a response that far too many people overlook.
The changing media landscape
Over the past decade, the media landscape has been upended. The gatekeepers are gone. The barriers to entry have collapsed. Anyone with a camera, a microphone, and a social media account can build an audience.
That’s not all bad. In many ways, it’s healthy. Independent voices reach millions without permission. Competition has increased. New perspectives have emerged.
But the new system runs on a powerful and often corrosive fuel: attention.
The sad reality is that the fastest way to capture attention is outrage. The louder the claim, the faster it spreads. The more provocative the accusation, the greater the engagement. Algorithms reward intensity, not restraint.
Clarity is no longer the goal. The goal is visibility. Clicks.
As someone who hosts a live, daily true crime show on YouTube, I understand this dynamic well. Audience engagement matters. No media operation survives without it.
But every serious journalist – which I contend Kelly no longer is – eventually confronts the same question: At what cost?
What price are clicks worth?
Lessons from family history
The title of my show, Surviving the Survivor, comes directly from my family’s history.
My co-host is my mother, Karmela Waldman – an 86-year-old child Holocaust survivor and licensed therapist – and the oldest, active true crime podcaster.
At four and a half years old, my mother was separated from her mother during World War II and hidden inside a Catholic school for boys in what is now Serbia. For eight and a half months, she lived there in secrecy.
A righteous gentile doctor brought her to a nun who protected her until she could reunite with her mother in Budapest. They survived.
My grandfather did not. He was gassed in Auschwitz. Then, he was shoved into an oven, where his ashes were left to disintegrate into nothingness.
Years later, when I wrote my book Surviving the Survivor, my family traveled together to visit what should have been my grandfather’s grave.
But there was no grave.
The only trace of him is his name carved onto a family tombstone. The Nazis tried to erase him. But they failed.
It’s a family history that is ingrained in our DNA.
Featuring voices that are hostile toward Jews and Israel
In recent years, influential voices in the media have increasingly trafficked in rhetoric that portrays Jews as sinister or Israel as uniquely illegitimate.
These ideas are no longer fringe. They are mainstream.
Kelly is one of the platforms where this shift is happening. She may deny it, but who she elevates – and what she ignores – tells the full story.
She built her reputation as a supposed journalist, which makes this moment even more disappointing and distressing.
Her show increasingly amplifies voices whose commentary normalizes hostility toward Jews and Israel.
I once worked just an office or two away from him at Fox News. He is a gifted communicator with a massive audience and, clearly, a very unhealthy, angry, bitter, small mind.
He’s obsessive in his hatred toward both Jews and Israel. He perseverates about it like a dog over a bone. Don’t let his boyish Brooks Brothers looks – or exceptional ability to gaslight – fool you.
Candace Owens’ disdain for Jews is even more nakedly obvious.
Kelly should know better than to engage with these two. So why does she?
Because as Kelly leans into Jew hate, her clicks increase. Her audience grows and so does her bottom line. This is the same woman NBC reportedly paid $69 million to leave the company.
Is she this greedy? Or hateful? Or both?
Portraying Jews as shadowy manipulators or treating Israel as uniquely malevolent is not a matter of political debate or policy. Kelly tries to hide behind this specious argument.
Growing antisemitism
When major platforms elevate these narratives, they don’t just host conversation. They legitimize it.
And the consequences are visible everywhere.
Jewish-owned ambulances were just set on fire in England. Two Hebrew-speaking men were beaten up while eating lunch in San Jose, California.
Antisemitic incidents are rising across the United States and Europe. The Wall Street Journal just posed the question: Are Jews safe anywhere?
In the aftermath of October 7, Jews worldwide are entangled in a growing web of rage and hate.
It’s why I had to tell Kelly that “I prefer not to” appear on her platform any longer.
As the son of a Holocaust survivor, I felt a generational obligation to my children to say no. My 11, 10, and six-year-olds know their grandmother’s story.
They attend a Jewish day school in Miami, protected by what looks more like a special ops unit than security guards.
Yet my kids don’t flinch at the sight of long guns, ankle holsters, and flak jackets. They are living the consequences of allowing hate to run wild.
My kids also notice other things, like the choices their father makes.
If I appeared on Kelly’s platform, I would send a message that clicks matter more than doing what’s right.
This is about something simpler. Decency. Responsibility.
The willingness to say that some rhetoric should not be amplified simply because it performs well.
But Kelly is apparently all in when it comes to hate and outrage.
The pursuit of attention cannot come at any cost.
The money may be too tempting. The hate may be too real. Even worse, the attention may be too intoxicating.
You all matter – the podcast consumer. I beseech you to invoke Bartleby the Scrivener’s line and say: “I prefer not to.”
I prefer not to embolden the chaos, confusion, animus, control, and ego run amok.
Teach your children it’s okay to say no too.
With that said, I invite Kelly to accept a cordial invitation to meet my mom, Karm.
Kelly would learn a lot about quiet strength, resilience, and the power of humility.
But I have a hunch she’s too busy being mad, chasing clout, and firing off another rage-fueled X/Twitter post to learn from a woman who is a living, breathing, walking piece of history.
Megyn, I understand you might not get as many clicks appearing on Surviving the Survivor – but it might be worth so much more.
The writer is a former Fox News DC national correspondent, true crime podcaster, and author.