Staff Reports
Conservative readers deserve straight talk: the Babylon Bee published a satirical piece headlined “Megyn Kelly Gets Rid Of Old Pager Just To Be Safe,” invoked a recent pager-explosion trope, and then pulled the story after Megyn Kelly publicly blasted it with a terse “WTF” and tagged the site’s leadership. That sequence — a public shove, an immediate deletion, and a defensive retreat — is not the behavior of a responsible media outlet. The Bee’s original post is archived, so there is no dispute the joke ran and was removed after the backlash.
For context, the pager gag wasn’t plucked from thin air; it references real-world attacks and a grim string of events that involved electronic device explosives, a subject that has traumatized many and is not harmless fodder for lazy satire. Using that imagery to suggest assassination is a punchline crosses into grotesque territory the moment real people are being targeted and killed. Satire has always had a place on the right, but it should punch up at power, not flirt with imagery of murder.
Let’s be blunt: conservative audiences rightly expect satire to be razor-sharp, not reckless. The Babylon Bee built its brand by skewering the left’s absurdities, but when a “joke” reads like a threat, the site deserves to be called out by its allies. If our movement wants credibility with mainstream Americans, we cannot normalize humor that sounds indistinguishable from intimidation. Opinion and mockery are not an excuse for irresponsible provocation.
This kerfuffle also exposes how poisonous the current infighting over Israel has become on the right, with pundits and podcasters lobbing accusations of betrayal and worse. Influencers on multiple sides immediately accused the Bee of “inciting murder” and urged accountability, showing that the flames of internecine warfare can turn otherwise loyal conservatives on one another in hours. If we allow this to be the new normal, the movement will fracture into permanent grievance tribes instead of a united force for conservative principles.
And yes, Megyn Kelly’s anger carries an ironic sting: she was conspicuously less outraged when similar quips were aimed at others last year, and that inconsistency matters. Conservatives should be honest with ourselves — calling out bad faith when it comes from the left is right, but so is holding our own to a consistent standard. The double standards on outrage only deepen the public’s impression that we police speech selectively, which hands cultural credibility to our opponents.
Accountability is simple and patriotic: the Babylon Bee should acknowledge the harm and clarify its editorial standards, and fellow conservative voices should publicly condemn jokes that mimic violence. At the same time, conservatives must push back against the weaponization of outrage and the left’s attempts to use every misstep as a cudgel to silence us. We can be ferocious in defense of free speech without condoning tasteless or dangerous mockery.
Hardworking Americans who believe in free expression and common sense expect better from the right’s media ecosystem. This episode is a reminder that winning the culture war requires discipline, not cheap laughs that erode our moral standing. If we want to remain the party of law, order, and common decency, we must reject anything that sounds like an encouragement of violence and demand higher standards across the board.
