Fox News’ Megyn Kelly complains about 'liberal' media directly quoting her remarks about McKinney teen

Fox News host Megyn Kelly accused "left-wing" news sites of taking her out of context when she criticized Dajerria Becton, the black teenager seen being forced to the ground by then-Officer Eric Casebolt in McKinney, Texas.

"It's almost pointless to respond to these kinds of smears, and I almost never do it," Kelly said. "But this one struck me as an example of how drastically the press -- really, the blogs -- distort innocuous comments to promote their own agendas. It is not just a left-wing thing, to be fair; but too often, it is done by the far left with glee, and with total impunity."

On Monday, Kelly called Casebolt's actions "brutal," but added that Becton "was no saint, either," because she "lingered" at the scene of the incident rather than leaving.

Becton has said that she was trying to leave when Casebolt took her to the ground. Casebolt resigned from his position on Tuesday following widespread public criticism of his actions.

"I took no position on the matter, other than to acknowledge the brutality of the cop's actions, and the decision-making of the young woman that brought her into his focus," Kelly argued on Wednesday.

The host specifically criticized Salon and Media Matters,

"Here is what actually happened: we did two segments on McKinney," Kelly explained. "The first involved an eyewitness who defended the officer. The second involved two pundits, Mark Fuhrman and Richard Fowler -- both of whom were against the cop. Two segments out of six on our show, and two of the three guests against the cop."

Kelly's colleague Howard Kurtz said the reporting was part of an "echo chamber" used by sites with no interest in fairness.

"There's very little desire on the part of these folks to get to truth," Kelly responded. "There's only a desire to get to agenda. And yet, there seems to be an audience for that, a viewership, a readership for these blogs and in some instances, podcasts, what have you."

Media Mattersresponded on Wednesday night by noting that it included Kelly's statement, "I'm not defending his actions, let me make that clear," and that conservative outlets like the Washington Times and Reason.com had also accused her of defending Casebolt.

Watch Kelly's commentary, as posted by Media Matters, below.