Megyn Kelly Slams MS NOW for Using ‘AI-Enhanced’ Image of Alex Pretti — Which it Aired Unknowingly: ‘Didn’t Think Their Hero Was Hot Enough’

 

Megyn Kelly skewered MS NOW — which unknowingly used what the channel admitted was an “AI-enhanced” picture of Alex Pretti — with Kelly pointing out “multiple manipulations” to the photo, including that they “tanned him up,” fixed his teeth, darkened his hair, and made his nose smaller.

Kelly roasted MS NOW for the unwittingly-aired edits on the Tuesday episode of her show.

“Apparently, they did not think that their hero was hot enough,” Kelly said. “And so they — or someone from whom they got the picture — clearly manipulated the photo that is out there of Alex Pretti in his nurse’s scrubs to make him look better.”

The doctored picture was used in at least one MS NOW segment — Monday’s episode of Deadline: White House hosted by Nicolle Wallace.

Ironically, Wallace told viewers that President Donald Trump is “demanding” that Americans “not believe your eyes and ears” when it comes to Pretti.

Several X users caught the edited picture being used, and MS NOW later added the following editor’s note to the segment on YouTube:

EDITOR’S NOTE: MS NOW swapped out the original thumbnail image for this video. The previous thumbnail used was an AI-enhanced image of Alex Pretti.

The YouTube clip of the segment starts right after the moment MS NOW used the image on air. You can see the original clip below:

An MS NOW source told Mediaite the edited picture of Pretti was pulled from the internet and that producers were unaware it was enhanced at first. The source said the picture was not edited by MS NOW.

On Tuesday, Kelly showed her viewers the original picture of Pretti side-by-side with the edited picture. She then walked through the changes she noticed.

“They darkened his hair. They filled in his hair a little, to make him look slightly less bald,” she said. “They tanned him up, they whitened his teeth, and they may have straightened one tooth over there on the top left — there was like a snaggle, and it appears to be gone in the AI version.”

Kelly continued pointing changes out:

His nose — which, I’m sorry but you take a man’s rather prominent nose and start manipulating it to make it look, what, less long and out there? — and now, you are really messing with things. That is just so beyond by a journalist.

A filter that makes the guy look tanner, alright maybe that can happen accidentally. But the shortening of a nose? That does not happen accidentally. And his jaw may have been shortened.

Watch her in the clip from The Megyn Kelly Show above.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags: