Megyn Kelly Slams MS NOW for Using AI Image of Alex Pretti
By: Sean James (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Sean JamesJan 28th, 2026, 1:01 pm Share XFacebook Copy Link
Megyn Kelly skewered MS NOW for using 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 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.
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who gives a fuck ?
Obviously MS now if they decided to do it. I wonder why?
As for me, I don't care this time but it is a slippery slope to start to go down. When will the use of AI pictures be used to alter pictures to better fit a narrative and basically become disinformation?
The White House and various MAGAs have been using AI to re-image Trump for a couple years now.
Megyn Kelly is turning herself into a bigger piece of crap than she already was.
based upon what comes out of her mouth, it's not difficult to imagine her diet ...
Because people are more sympathetic when the victim is better looking.
AI is a slippery dangerous slope, especially in the hands of the media and this administration. Stupid for MS NOW to use it, if they were aware of it. I would be more concerned with Fox using this shit, you know the station that had to fork over $787,ooo,ooo.oo Million for pushing the provable lie that there was election fraud rampant during the 2020 presidential election, but if MS NOW knew, it only lessens their believability, as it should.
AI will continue to deceive as it will only grow worse.
When AI gets into criminal investigations I have a problem with it. I have to wonder if AI enhanced photos would even be allowed in a court of law. It will get pretty bad if you can't even count on a picture from a "news" organization to be real or not.
Great, we can expect adding color or subtracting color going forward.
I would suggest it's ironically less of a danger in the hands of this particular administration, simply because Trump is such a poor liar.
All politicians lie, and all presidents lie. Most of them before now were just much, much, much better at it. Most of them are smart enough to be selective about when to tell lies and then careful to make the lies at least quasi-plausible. Trump doesn't bother with any of that.
With Trump, the expectation is that whatever he said isn't true, so he should be easier to catch. Theoretically, anyway.
The problem, as you correctly point out, is that even if they actually weren't aware of it, nobody is going to believe them at this point.
Continuing the point about lying in selective moments, I think we're all kind of echoing the question Right Down the Center originally asked... why? What do you possibly hope to gain?
100% correct. 200% correct. 2000% correct. *sigh*
I would love to believe this isn't going to be the case. Unfortunately, I'm not 5 years old anymore.
I think you will be a happier person in the long run if you develop the expectation that about half the people you know are utterly fuckin batshit crazy.
MSNOW... which is a wonderful name for the official state news agency of the National Organization for Women, don't you think?... apparently surmised that their viewers would feel more sympathy and outrage if ol' Alex here looked like an extra from Gray's Anatomy.
So to your point.... I think it is... shall we say.... "inaccurate"... to assume they will not continue to get crazier in the future.
Something to look forward to. We will go to shit if AI starts fact checking AI. I think that is Skynet started.
I’m guessing she didn’t have much to say about government officials calling this guy a terrorist and an assassin.
In fact, she explicitly said she didn’t feel bad for him, and claimed he was shoving Border Patrol agents.
Here is a photo of Alex Pretti that is not AI
Guess what? His skin has more color in this picture than in the one that was artificially intellegenced.
His teeth look white enough in this phot
What in Gods name are we doing?