Newsmax TV


Greg Kelly: Unafraid to Tackle Tough Stories


G


“I’ve never backed away from exposing truth,” says Newsmax prime-time host. BY MARISA HERMAN


reg kelly’s curiosity has led to him cover some of the biggest news stories in recent history as a White


House correspondent, an embedded reporter during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and as host of Greg Kelly Reports on Newsmax. He is proud that he has never


backed away from exposing the truth behind the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and the lawfare waged against President Donald Trump during his first term. “We were never afraid to handle


those issues,” he says of his more than five years as a Newsmax prime-


time host. “We really took the time to under-


stand it, and we were really unafraid in our coverage.” Kelly’s first taste of journalism


came while he attended Fordham University in New York and worked at its college radio station. But he didn’t think he had enough experi- ence to pursue a media career upon graduation. “It didn’t seem appropriate to just


be 22 years old and be asking ques- tions and to be kind of reporting on the world,” he said. “You didn’t know enough about the world to be report- ing on it.” So, he pursued another interest


that also intrigued him from a young age — the military. Following in the footsteps of his


father, Ray, a Marine veteran who became a New York City police commissioner, Kelly enrolled to become a Marine Corps officer, embarking on a military career that he describes as the “adventure of a lifetime.” Kelly became a


pilot of an AV-8B Harrier jump jet that was assigned to Marine Attack Squadron 211, the Wake Island Avengers. Dur- ing his active- duty service, he flew all over the world. “I enjoyed


GREG KELLY REPORTS Weeknights at 9 p.m. ET


32 NEWSMAX | MARCH 2025


it,” he says. “I enjoyed the peo-


ple. I enjoyed the world. It was incred- ibly technical and challenging.” While he found the missions fulfill-


ing, he also knew he wasn’t going to stay in the Marine Corps forever. He adhered to his commitment,


which was five years after completing four years of flight school, before start- ing his next chapter. Toward the final leg of a six-month deployment, his brother hopped on board the aircraft carrier, and the two began batting around different career options on the trip from Hawaii to California. They discussed job opportunities


ranging from becoming an FBI agent or going back to school to obtain law or business degrees before media was floated. Kelly recalls thinking it was an interesting idea. As a kid, he was always thumbing through a newspa- per or watching the nightly news. As someone who is “naturally interested” in current events, Kelly remembers thinking it would be inter- esting to find stories to report on. Once he finished his time in the


military, he started interning at a small station in Arizona, where he quickly realized he had found his next calling. He applied to stations all over


the country before landing a gig at Channel 34 in upstate New York as their morning anchor and evening reporter. Even though it was a small station,


it had all the components Kelly need- ed to master to climb the media lad- der, which he was eager to conquer. “I wanted to get to NY1, the New


York City-area local cable news chan- nel, because from NY1 you could really go anywhere because they fed people to the bigger networks,” he explains.


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