Kelly Presses ‘Infowars’ Host Jones on Sandy Hook Denial

Megyn Kelly stepped into a hornet’s nest with her Alex Jones interview, seemingly placing NBC News and its new star in a no-win situation. Though the interview has yet to air, it is already drowning in controversy.

“Hillary, reportedly, I was told by people around her that they think she’s demon possessed”, Jones stated in a video produced during the 2016 election race.

– Dan Abrams (@danabrams).@megynkelly scored high marks with Alex Jones interview.

On Sunday, Comcast’s flagship network, NBC, extended a similar courtesy to Infowars by airing a segment on Alex Jones, its founder and conspiracy theorist-in-chief. But was it worth it?

Megyn Kelly has defended the interview, saying reporters have interviewed terrorists, murderers and pedophiles on news and current affairs programs in the past without the backlash she has faced over the Jones interview. You could see the producers cutting and re-cutting it to meet various points of objection.

‘I tend to believe that children probably did die there. When Kelly asked him whether he had anything to say to Jones for Father’s Day, he responded, “I think he’s blessed to have his children to spend the day with, to speak to”.

“Either way I win”, Jones asserted, “because I stand for truth, justice, and the American way”.

Although the segment delivered little in terms of new information – Jones had previously been confronted about numerous conspiratorial claims on which he was pressed – Kelly’s segment addressed some of the concerns critics expressed leading up to the broadcast.

Kelly was uninvited as a guest at a gala hosted by relatives of the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary shooting in CT, which left 20 children dead, and J.P. Morgan pulled its ads from the broadcast.

Kelly has reached out to victim’s family members and at least one has agreed to be interviewed, the Courant reported.

NBC Connecticut affiliate WVIT announced prior to the interview it would not air Kelly’s special with Jones.

“I saw a different side of you in that whole thing and, you know, you just became very fascinating to me”, she added.

On Friday, the InfoWars host revealed that he had recorded his off-the-record, pre-interview conversations with Megyn Kelly, and he has leaked the audio in retaliation for what he claims is Kelly’s misrepresentation of his views.

The one strong takeaway from the entire segment was that Jones is newsworthy and risky because he has the ear of our volatile president.

“It’s not going to be some gotcha hit piece, I can promise you that”, Kelly is heard saying to Jones.

“I will sit there on the air and look at every position and play devil’s advocate”, he says.

Kelly went strongly against Jones and challenged him on his views about the Sandy Hook shooting.

But in her introduction, Kelly defends her decision to broadcast an interview with such a loathsome character. I don’t have that, ‘ he said. As evidenced by the segment that immediately followed Jones’ – a pearl-clutching take on the phenomenon of (legal) delivery services for (legal) marijuana – Kelly’s primary mode is manufacturing and expressing concern, without much thought as to where that concern comes from and why it matters.

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“In trusted public broadcast, climate deniers are not the right people to talk about coral die-off in the Great Barrier Reef, and conspiracy theories are not hard news.”

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