Although for a while there it looked like only Megyn Kelly thought moving forward with her Alex Jones interview was a good idea, her new broadcast home is backing her play. Kelly’s touted sitdown with the InfoWars host, who never met a national tragedy he didn’t immediately want to raise a false flag on, has been criticized by everyone from the families of the Sandy Hook mass shooting victims to the unhinged subject himself. But despite the outcry, Variety reports that NBC News still plans to air the interview on Sunday, issuing the following statement in explanation:
Despite Alex Jones’ efforts to distract from and ultimately prevent the airing of our report, we remain committed to giving viewers context and insight into a controversial and polarizing figure, how he relates to the president of the United States and influences others, and to getting this serious story right.
NBC News is positioning their decision as a blow against Jones’ attempts to control his narrative, which seems to be blithely ignoring the concerns of the people of the Newtown victims, who have been harassed by his hateful followers, presumably for not having taken the blue pill. The network also seems aware that the teaser for the interview has Kelly and Jones looking a little too chummy, which is at odds with Kelly’s recent statements about how “revolting” his views on Sandy Hook are.
Meanwhile, Jones has taken exception with the fact that the interview wasn’t exactly the puff piece Kelly pitched him on in their pre-interview conversations. And this might actually not be all in his head—he’s leaked recordings of their pre-interview phone calls, and it does sound like Kelly’s positioning the interview as more of a general profile. She even says she’s not interested in doing “gotcha” journalism (but if she were, telling someone you’re not trying to get them and then actually going after them in an interview would be the best way to pull that off). Turns out, Jones didn’t want to be grilled on any of his recent controversies, like the custody thing, or the Chobani thing, or the Newtown thing, the latter of which he now says might have actually happened. Neither Kelly nor NBC had responded to the leaked recordings at the time of this writing.