Megyn Kelly really wants people to think her upcoming interview with Infowars host/screaming maniac Alex Jones is going to be an epic takedown of his personal brand of virulent nonsense, but it’s becoming very clear that nobody is buying that. In fact, a lot of people are even arguing that simply giving Jones some airtime on NBC is destructive enough on its own, and a huge backlash against Kelly has been rapidly snowballing ever since she shared a teaser for the interview on Sunday night. It’s not just random internet people who are mad at Kelly, though, as she’s also drawn the ire of family members of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
For those who are blessedly unaware of Alex Jones’ ramblings, one of his favorite conspiracy theories is that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, that nobody actually got killed, and that all of the mourning family members were just actors. That assertion is vile and deplorable, but that hasn’t stopped Jones from continuing to try and convince his legion of idiot followers that it’s true, which in turn inspires them to harass the mourning family members. As noted by Deadline, Sandy Hook families have been tweeting about their frustration with Kelly’s decision to interview Jones:
At least one advertiser has even decided to pull its support for Kelly’s show, with The Hollywood Reporter saying that J.P. Morgan Chase has removed its ads from NBC News entirely and that the company’s chief marketing officer tweeted that she’s “repulsed” by Kelly’s decision to interview Jones:
At this point, Kelly appears to have no intention of backing down. She tweeted about her reasoning for doing the interview, explaining that Jones’ profile is rising these days even without her involvement, and it’s her job to “shine a light” on him and his beliefs because of this:
Oddly, Kelly lists Infowars getting White House press credentials as one of her justifications for shining this light on Jones, but that story was proven to be about as incorrect as everything else that Infowars and Alex Jones spew out. In fact, by promoting that debunked story, Kelly is straight-up pushing Jones’ bullshit agenda and further legitimizing him and his beliefs—without even needing to air the interview. Combine that with a photo that’s been going around of Kelly and Jones hanging out in a car together, and it’s almost like she’s not as critical of him as she made it look in the teaser she shared last night.
However, that sentiment does not seem to go both ways. In what Deadline refers to as a “screed” on Jones’ show last week, he suggested that he had a horrible time being interviewed by Kelly because she’s “not feminine” enough for him, adding that she was “cold, robotic, dead.” He even noted that he talked to other people who also “do not find Kelly attractive,” and he theorized that it’s because she might be a “sociopath” or a “psychopath.” Now, there’s been yet another twist, with Jones tweeting that even he wants Kelly to drop the interview from her show for “misrepresenting” his views on Sandy Hook.
In other words, it seems like Kelly herself might be the only one who still thinks it’s a good idea to air this interview, and when an unhinged creep like Alex Jones and actual sane people manage to agree on something, it’s probably worth considering. Barring a change of plans, the interview will air on Sunday on NBC.