Names and faces
An anti-gun-violence organization founded by parents of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School has dumped Megyn Kelly as host of an event in Washington this week because of her plans to broadcast an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. On Tuesday, Kelly said she understands and respects the decision by Sandy Hook Promise to disinvite her as host of its gala tonight but added that she’s disappointed. She said reporting on Jones’ falsehoods is what journalists are supposed to do. NBC is taking considerable heat on social media for its Father’s Day broadcast of Kelly’s interview with “Infowars” host Jones, who has questioned whether the killing of 26 people in 2012 at the school in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax. “Sandy Hook Promise cannot support the decision by Megyn or NBC to give any form of voice or platform to Alex Jones and have asked Megyn Kelly to step down as our Promise Champion Gala host,” said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director. Hockley, whose 6-year-old son, Dylan, was killed at Sandy Hook, founded the group with Mark Barden, who lost his 7-year-old son, Daniel. Kelly said she found Jones’ suggestion that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax “as personally revolting as every other rational person does. It left me, and many other Americans, asking the very question that prompted this interview: How does Jones, who traffics in these outrageous conspiracy theories, have the respect of the president of the United States and a growing audience of millions?” Jones, for his part, has already denounced the interview as “fake news.”
Members of Army medic James McCloughan’s unit in Vietnam called him “Doc.” Now, those soldiers, several of whom McCloughan saved during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in 1969, will have a new name for him: Medal of Honor recipient. On Tuesday, Army spokesman Valerie Mongello said the 71-year-old retired teacher and coach from South Haven, Mich., will become the first person to be awarded the nation’s highest military honor by President Donald Trump. “I feel honored to be able to accept this for the 89 men that fought that battle,” McCloughan said, referring to the number of American combatants, dozens of whom died, were wounded or disappeared during the 48 hours of fighting against hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recommended McCloughan for the honor last year. As a 23-year-old private first class, McCloughan repeatedly entered the “kill zone” to rescue wounded comrades, despite being injured by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade. McCloughan at one point used a grenade to knock out an enemy rocket-propelled grenade position. McCloughan called the battle “the worst two days of my life.”