Sandy Hook group drops Megyn Kelly as event host
NBC News is moving ahead with plans to air Megyn Kelly’s interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones this weekend despite a backlash that has cost the show advertisers and led to Kelly being dropped as host for an event by an organization founded by parents of children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The network has been taken aback by the response to booking Jones, the Austin-based “Infowars” host who has questioned whether the killing of 26 people in 2012 at the school in Newton, Connecticut, was a hoax. NBC News Chairman Andy Lack said the story will be edited with the sensitivity of its critics in mind.
“It’s important to get it right,” Lack said.
Reporters have interviewed controversial characters like Syrian President Bashar Assad and child molesters in the past without getting this kind of a reaction, Kelly said in an interview Tuesday.
“What I think we’re doing is journalism,” she said. “The bottom line is that while it’s not always popular, it’s important. I would submit to you that neither I nor NBC News has elevated Alex Jones in any way. He’s been elevated by 5 or 6 million viewers or listeners, and by the president of the United States. As you know, journalists don’t get the choice over who has power or influence in our country.”
Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-gun violence group, said it had asked Kelly to step down as host of its Wednesday-night gala in Washington. The group cannot support Kelly or NBC’s decision to give a platform to Jones and hopes NBC reconsiders its plan to broadcast the interview, said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and managing director. Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed at Sandy Hook, founded the organization with Mark Barden, who lost his 7-year-old son Daniel.
Kelly said she understood and respected the decision, but was disappointed.