- The Washington Times - Tuesday, June 13, 2017

The chorus of critics urging NBC News against broadcasting Megyn Kelly’s interview with far-right media personality Alex Jones amid concerns over his comments about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting now include the controversial conspiracy theorist himself.

The “Alex Jones Show” host and Infowars publisher rallied Monday behind a bid to keep NBC from airing his recent sit-down with Ms. Kelly after excerpts from the interview, scheduled to air Sunday, ignited a firestorm.

“I’m calling for @megynkelly to cancel the airing of our interview for misrepresenting my views on Sandy Hook,” Mr. Jones tweeted Monday evening along with a link to a YouTube video.

“Megyn Kelly lied to me several weeks before she came here,” Mr. Jones said in the video clip. “She said the interview was not gonna be about Sandy Hook and the mass shooting there, and it was not gonna be about PizzaGate and these other issues that the media always obsesses on, and misrepresents what I’ve said and what I’ve done.”

Mr. Jones has for years been linked to peddling patently false theories devoted to subjects ranging from the Sandy Hook massacre to the September 11 terrorist attacks — two topics brought up by Ms. Kelly during the interview set to air this weekend, according to a clip she shared Monday.

“Sandy Hook is complex,” Mr. Jones tells Ms. Kelly in the clip. “I have had debates where, we [as] devil’s advocate, have said the whole story is true, and then I have had debates where I have said that none of it is true.”

Ms. Kelly and NBC have since found themselves defending the interview amid an avalanche of criticism over its decision to seemingly lend credibility to Mr. Jones, albeit not without consequences: JPMorgan Chase pulled its ads from NBC on Monday, and an anti-gun violence group has since rescinded a hosting invitation to Ms. Kelly, both on account of her recent interview.

By Monday evening, Mr. Jones was seconding calls for NBC to keep the segment from airing.

“So I agree with the victim, the families of Sandy Hook, and I agree with the big banks that have come out and said they’re going to boycott if it’s not being pulled,” Mr. Jones said Monday. “I agree. I didn’t want to talk about Sandy Hook. They’re gonna edit it where I say Sandy Hook never happened, like they always do, and I don’t want to be a part of MSM’s fake media and their hoax.

“It’s just not appropriate, and it misrepresents what I said,” he added.

The full interview with Mr. Jones is currently slated to air this weekend on “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.” NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Ms. Kelly, meanwhile, issued a statement Tuesday defending the network’s decision to interview Mr. Jones.

“I find Alex Jones’s suggestion that Sandy Hook was ’a hoax’ as personally revolting as every other rational person does,” Ms. Kelly said in a statement. “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?”

President Trump appeared on Mr. Jones’ show in 2015, telling him at the time that his reputation “is amazing.”

• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.

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