Megyn Kelly's Alex Jones Interview

Overview

Megyn Kelly's Alex Jones Interview refers to a controversial interview conducted by NBC News host Megyn Kelly with InfoWars host Alex Jones. After a preview of the interview was released in early June 2017, Jones claimed Kelly and NBC had misrepresented his views, leading him to release audio of conversations with Kelly recorded prior to the interview.

Background

On June 11th, 2017, former Fox News anchor and current NBC anchor Megyn Kelly announced that on Sunday, June 18th, she would interview Alex Jones on her NBC News series Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. In a tweet that night, she posted a clip from the interview (shown below) along with the caption “Next Sunday, I sit down with conservative radio host @RealAlexJones to discuss controversies and conspiracies #SundayNight June 18 on NBC.” Within 72 hours, the tweet received more than 2,100 retweets and 5,400 likes.

Developments

Online Reaction

Following Kelly’s tweet, many began questioning her decision behind interviewing Jones, with arguing that giving Jones a platform on NBC News legitimizes his controversial views. That night, following the comments to her tweet, Kelly tweeted a defense of the interview, saying “POTUS’s been on & praises @RealAlexJones’ show. He’s giving Infowars a WH press credential. Many don’t know him; our job is 2 shine a light” (shown below). Within The tweet received more than 560 retweets and 1,800 likes.

Car Photo

The following day, Twitter user @yashar posted a picture of Megyn Kelly and Alex Jones posing for a selfie in a car. He captioned the tweet: “Wow.” The tweet (shown below) received more than 800 retweets and 1,300 likes within 24 hours.^[2]

After tweeting the picture, other Twitter users began using the photograph in a variety of image macros (examples below).

Boycotts

The following day, on June 12th, J.P. Morgan Chase removed any of their personal advertising from Kelly’s show, demanding that their advertisements not appear adjacent the interview or promotion for the interview.^[3] Furthermore, the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, a gun violence prevention nonprofit group founded by Sandy Hook families disinvited Kelly to host their annual Promise Champions Gala.^[4] On June 13th, Kelly tweeted a response to criticism, specifically addressing being disinvited from the Sandy Hook Promise Gala (shown below).^[5]

Jones' Reaction

That day, Alex Jones responded to the criticism on his daily InfoWars broadcast, where he accused the NBC interview of misrepresenting his views on the Sandy Hook shooting (shown below).

Interview Leak

On June 15th, 2017, InfoWars news director Rob Drew tweeted a trailer featuring a "sneak peek" at what he claimed would be the "full interview" conducted with Megyn Kelly (shown below).

That day, The Alex Jones Channel YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "Alex Jones Megyn Kelly Full Interview Leaked," which contained audio of Jones and Kelly discussing how the interview would be conducted (shown below). While introducing the video, Alex Jones refers to Megyn Kelly and her crew as "intelligence operatives" and claims she attempted to misrepresent his views. Within 24 hours, the video gained over 345,000 views and 4,000 comments.

Megyn Kelly: "My goal is for your listeners and the left--you know, who will be watching some on NBC--to say, ‘Wow, that’s really interesting. It’s not going to be some gotcha hit piece, I promise you that.”

Megyn Kelly: “I’m not looking to portray you as some kind of boogeyman. The craziest thing of all would be if some people who have this insane version of you in their heads came away saying, ‘You know what? I see the dad in him. I see the guy who loves those kids and is more complex than we have been led to believe.’”

On June 17th, political cartoonist Ben Garrison released a cartoon of Jones playing a fiddle resembling Megyn Kelly (shown below).

Interview Release

On June 18th, the 17-minute interview was aired on NBC, in which Kelly confronts Jones about various controversial statements made regarding Pizzagate, various terror attacks and the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting (shown below).

Meanwhile, Jones hosted a livestream on Infowars during the same timeslot, during which he criticized Kelly for being dishonest (shown below). Also on June 18th, Twitter users began posting about the competing shows using the hashtag "#JonesvKelly".^[7] On June 19th, CNN^[6] reported that the NBC interview brought in only 3.5 million viewers, marking the lowest ratings Kelly's show had received thus far.

Search Interest

External References