Anchor Megyn Kelly is defending her interview with Infowars host Alex Jones, saying it is important for journalists to “shine a light” on influential figures.
Kelly has come under fire for her upcoming interview with Jones, a radio host who has claimed that the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, were staged.
"I find Alex Jones's suggestion that Sandy Hook was 'a hoax' as personally revolting as every other rational person does," Kelly said in a statement. "It left me, and many other Americans, asking the very question that prompted this interview: howHow 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?"
The show is set for broadcast on Sunday.
On Tuesday, the Sandy Hook Promise group dropped Kelly as a host for a gala that is set for later this week. Parents of some of those killed at the elementary school in December 2012 have complained about Kelly giving Jones a forum.
According to Forbes, JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Monday requested all of its advertisements — both those on TV and those online — be pulled from NBC News programming in response to the upcoming show. The company will return its ads after the interview airs, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
JPMorgan's chief marketing officer, Kristin Lemkau, tweeted that she was "repulsed" as an advertiser by NBC’s decision to air the interview.
Here is Kelly's response to the actions by the Sandy Hook Promise group:
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