NBC is facing a defection of advertisers who refuse to have their products associated with Megyn Kelly‘s upcoming Sunday night interview with Austin-based cable-access-star-turned-internet-conspiracy-king Alex Jones. The sit-down, scheduled to air June 18, has caused ire because of Jones’ constant promotion of provable untruths and far-right cant. Kelly herself has also been disinvited from a charity event sponsored by Sandy Hook Promise, a gun control group launched by parents of children who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, for giving Jones (who claims the mass shooting was fake) a larger national platform.
So far, the list of advertisers who withdrew has not been disclosed, except for JPMorgan Chase. Their chief marketing officer Kristin Lemkau tweeted, “As an advertiser, I’m repulsed that @megynkelly would give a second of airtime to someone who says Sandy Hook and Aurora are hoaxes. Why?”
Kelly maintains that the interview has journalistic merit, and that she’ll tackle Jones on the “considerable falsehoods he has promoted with near impunity.” Jones has already fired back that NBC played into his genius plan by making him look bad on TV, and that clearly they were going to edit anything he said to make him look like a shameless, crowd-baiting, conspiracy theorist. “I went into Medusa’s palace,” Jones said.
This article appears in June 16 • 2017.
