HARTFORD — The families of some Sandy Hook shooting victims are angered by a TV interview with a conspiracy theorist who has claimed the massacre was a hoax.
Families of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are angry with NBC News and host Megyn Kelly, who plan to air an interview with a conspiracy monger who denies the shooting occurred.
Alex Jones has pushed the conspiracy on his website, Infowars, and victims’ families say some of his followers have harassed them.
Kelly, in a tweet, defended her interview with Jones, noting that President Donald Trump has given Jones’ website press credentials at the White House.
« POTUS’s been on & praises [Jones’] show. He’s giving Infowars a WH press credential. Many don’t know him; our job is 2 shine a light, » Kelly wrote on Twitter.
Neither Kelly nor NBC responded to a request for comment.
Late Monday, Jones added a new wrinkle by calling on Kelly to pull the interview, saying she misrepresented his views on Sandy Hook. Jones said he believes children died at Sandy Hook Elementary School and that he has been playing « devil’s advocate » during conversations with his listeners, some of whom believe the same and others who believe no children were killed.
« My listeners questioned it and … I played devil’s advocate… saying maybe none of it happened and it was all fake, » Jones said in a YouTube video. « The other side of me believes those parents I’ve seen on TV … so it probably did happen. »
The family of Vicki Soto, a first-grade teacher who died in the Dec. 14,2012, shooting at Sandy Hook that killed 20 first-graders and six educators, posted a letter to Kelly and NBC News on Facebook late Sunday as the network began airing promos for Kelly’s interview.
« We would like it to be publicly known that we are greatly disappointed in your decision to give Alex Jones airtime, » Soto’s family wrote. « Alex and his followers have done nothing but make our lives a living hell for the last 41/2 years. »
Soto’s family said Kelly and NBC should be ashamed for giving Jones and his views such a prominent platform. « We hope you never are subjected to the kind of torture that Alex Jones and his followers inflict on us, » the family wrote. « We hope you never have to endure what we have at the hands of that man. »
Nelba Marquez-Greene, whose 6-year-old daughter, Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, died at Sandy Hook, took to Twitter after learning of NBC’s plan to air the interview.
She posted a photo of her daughter to Twitter and wrote: « Here you go @megynkelly — her name is Ana Grace Márquez-Greene. Say her name — stare at this & tell me it’s worth it. »
And to drive home her point, Marquez-Greene also posted the many tweets she received from Sandy Hook deniers after criticizing NBC and Kelly. « This is what it looks like when you shine light on [Jones] . They double down, » Marquez-Greene wrote in a tweet showing a message she received.
