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Megyn Kelly Defends Interview With Conspiracy Theorist After Backlash

Megyn Kelly Defends Interview With Conspiracy Theorist After Backlash
ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - JUNE 2, 2017: NBC News anchor Megyn Kelly moderates the plenary session of the 2017 St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2017) held at the ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre. Mikhail Metzel/TASS Host Photo Agency (Photo by Mikhail Metzel\TASS via Getty Images)
Mikhail Metzel via Getty Images
ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - JUNE 2, 2017: NBC News anchor Megyn Kelly moderates the plenary session of the 2017 St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2017) held at the ExpoForum Convention and Exhibition Centre. Mikhail Metzel/TASS Host Photo Agency (Photo by Mikhail Metzel\TASS via Getty Images)

Megyn Kelly defended her upcoming interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, even after an anti-gun violence group founded by parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting axed the NBC anchor as host of their upcoming event.

Kelly has taken considerable heat for interviewing Jones, who has suggested that the shooting was a false flag orchestrated by gun control advocates and that the grieving parents are actors.

Kelly told CNN’s Dylan Byers that while she found Jones’s conspiracy theories “personally revolting,” she said that it was her duty as a journalist to “shine the light” on the radio host’s behavior. She tweeted a similar message on Sunday:

But parents of the children killed in the massacre aren’t buying it.

Their group, Sandy Hook Promise, “cannot support the decision by Megyn or NBC to give any form of voice or platform to Alex Jones and have asked Megyn Kelly to step down as our Promise Champion Gala host,” said Nicole Hockley, the group’s co-founder and managing director, in a statement on Monday night. “It is our hope that Megyn and NBC reconsider and not broadcast this interview.”

The fundraising event, which Sandy Hook Promise hosts to honor advocates against gun violence, is scheduled for Wednesday night in Washington, D.C.

Six adults and 20 children, including Hockley’s 6-year-old son Dylan, were killed in the shooting. Nelba Marquez-Greene, who lost her 6-year-old daughter Ana that day, also spoke out against Kelly and Jones in a series of tweets.

Last week, a Florida woman was sentenced to five months in prison for threatening the family of another child killed in the shooting, which the woman said was faked.

Jones, who runs the website Infowars, peddled another hoax last year that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was connected to child sex-trafficking ring. That tale led someone to fire a gun in a pizza parlor after the radio host falsely said the ring was located there.

Jones has also claimed that the government was behind both the Sept. 11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing.

According to the Wall Street Journal, at least one major sponsor― JPMorgan Chase― is pulling its ads until after the program airs.

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