• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Megyn Kelly under fire for interview with Alex Jones

benjipwns

Banned
Well, Greta is on MSNBC, so wtf were they thinking with that hire?
That's a quota hire for Scientologists.

You think Republicans of the 90's would have voted for Donald Trump? The world changes and people change with it.
They tried to get him to run for the GOP nomination in 1988. Pat Robertson ran in 1988 and did decently for not being involved in party politics prior, Pat Buchanan gave a scare to H.W. Bush and was allowed to give his "culture war" speech at the 1992 convention and then did well in 1996 with almost the same platform Trump ran on this year.

Something snapped in the Republican psyche when Nixon resigned, as he came to symbolize the "tyranny" of "the left" and its push to "destroy" America's social and cultural norms .... with no moderating influences, devolved into choir preaching and increasingly radical thoughts.
Dude, that was Nixon's psyche.

Is this true?

Hollyshit man... This is indeed some dark timeline
They got temporary "for the day" credentials. These are given out in some weird lottery (or were once) so that smaller outlets can get in, they got them under Obama and similar outlets got them under Bush too.

The main change the Trump Admin made was change who qualified for these temporary ones, so YouTubers like The Young Turks and yeah, InfoWars, can now get in more easily by putting their name in more often.

They're never called on or anything though. They stand in the back and then tweet pictures of themselves near the podium later from what I can tell.
 

Ovid

Member
I've heard about Alex Jones and Infowars but I never visited the site or watched any of his videos.

The point of her show is to inform people about certain topics, right? So what's the problem? I'd watch just to know more about him and his influence on the new conservative movement.
 

ColdPizza

Banned
I've heard about Alex Jones and Infowars but I never visited the site or watched any of his videos.

The point of her show is to inform people about certain topics, right? So what's the problem? I'd watch just to know more about him and his influence on the new conservative movement.

People are worried NBC is giving the alt-right a platform for hate-speech etc. They'd rather limit this spread of information than let individuals choose what they see and hear.
 

norm9

Member
I've heard about Alex Jones and Infowars but I never visited the site or watched any of his videos.

The point of her show is to inform people about certain topics, right? So what's the problem? I'd watch just to know more about him and his influence on the new conservative movement.

Not if it's treated as legitimate. It'd be something else though if she treated Jones like am episode of Penn and tellers BS show, where they call out thesee fringe nonsense nutters, but having seen her interviews, unlikely.
 
You ever notice how these right-wing/libertarian fuckeads, whenever they talk about women, always have to mention something about how attractive they or aren't?
 

benjipwns

Banned
Not if it's treated as legitimate. It'd be something else though if she treated Jones like am episode of Penn and tellers BS show, where they call out thesee fringe nonsense nutters, but having seen her interviews, unlikely.
It's a show like (and aired against) 60 Minutes, why would you expect Bullshit style treatment of subjects?
 

Game Guru

Member
At one point, the new owners apparently wanted to turn NBC and MSNBC into this sort of Fox News lite to cater to conservative audiences, but now conservative media is on a downturn. Fox News's own ratings are sinking, and conservative talk radio is starting to sinking (it's a slow sink, but it's a real sink), and I think Kelly's show has shown that the audiences aren't jumping ship, at least not in any mass numbers, and the audience that was there isn't interested. Her premier episode got beat by a rerun of 60 Minutes.

Yeah, this is basically true. Everyone thought that right-wing media was going to continue to rise, but then Trump got elected and everything started collapsing for right-wing media while left-wing media is having a historic rise!
 

benjipwns

Banned
Fox News' ratings were also up until O'Reilly got canned. Everyone was getting a Trump bump. MSNBC (like Fox when Obama won) was just getting the largest to where it moved into first place.

NBC hiring Kelly wasn't any attempt to produce "right-wing news" it was to grab the hottest news person on the market away from a low rent competitor. Same reason that they pay Matt Lauer over $20 million a year. (And used to pay Brian Williams over $10 million a year.)

The problem was they had nowhere to stick her for the last year because she has a multi-part non-compete with News Corp. Which is also why she's got a Sunday night interview/newsmagazine show. It doesn't compete with News Corp programming, just 60 Minutes.
 

norm9

Member
It's a show like (and aired against) 60 Minutes, why would you expect Bullshit style treatment of subjects?

How can anyone read about Alex Jones and think anything about it is sane? It deserves only to be mocked, not let's hear your crazy thoughts, that might now infect other people.
 

benjipwns

Banned
How can anyone read about Alex Jones and think anything about it is sane? It deserves only to be mocked, not let's hear your crazy thoughts, that might now infect other people.
Look at his response, she's going to immediately read that after the interview (where he's going to say crazy things because he's crazy) as a follow up to the piece like they always do on these shows: "Since that interview was taped but before tonight, Jones has since called me part of the New World Order, a robot, dead inside, blah blah blah"

That will test your question I guess.
 

Ponn

Banned
Yeah, this is basically true. Everyone thought that right-wing media was going to continue to rise, but then Trump got elected and everything started collapsing for right-wing media while left-wing media is having a historic rise!

I'm not sure I would use that as any kind of definitive change in status quo. There is always going to be a certain level of ebb and flow with a change of Presidents in power based on their party. People love to tune into more media when its bashing a party or someone they hate in power. It's been that way for a looooooong time.
 

Romez

Member
Ever since the election it's like people have forgotten who Megyn Kelly is and the shit she's come out with.

Don't understand why anyone is surprised.
 

Diablos

Member
A lot of people still don't know who Alex Jones is and what the President has done for him. I think it's important that the mainstream can see what this guy is all about so they'll better understand how disturbing it is that the WH holds him in such high regard.

From what I saw of the preview last night, it's not looking like Kelly interviewed him to kiss his ass or downplay how crazy he is. It seems to be more along the lines of "hey it's important the US understands what this loon is all about because he's getting support from the White House and his voice is getting bigger."
 
Ever since the election it's like people have forgotten who Megyn Kelly is and the shit she's come out with.

Don't understand why anyone is surprised.

Yep. Fuck Megyn Kelly forever. I hate how short-term so many memories are, even in the age of the internet.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
The guy is a conspiracy theorist and wack job, so wacked he lost custody of his kids. NBC should be protested over this.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
People are worried NBC is giving the alt-right a platform for hate-speech etc. They'd rather limit this spread of information than let individuals choose what they see and hear.

Do you even know what InfoWars is? It's literally conspiracy theory central. This isn't an ideology thing, this is a "let's not give the guy who thinks Chobani is trying to control people's minds with yogurt a platform" thing.
 

SeanC

Member
Dude needs to just be ignored. Exposure like this is going to get people who think in line with him, who maybe weren't aware he even existed, suddenly know and legitimize him more. Any person who gives him time to speak and fuck right off. People like this should be shunned.

Now if she miraculously exposes his batshit line of thinking and calls it out, that'll do some good. But I don't think she'll be doing that.
 

Ovid

Member
A lot of people still don't know who Alex Jones is and what the President has done for him. I think it's important that the mainstream can see what this guy is all about so they'll better understand how disturbing it is that the WH holds him in such high regard.

From what I saw of the preview last night, it's not looking like Kelly interviewed him to kiss his ass or downplay how crazy he is. It seems to be more along the lines of "hey it's important the US understands what this loon is all about because he's getting support from the White House and his voice is getting bigger."
Exactly.

Homeland even used his persona as the basis for a character involved in a government plot. That's when I started taking notice of this guy.

The fact that Trump won shows that people like him are influential to members of the conservative party. We should bring people like this to the mainstream to show how crazy they are.
 

Ponn

Banned
Do you even know what InfoWars is? It's literally conspiracy theory central. This isn't an ideology thing, this is a "let's not give the guy who thinks Chobani is trying to control people's minds with yogurt a platform" thing.

It's actually much worse than that. These are the people that harass the parents of Sandy Hook victims on a daily basis. These are the ones that are calling and telling the parents of dead children that they are liars and faking their childrens death because of absolutely nothing more than a crazy person yelling it with no evidence. This is vile, sub human, deplorable shit and has nothing to do with freedom of speech but not giving a platform to people and their ring leader torturing and harassing grieving parents. These fuckers belong in jail, not on a fucking news show having their platform spread to even more vile subhumans.
 

benjipwns

Banned
Dude needs to just be ignored. Exposure like this is going to get people who think in line with him, who maybe weren't aware he even existed, suddenly know and legitimize him more. Any person who gives him time to speak and fuck right off. People like this should be shunned.
Blame NBC then. They are giving this a platform beyond his youtube account.
You guys should see the airtime NBC and MSNBC give to one of Alex Jones's former regular call-in guests.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
It's actually much worse than that. These are the people that harass the parents of Sandy Hook victims on a daily basis. These are the ones that are calling and telling the parents of dead children that they are liers and faking their childrens death because of absolutely nothing more than a crazy person yelling it with no evidence. This is vile, sub human, deplorable shit and has nothing to do with freedom of speech but not giving a platform to people and their ring leader torturing and harassing grieving parents. These fuckers belong in jail, not on a fucking news show having their platform spread to even more vile subhumans.

Oh I know, I was just trying to make a point without trying to think of the really bad stuff that makes me want to punch Jones in the face.
 

Ponn

Banned
Oh I know, I was just trying to make a point without trying to think of the really bad stuff that makes me want to punch Jones in the face.

Feel free to go punchy punchy as long as i get a turn. We can make it like that scene from Airplane.
 

Game Guru

Member
I'm not sure I would use that as any kind of definitive change in status quo. There is always going to be a certain level of ebb and flow with a change of Presidents in power based on their party. People love to tune into more media when its bashing a party or someone they hate in power. It's been that way for a looooooong time.

This is true. It could also be that people watched Trump in the campaign only because of just how much of a train wreck he was, and Trump as president is still a huge train wreck, only that the conservative news media are unable to focus on that because Trump is their guy. Other news media, unbound from the need to support Trump, can continue to focus on just how much of a trainwreck Trump is and thus continue their increased popularity during the campaign thanks to Trump into Trump's presidency.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
The corporate media has gone too far. MSNBC started hiring far right guys and ''don't rock the boat" TV hosts, CNN normalizes controversial issues between right and left as a 'battle of opinions'

And now they want to normalize the pizza gate guy who just lost custody of his kids?

EFF OFF!
 

ColdPizza

Banned
Do you even know what InfoWars is? It's literally conspiracy theory central. This isn't an ideology thing, this is a "let's not give the guy who thinks Chobani is trying to control people's minds with yogurt a platform" thing.

If NBC wants to tarnish their name airing that kind of stuff that's up to them, not the public.
 

Kastrioti

Persecution Complex
It's really disappointing to see Kelly stoop to interviewing Alex "Sandy Hook Truther" Jones for ratings.

I was hoping that after leaving Fox, and the Presidential election, sanity would prevail and she would be a fair and partial journalist. Legitimizing Alex Jones and his views is not good.

One of the things that still shocks me about the U.S. Political scene is how Alex Jones became a legitimate newsource for so many people. Like 5 years ago, I thought he was relegated to the really crazy, but small, conspiracy theorists. Now he's considered a legitimate newsource for a lot of people. It's depressing to say the least.
 
Unless NBC loses sponsors over this, nothing will happen to Megyn Kelly or her show.

Heck, if they double viewership/ratings over this, they might bring on more conservative show hosts and interview more extremists.
 

hipbabboom

Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
I think people who give Alex Jones a large stage "so he can make a fool of himself" are arrogant as fuck. They probably assume that only "sane" people watch their show and that they'll "control the conversation" and really show him. They fail to understand just how many despondent people are out there in the wild who will be responsive to his message allowing him to grow his platform.
 

benjipwns

Banned
One of the things that still shocks me about the U.S. Political scene is how Alex Jones became a legitimate newsource for so many people. Like 5 years ago, I thought he was relegated to the really crazy, but small, conspiracy theorists. Now he's considered a legitimate newsource for a lot of people.
http://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/alex-jones-is-about-to-explode/
Article from 2010 said:
The Alex Jones Show is syndicated by more than sixty stations and heard weekly by 2 million listeners. Jones's two main Web sites, InfoWars and PrisonPlanet.tv, draw 4 million unique users, more than Rush Limbaugh's site. Unlike Limbaugh or other talk radio stars, Jones appeals to a young demographic; he's a cult favorite on college campuses, and his rants are all over YouTube. His documentary films, which he produces at the rate of nearly two a year, have been viewed millions of times online.
 

benjipwns

Banned
I think people who give Alex Jones a large stage "so he can make a fool of himself" are arrogant as fuck. They probably assume that only "sane" people watch their show and that they'll "control the conversation" and really show him. They fail to understand just how many despondent people are out there in the wild who will be responsive to his message allowing him to grow his platform.
Why would you assume the "despondents out in the wild" spend their Sunday nights watching a mainstream news program on a major broadcast network in this day and age?
 
The whole "we should expose these people via the mainstream media and beat them down with facts so they become fringe and delegitimized" is the most circular remedial white moderate indifferent shit I've ever read

It only works if majority of a country is actively against this person or group. When a sizeable chunk of a country believes in them to include a political party who has a news network that will actively push this kind of rhetoric 24/7 anyway and another sizeable group are indifferent and believe in the utter remedial idea that "all opinions are if equal value and should be heard" the aforementioned stupid as fuck suggestion doesn't work.

I'm sure people making these dumb arguments will agree that news networks should routinely give ISIS supporters a national platform too, and anti white nationalists. Granted it won't be received like white nationalists and neo Nazi are (with love) it'll definitely help kill all these need networks. Then hopefully we can get a politician who can fight to bring back the Fairness Doctrine because this country is fucking up.
 
Top Bottom