Megyn Kelly has completely overhauled her Sunday night show featuring Alex Jones, inviting Sandy Hook families on the program and editing her interview with Jones to be tougher on him, following all the backlash this week.
NBC News execs were scrambling following the furor over Kelly’s decision to give a platform to the controversial Infowars host, who claimed the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.
A contrite Kelly personally called the Sandy Hook families, we’re told, to invite them on the show to counter Jones’ rhetoric.
A source told us, “NBC was scrambling to find a way out of this mess without having to back down and cancel Sunday’s episode of Megyn’s show. Megyn and her producers made numerous calls to the Sandy Hook families this week to ask them to appear on the show. Some refused because they didn’t think appearing on her show would do enough to counter Alex Jones’ venom.”
Another source added, “Everyone on the show believes it’s vitally important that the piece conveys the immense pain that Jones has caused the Sandy Hook families.” The source added it was normal to be editing right up until airtime.
Page Six has learned that Neil Heslin, the father of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, who was slain in the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn., has agreed to be interviewed on Kelly’s show. In 2013, he appeared at a Senate committee hearing and pleaded with senators to ban assault weapons such as the gun that killed his son.
Reps for NBC and Kelly didn’t comment on Thursday night.
Even Jones himself thinks the piece will be deliberately cut to make him look crazy.
He spent 13 hours with Kelly, but says he expects producers to pick the parts that make him look bad, to prove to Kelly’s critics that she is a serious journalist.
Jones now doesn’t want the piece to air because “from the promos NBC has run, Megyn is distorting me,” Jones told The Hollywood Reporter. “It has all the markings of a PR stunt.” He added, “They just want me to be the devil because I’m the alternative media … Fake news lives at NBC. They basically made me look like a Halloween character.”