Megyn Kelly had quite the night this past Father’s Day when her interview with Alex Jones aired on NBC. That night, Kelly dove into the depths of Jones’ thoughts, false claims and downright unethical reporting, if you could even call what Jones does reporting.
Over the years, Jones has been the face of “Infowars.” He has gone through his job pulling random facts and articles from the internet and changing the face of the average conservative. Basically, Jones combines fear with traditional conservative ideas and almost creates a nasty off-brand of whatever conservativism was beginning to turn into in the first place. In fact, in the interview with Kelly, Jones openly admits that he himself does not fact check his sources, nor does he have anyone working under him that fact checks them.
So how is mainstream media like NBC, CNN, etc. “fake or unethical”?
From selling male supplements to clothing endorsing conservative candidates such as Donald Trump, Jones created a multi-million dollar company.
Kelly demonstrates how to hold poise while interviewing a common enemy of many. She demonstrates what true journalism is in a world where being politically correct trumps being straightforward, in a world where the leader of a country that has always had freedom of the press, tears down news sources that spend hours on end assimilating the most factual information they possibly can. Kelly helps to break down a barrier that has been building up without the public even realizing due to the fact that new political "celebrities" like Sean Spicer distract them from real life things going on in the United States and around the world today.
Jones to this day does not fully admit that Sandy Hook happened, which is clearly the reason why so many Americans are outraged that NBC aired the interview in the first place. But, let me tell you something: the day that news outlets stop talking about issues that actually have an impact on us, is the day that our democracy dies.
And trust me, Jones’ interview means a lot. Who knows what the future could hold for the presentation of truthful information? Who knows what the future holds for our country? Who knows what people will begin to believe in the years approaching? Just recently, Trump actually cited "Infowars" as a source. Also just recently, Trump called journalists “enemies of the people.” It is safe to say that Kelly reported on an issue that goes a lot deeper than just a conspiracy theorist.
What Kelly does is hold poise while asking tough questions – she drilled him on his poor journalistic practice, if it even is journalistic practice; in other words, she called him on his tendency to find articles online and use them as sources without fact checking. She pointed out larger company issues, such as the fact that reporters at "Infowars" have no guidance and no one looking over them to make sure that their work is accurate.
Some argue that interviews like this give immoral people national platforms, and I agree, they do. But, without citizens being informed about the relation of people like this to our current government officials and society, you leave people uninformed.
It is hypocritical to come down on NBC for airing such an issue for all of the reasons mentioned, regardless of political party affiliation. The job of an ethical journalist is to be as unbiased as possible and cover issues that are important to the public, regardless of the popularity of the subjects. This is how we evolve as a society and this is how we keep an informed one. The job of all generations is to fact-check, determine what real "fake news" is, and understand that in order for our society to be fully functional and make informed decisions, we must listen to all sides of an issue. We must listen to interviews, even if we disagree with the stances of the person being interviewed. We must be curious and question information that is presented to us, rather than just accepting that information as true. Go beyond the values that you were raised with, and dig for truthful information and challenge common thought.
(This is not an endorsement of Megyn Kelly specifically, but more of a take on her specific interview with Alex Jones and the importance of hard-hitting journalism.)
