NBC News is reportedly under pressure from at least one major advertiser over the upcoming Megyn Kelly interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The Wall Street Journal reports that J.P. Morgan Chase has pulled its local TV ads and digital ads from all NBC News programming, including Kelly’s show, until after the interview airs Sunday night.
Citing an unnamed source, the Journal said that “the company doesn’t want any of its ads to appear adjacent to any promotions for the interview.”
The decision came shortly after Kristin Lemkau, the company’s chief marketing officer, fired off a tweet criticizing the interview:
An excerpt of the interview released Sunday led to swift backlash on social media, including the rise of the #shameonNBC hashtag on Twitter.
Some criticized the interview, while others went further and called for a boycott of Kelly’s show and even the network itself for giving airtime to Jones. He has repeatedly claimed that 9/11 was an “inside job” and said that the parents of the 20 students murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 were actors and that their children’s deaths and the deaths of six adults at the school were faked.
Kelly left Fox News early this year, with NBC announcing her addition to its news team with great fanfare. “Today” anchor Matt Lauer gushed that Kelly was “someone who shares our values and will help make us even better tomorrow.”
Now critics are wondering just what those values are.
A Facebook page dedicated to Victoria Soto, a Sandy Hook teacher killer in the attack, posted a message to NBC News and Kelly:
“This incessant need for ratings at the cost of the emotional well-being of our family is disgusting and disappointing. You should be ashamed of yourselves for allowing this behavior. We hope you never are subjected to the kind of torture that Alex Jones and his followers inflict on us.
Everyone on tv needs to understand that there are real people who have lived these tragedies.”
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