Sandy Hook Families Are Threatening To Sue NBC News If Megyn Kelly’s Alex Jones Interview Airs

The families of those killed in Sandy Hook were already upset with NBC and Megyn Kelly for conducting an interview with InfoWars’ Alex Jones. One Sandy Hook organization already went so far as to remove Kelly as the honorary chair of their annual dinner, and now the families have come out and threatened to take legal action against NBC News should the channel move forward with the interview at all. According to The Los Angeles Times, the families have sent a letter to NBC via their law firm Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder claiming that the channel is inflicting harm on the victims’ families by moving forward with the airing as planned. The letter includes such pointed passages as,

“Airing Ms. Kelly’s interview implicitly endorses the notion that Mr. Jones’ lies are actually ‘claims’ that are worthy of serious debate; and in doing so it exponentially enhances the suffering and distress of our clients.”

Kelly has attempted to rectify the intense backlash that has arisen since the interview was first teased by saying that the interview is an attempt to shine a spotlight on a figurehead of an organization that has been granted press credentials by the White House. Detractors say that despite her attempts to show out how detrimental Jones’ views are, her hoped for “spotlight” still just amounts to a soapbox to stand on for Jones that will grant him additional legitimacy.

The threatened lawsuit against NBC comes at a particularly tricky juncture for the bosses there as well, with rumors flying that there have been behind-the-scenes crisis meetings and an attempt to reframe and re-edit the entire interview before air. On top of that, Alex Jones and InfoWars are also threatening to release the entire original interview on the site before NBC can rejigger the message against them in any way (if they haven’t already).

At this juncture, it doesn’t seem like NBC is getting out of this crisis with ease. Which some would say is the risk they took when hiring Kelly in the first place, but in the current news climate this could also happen to any network out there under the right circumstances.

(via The LA Times)