The Antics of Alex Jones

[SonicG]

Perfect moment for him to get some softball pitches from Ms. Kelly...

http://www.nbcnews.com/megyn-kelly/vide ... 4973635637

I'm sure she'll have Noam Chomsky on next week...Animal-Human hybrids...that's the big story!

[Elvis]

I'm sure she'll have Noam Chomsky on next week.

THAT would be something. And as we now know, it could happen.

[SonicG]

I am sure I stole it somewhere, but it was a go-to line back whenever CNN hired Dinesh D'Souza as a mainstream conservative voice...so they are going to get Chomsky next week as a mainstream left voice then?



I don't doubt there might be civilian clashes in the streets but, more likely, nearly coup-like military intervention if Trump tries to fire Mueller, especially when they tell him that he can't do it....

ALEX JONES (HOST): Let me ask you, then we will go to break and go right back to calls from Tom and John and Steven and Morgan and O’Brien and Sam, we’re going to go to everybody. What should Trump do? I mean, he needs to get aggressive. Call them out. [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions needs to start indicting some of these people.

JEROME CORSI: Well, the presidency has enormous power, and Trump better start using it -- better start realizing that in Washington, all these people are his enemies. He's got to fire [White House chief of staff Reince] Priebus. Don't wait until the end of June, as he says he is going to give him more time -- just fire him. Get rid of all the people in the administration who have been there from Clinton and from Obama, get rid of them, and start using the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate [former FBI director James] Comey, Clinton and the others. Fight back, counterattack.

JONES: Absolutely. Look, this is such sedition against the country and the attempted overthrow of our republic by clear outside forces. I'd support the president right now moving against these people physically. Let's be honest. We're in a war. I would support the president making a military move on them right now. The country is that big a crisis. We need to go ahead and move.
https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2017 ... ies/216877

[Elvis]

...the attempted overthrow of our republic by clear outside forces. I'd support the president right now moving against these people physically. Let's be honest. We're in a war. I would support the president making a military move on them right now.

Sounds like something out of a Salon article!

[seemslikeadream]

Advertisers withdrawing from Megyn Kelly's show due to Alex Jones interview
http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/13/media/m ... index.html

Here’s the Alex Jones Story Megyn Kelly and Other Reporters Should Probe
What is Trump’s relationship to the nation’s most dangerous conspiracy theorist?
DAVID CORNJUN. 13, 2017 10:24 AM


Alex Jones
Alex Jones holds a rally outside of the 2016 Republican National Convention.Terray Sylvester/VW Pics via ZUMA Wire

On Sunday night, Fox-turned-NBC News star-anchor Megyn Kelly announced that in a week she would be airing an interview with Alex Jones, the well-known purveyor of foul and dangerous conspiracy theories. Within a nanosecond or two, folks on Twitter went wild, bashing Kelly for giving Jones a platform for slinging his loathsome swill. Much pointed and passionate criticism came from those who rightfully noted that Jones has claimed that the horrific massacre in 2012 at Sandy Hook elementary never happened and that it was some sort of false-flag fraud perpetuated by a gun-grabbing government to justify tougher firearms restrictions. (A gun violence prevention group founded by family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims dropped Kelly as host of its annual gala.)

Those who have contended that Kelly ought not treat Jones, a carnival barker of paranoia, as a public figure warranting serious treatment have a legitimate gripe. But this episode is part of that ongoing debate over how much respect and attention the media should grant to extremists of the fringe—say, white supremacists or anti-Muslim bigots—who espouse hate and prejudice. Do such people deserve to be placed in the media spotlight to expose their vile views, or does that enable the hate-mongers? Yet in this particular case, the true story is not so much Jones and his crazy and contemptible notions, but a more important matter: President Donald Trump’s relationship to Jones.

What renders Jones a serious subject is that Trump has made common cause with him.
For years, Jones, through a radio show and his Infowars website, has been the king of conspiracy theory media, pushing a host of outlandish and ludicrous stories. He and his website have claimed that the Bush-Cheney administration was in on the 9/11 attacks and that the US government has covertly orchestrated or faked a variety of violent episodes—Sandy Hook, the Columbine shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Boston Marathon attack—as part of an ongoing (and bipartisan!) plot to expand its power and enact gun safety laws. Infowars asserts that “chemtrail” emissions from aircraft are part of a clandestine scheme to poison humans or cause extreme weather. Jones says a secretive global elite has a clandestine plan to kill off or enslave most of the planet’s population. He has claimed the government is inserting chemicals into people—via juice boxes!—to make children gay. His conspiracy-peddling, while profitable for him, has caused pain and danger. Infowars promoted the ridiculous Pizzagate theory—that Hillary Clinton and other top Democrats were running a child sex ring in the basement of a certain Washington, DC, pizzeria—and a gunman showed up at the restaurant and fired off shots when customers, including children, were present. (Jones eventually and uncharacteristically apologized for his role in Pizzagate.)

Jones should be derided and dismissed as a bombastic sideshow scammer who makes a living selling fake news to the gullible. During a recent custody battle with his ex-wife, Jones’ own legal team referred to him as a “performance artist” who was “playing a character,” suggesting Jones didn’t believe the guff he was pitching. (A day later, Jones said this characterization was false and his lawyers had been misinterpreted by the media.) But what renders Jones a serious subject is that Trump has made common cause with him. That’s a connection worthy of much more media notice than it has garnered because of what it says about the judgment of the man who now lives in the White House.

During his presidential campaign, Trump forged a bond with Jones. In a way, that was inevitable. Trump first became a conservative darling by pressing the Obama-was-born-in-Kenya conspiracy theory. And throughout the campaign and afterward, he has shown a bent for conspiratorial and paranoid thinking. He hinted there was something odd about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He suggested that terrorist attacks in the United States were not being stopped because President Barack Obama had ties with or affection for the evildoers. Trump maintained Ted Cruz’s dad was part of the JFK assassination conspiracy. (More recently, Trump tweeted that he had been wiretapped by Obama.)

Trump told Jones, “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”
As a candidate, Trump ran into the arms of Jones. In December 2015, he appeared on Jones’ talk show. That in and of itself was telling: a candidate from a major party venturing into this netherworld of paranoia and conspiracy. (Ron and Rand Paul were the only other prominent politicians in recent years to appear with Jones.) During the show, Jones praised Trump for being a modern-day George Washington who could save this nation before it collapses. He beseeched Trump to stay in the race and resist pressure from dark globalist forces opposed to his candidacy. Trump took the opportunity to brag that he had brilliantly foreseen the threat posed by Osama bin Laden years before anyone else. (Trump had not.) Jones cheered on the tycoon and said Trump’s campaign was “epic.” As the segment came to a close, Trump told Jones, “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

That was a stunning moment. A candidate seeking the Republican Party’s presidential nomination was hailing a man who claimed the last Republican president was part of a cabal that staged 9/11 (or purposefully allowed it to happen).

That was not the only Trump-Jones link during the campaign. Roger Stone, a self-proclaimed dirty trickster, longtime Trump adviser, and JFK assassination conspiracy theorist (who wrote a book saying LBJ killed Kennedy), often appeared on Infowars to tout Trump. And Trump tried to bolster his claim that Mexico was sending killers and rapists into the United States with an Infowars video he had seen on the Drudge Report.

At the GOP convention in Cleveland in July, Jones was the featured speaker at a pro-Trump rally organized by Stone. (To be fair, I should note that at that rally, Jones picked me out of the crowd of reporters to denounce me as a representative of the “dinosaur” media.) And while in Cleveland, Jones attended the Republican proceedings as a “special guest.” (That’s what his credential said.) He and Stone also promoted “Hillary for Prison” T-shirts, which championed a message in sync with the “lock her up” chants inside the convention hall.

How deep Jones’ relationship with Trump goes is a vital question. Stone has claimed on Infowars that he set up Trump and Jones, the two “hit it off,” and Trump has “watched Infowars.” And during the campaign, Jones said he “personally talked to” Trump and encouraged him to claim the election was being rigged. On another occasion, Jones said Trump had told him that Jones had “one of the greatest influences I’ve ever seen…It’s greater than you know. Just know that your influence is second to none.” In a February 8, 2016, interview with Infowars, Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller hailed Jones and Infowars for having “been on top of…the immigration issue” and called on Jones’ audience to support Trump.

Media Matters, a liberal outfit, has pointed out that Trump has often aped Infowars material:

Trump has repeated Jones’ claims that President Obama and Hillary Clinton are the founders of ISIS; that Muslims were celebrating in New Jersey after the 9/11 attacks; and that the 2016 election would be “rigged” against him. Following his election, Trump also adopted the false claim promoted by Jones that “millions of people” “voted illegally” in the presidential election. Trump’s regular echoing of his rhetoric caused Jones to remark in August that it’s “surreal to talk about issues here on air and then word for word hear Trump say it two days later. It is amazing.”

Here was another example of a Trump-Jones mashup: At a rally in August, Trump said Clinton “took a little short-circuit in the brain—she’s got problems.” He added, “Honestly, I don’t think she’s all there.” A few days earlier Infowars had published a video, The Truth About Hillary’s Bizarre Behavior, that asked, “Is Hillary on the verge of a mental breakdown due to stress, or are her strange outbursts linked to a medical condition?” At other points, Trump campaign aides and Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out Infowars stories. The eldest Trump son spread an Infowars article claiming that Clinton had worn an earpiece during one of the presidential debates. Trump was undoubtedly the Infowars candidate.

“He’s a valuable asset—somebody has to rally the people around President Trump’s legislative program.”
After the election, Jones told his audience that Trump had called to thank him: Trump “gave me a call, and I told him, ‘Mr. President-elect, you’re too busy, we don’t need to talk.’ But we still spent over five minutes—he said, ‘Listen, Alex, I just talked to the kings and queens of the world—world leaders, you name it.’ But he said, ‘It doesn’t matter, I wanted to talk to you to thank your audience.” And Stone told the Washington Post that Jones would play an important outside role in the Trump presidency: “He’s a valuable asset—somebody has to rally the people around President Trump’s legislative program.”

Jones was in the business of fake news before it was called fake news, promoting stories about FEMA camps, the Jewish mafia, weather weapons, and birtherism, and claiming Hillary Clinton was “demon-possessed.” In recent weeks, Jones has claimed that his relationship with Trump has continued, bragging that Trump has called him, that Trump’s two older sons watch his videos “every night,” that Trump asked him if he was happy with Trump’s performance as president, and that he talks “to people who talk to the president every day.” Stone also has said Trump and Jones “talk from time to time.” (Infowars reportedly is giving Stone his own show.) And Politico reported that Trump aides have used Infowars clips to show Trump examples of positive media coverage.

The real tale here is not Jones and his many false flags; it’s Trump’s embrace of Jones. There will always be connivers peddling fiction-as-truth to gain money and notice. What’s new—and most disturbing—is that the commander-in-chief of the United States has hooked up with such a figure and has taken steps that legitimize him. How much sway does Jones have with Trump? Jones’ boasts of his ongoing contacts with Trump and his team could be utterly bogus. Then again…

Kelly and other reporters could do the nation a true service by focusing on this angle and determining how far the Jones-Trump mind-meld has gone. If the two are still in cahoots, it’s a plot that deserves great scrutiny and all the hoopla a prominent and buzzy news show can generate.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... ald-trump/

[seemslikeadream]

Alex Jones Just Leaked His Secret Pre-Interview Conversation with Megyn Kelly, and It Is Damning

The scandal grows.

By Kali Holloway / AlterNet June 16, 2017, 10:33 AM GMT


Alex Jones has made a lucrative career of deranged conspiracy theories. Now his deep-seated paranoia appears to have scored him something stranger still: a legitimate scoop.

On Friday, the InfoWars host revealed that he had recorded his off-the-record, pre-interview conversations with Megyn Kelly, the audio of which he has leaked in retaliation for what he claims is Kelly’s misrepresentation of his views. And it doesn’t look good for Kelly.

One video


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkpNO675Beg
includes audio of Kelly promising to take it easy on Jones and not to ask any pointed questions. “My goal is for your listeners and the left—you know, who will be watching some on NBC—to say, Wow, that’s really interesting," Kelly says in the recording. “It’s not going to be some gotcha hit piece. I promise you that.”

In another section of the audio, Kelly gushes to Jones about why she wanted to sit down with him.

“The reason you are interesting to me is because I followed your custody case, and I think you had a very good point about how the media was covering it and for some reason treated you and your family and what was going on as fair game, when they never would have done that if you were a mainstream media figure," she says. "I saw a different side of you in that whole thing and, you know, you just became very fascinating to me.”

In a separate moment, Kelly assures Jones that he’ll be allowed to watch footage from the interview before it airs, implying that he can request any unflattering sections be removed.

“I will personally promise to look at any clips we want to use of you, and have a producer run by you, whether we are taking it in context, what you are saying,” Kelly says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkpNO675Beg


Kelly strikes a markedly different tone than she did in a statement defending her interview with Jones to those who suggested she was giving a major platform to a Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist. In that letter, Kelly suggested she would lay bare the ugliness of Jones' views.

“I find Alex Jones’ suggestion that Sandy Hook was ‘a hoax’ as personally revolting as every other rational person does,” Kelly says in the message. “Our goal in sitting down with him was to shine a light—as journalists are supposed to do—on this influential figure, and yes, to discuss the considerable falsehoods he has promoted with near impunity.”

“I’ve never done this in 22 years. I’ve never recorded another journalist, but I knew it was a fraud, that it was a lie,” Jones says in a clip. “Megan Kelly waltzed in here to Austin, Texas, and told me that she wasn’t gonna talk about Sandy Hook, she wasn’t gonna talk about Pizzagate, she wasn’t gonna talk about Chobani, she wasn’t gonna talk about Islamic terror attacks. That she wanted to do a softball profile of Alex Jones. And when she got here with her crew of intelligence operatives, she did the opposite of what she said. And so I was recording the whole time...Information warfare is a two-way street. And we’re gonna give as good as we get.”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viO4IxcmQK8

NBC responded with a statement accusing Jones of trying “distract” from the real issues.


"Despite Alex Jones' efforts to distract from and ultimately prevent the airing of our report, we remain committed to giving viewers context and insight into a controversial and polarizing figure, how he relates to the president of the United States and influences others, and to getting this serious story right. Tune in Sunday,” the network wrote in an email to the Hill.

Kelly, who rose to fame in the right-wing echo chamber as a Fox News host, announced she had been hired by NBC in January. The network has declined to release official salary numbers, but Kelly is reportedly being paid between $16 and $20 million in her new role.
http://www.alternet.org/media/alex-jone ... re-damning

[Iamwhomiam]

It's really a shame he's such a devious bastard. The so-called tape he recorded of their studio interview has not been aired. He recorded her phone call to him, which he said he interrupted and would call her back, which he did and that is the only recording he's shared and none of it has anything to do with his interview with Kelly aside from their scheduling it and her briefing him on what sort of questions she would be asking him with cameras running.

His producer brought her into the darkened studio while Jones was broadcasting and that is why she was standing in the dark. Jones is phonier than Saturday night wrestling.

He doubled down on Sandy Hook in the actual Kelly interview, pig that he is.

Of course you get high ratings for the shows you appear on. Nobody can resist a freak show, you uncouth jackass.

[Elvis]

Be careful, Alex Jones could be the next president of the United States.

Oh sure, you laugh now.

[Iamwhomiam]

Yeah, I didn't believe it possible for Trump to be elected but fate has a way of smacking you in the face with reality.

[elfismiles]

Be careful, Alex Jones could be the next president of the United States.

Oh sure, you laugh now.

I recall that at a post-rebuild of the Waco church of the Branch Davidians, as recorded in AJ's "America: Wake Up (Or Waco)", at one of the speechifying memorials, the MC introduces AJ as the person he thinks will be the youngest person ever elected President of the US.

[brekin]

"Here's the thing." Loved this piece. Even the strange hypnotic floating intimate camera "look into my eyes as I tell you what to think" induction-intro by Kelly.

Megyn Kelly Reports on Alex Jones and 'Infowars'
http://www.nbcnews.com/megyn-kelly/vide ... 0743875859

Boy Jones gets svetty. I think it would be hard for anyone interviewing Jones and holding him to his previous statements to not it become a hit piece. Jones is all about process and not product. None of his hate burgers are to be remembered, just savored when being devoured. His repeat customers just have a certain hunger, appetite, and he continually feeds them. They really don't care about the ingredients, just the overall happy-hateful meal with hidden conspiracy toy inside. The most telling moment is when Kelly and Jones talk about the infowars process, and how it is the equivalent of a fake food factory. There is no quality control, their is no vetting of suppliers, no product testing, no qualifying of claims, no controls, no standards, just garbage in, garbage out.



But yes, Kelly did mislead Jones telling him it wouldn't be a hit piece, a gotcha program, etc.
That is why it is doubly enjoyable to watch.
Not only does Jones have to defend/distance/disassemble his previous kooky and false statements, (but not too much or he looks like he's just a opportunistic conspiracy dog whistler) but the whole time he's having to do the impossible - he has that look in his eyes, that he realized he's been had.
The piece could have been much longer (seems like there are segments not in the long piece elsewhere?) but basically it is Kelly playing Chigurh in No Country for Old Men to Jones playing an angrier version of Jon Lovitz's "Tommy Flanagan the pathological liar".

Kelly: Call it Friendo. You said it was heads.
Jones: Uh, what I meant was, the media said that heads, sort of, and I'm was playing devils advocate and uh, Now wait a minute, I can see why some people said it was tails, I can see that, but of course, sometimes heads, sometimes tails, and uh,
Kelly: So it's heads?
Jones: Uh, no, what I meant..
Kelly: You said heads. Are you saying that wasn't true? Call it Friendo.
repeat until end

The New You Just Got PRANKED! Show
with host Megyn Kelly
Season 1
Alex Jones

[Iamwhomiam]

I didn't note one 'gotcha' moment in the entire heavily edited interview, not one instance.

[norton ash]

They got me... I actually wasted my time watching this worthless non-starter. Gotcha!

[brekin]

I didn't note one 'gotcha' moment in the entire heavily edited interview, not one instance.

They got me... I actually wasted my time watching this worthless non-starter. Gotcha!

To me, every topic Kelly brought up was a gotcha! as Jones had to speak definitely on Sandy Hook, PG, the yogurt guy, his relationship with Trump, whether he is a journalist, etc. Jones likes to make huge categorical statements and black and white charges, condemnations, but almost never does someone ask him to clarify, let alone challenge his statements. It seemed to me that Jones was expecting a "puff personality day-in-the-life piece of following around the star" and instead had to initial off on the transcript of his greatest hits of demagoguery.

[elfismiles]

Alex Jones Rants as an Indie Folk Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWd6XgBVIcg

Published on Jul 14, 2017

This is what Alex Jones' rants would sound like as a Bon Iver song. "Jones Iver" by @NickLutsko - download the song for free here: http://www.superdeluxe.com/jonesiver