Contrary to Brother Jim, I’ll say a word in defense of Megyn’s Kelly’s having Alex Jones on her program.
Whatever else Alex Jones is, his prominence is a sign of the times, and sometimes it is worth taking a look at the signs.
Think of the characters Bill Buckley had on Firing Line: Huey Newton, Noam Chomsky, Norman Mailer. What is Noam Chomsky if not a more polite conspiracy theorist with an academic mien?
No, none of those men were quite the cartoon that Alex Jones is, but they all were spokesmen for some pretty nutty beliefs and exhibitors of nutty dispositions: Here’s Allen Ginsberg singing “Hare, Krishna” to Buckley on Firing Line in 1968. “The most unharried Krishna I’ve ever heard,” WFB said of the slow-moving performance.
Alex Jones isn’t a prominent American voice because he is on Megyn Kelly’s program. He’s on Megyn Kelly’s program because he is — incredibly enough — a prominent American voice.