For viewers who had never heard of Alex Jones before Sunday evening, Megyn Kelly’s much-hyped interview with him on NBC did not paint a flattering picture.

In a 17-minute segment — which had generated hours of commentary and a raft of protests before it aired — Ms. Kelly repeatedly challenged Mr. Jones, the conspiracy theorist, Infowars founder and influential right-wing personality.

She pressed him on his baseless claims that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. She confronted him about describing teenage victims of the terror attack in Manchester, England, in May as “liberal trendies.” And she described his behavior as “reckless accusation, followed by equivocations and excuses.”

Ms. Kelly’s solemn and scolding tone — “That doesn’t excuse what you did and said about Newtown,” she told Mr. Jones at one point as he tried to explain his views on Sandy Hook — may placate some who objected when the former Fox News anchor announced her feature on Mr. Jones.