Florida professor defends theory that Newtown shootings never happened

A communications professor from Florida Atlantic University isn't backing down from his theory that the mass killing of 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut may have never happened.

Writing on his Memory Hole blog last month, Professor James Tracy asserted that it was "not unreasonable to suggest the Obama administration [had] complicity or direct oversight of an incident that has in very short order sparked a national debate" on gun control.

"While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place—at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation’s news media have described," he declared, noting that no surveillance video of photos of bodies had been released by authorities.

"Moreover, to suggest that [President Barack] Obama is not capable of deploying such techniques to achieve political ends is to similarly place ones faith in image and interpretation above substance and established fact, the exact inclination that in sum has brought America to such an impasse."

On Tuesday, WPTV caught up with Tracy, who also doubts the official versions President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks and the mass shooting at a theater in Aurora, Colorado last year.

"In terms of saying that Sandy Hook -- the Newtown massacre -- did not take place, is really an oversimplification of what I actually said," he explained. "I said that I think that there may very well be elements of that event that are synthetic to some degree, that are somewhat contrived. I think that, overall, the media really did drop the ball. I don't think that they got to the bottom of some of the things that may have taken place there."

As for the deaths of 20 elementary children, the professor said, "I think that most likely that took place."

A spokesperson for Florida Atlantic University on Monday tried to distance the school from Tracy's views.

"James Tracy does not speak for the university," media director Lisa Metcalf told the Sun Sentinel. "The website on which his post appeared is not affiliated with FAU in any way."

Watch this video from WPTV, broadcast Jan 8, 2013.