Alex Jones - Two Stops Past Barking?
- Thread starter existentialist
- Start date
story
Changing the facts
story
Changing the facts
Although according to this he‘s not permitted to go down that road.
www.reuters.com
Jury finds Alex Jones must pay $4.1 million for Sandy Hook hoax claims
Alex Jones should pay parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre at least $4.1 million for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax, a Texas jury said.
www.reuters.com
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story
Changing the facts
Oh. Since no one else has done it…
Here‘s the result
www.nytimes.com
And from the Beeb
Cut and paste below
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $4.1m (£3.3m) in damages after falsely claiming the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was a hoax.
Parents of a victim have been seeking at least $150m in the defamation trial against the Infowars founder.
They said they had endured harassment and emotional distress because of the right-wing host's misinformation.
Twenty children and six adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012.
The jury in Austin, Texas, decided compensatory damages on Thursday, and must still determine any punitive damages.
He has already lost a series of defamation cases brought by parents of the victims by default after failing to produce documents and testimony.
But this is the first in which financial damages were determined by a jury.
The case was brought by Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the separated parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis, who died in the school shooting.
Ahead of Thursday's decision, a lawyer for the plaintiffs revealed that Jones' lawyer had inadvertently sent him two years of texts from his client's phone.
The messages could be of interest to the congressional panel investigating last year's US Capitol riot. The committee says Jones helped organise a rally that took place just before the riot.
Despite retracting his claims about Sandy Hook, Jones has continued to use his platform to attack jurors and the judge in this case.
He also claimed he was bankrupt despite evidence that his companies were earning about $800,000 dollars a day selling diet supplements, gun paraphernalia and survivalist equipment.
During the emotionally charged two-week trial, Jones portrayed the case as an attack on his free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
"Speech is free, but lies you have to pay for," lawyers for the families countered in their opening arguments.
Jones also conceded the killings were "100% real" and accused the media of not allowing him to retract his false claim.
In her testimony, Mrs Lewis addressed Jones directly in court, saying: "Jesse was real… I'm a real mom."
She went on to say it is "incredible to me that we have to do this".
"That we have to implore you - not just implore you, punish you - to get you to stop lying," she continued, adding: "It is surreal what is going on in here."
Mr Heslin said that Jones' lies "tarnished the honour and legacy" of his son, adding that he had gone through nearly 10 years of "hell" since the attack.
According to lawyers for the parents, they were forced to hire private security for the trial out of concern that followers of Jones could seek to harm them.
One forensic psychiatrist testified that the parents were suffering from "complex post-traumatic stress disorder" similar to what battlefield soldiers or victims of child abuse endure.
Jones, who was not in the courtroom when the jury's punishment was announced, was the only witness to testify in his defence at trial.
Lawyers for the parents accused Jones of trying to hide evidence, and argued that he had committed perjury when he denied sending messages related to the Sandy Hook attack.
Jones' Infowars parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC, declared bankruptcy last week. The outlet has been banned by YouTube, Spotify and Twitter for hate speech, but continues to operate.
Other wild conspiracies pushed by Jones include that the US government is creating floods and tornados as "weather weapons" and that chemicals in drinking water are making frogs homosexual.
Lawyer Mark Banston, who represented the parents in the case, told reporters outside court on Thursday that his clients were not disappointed with the sum awarded so far by the jury.
"We aren't done folks," the attorney was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"We knew coming into this case it was necessary to shoot for the moon to get the jury to understand we were serious and passionate. After tomorrow, he's going to owe a lot more."
Here‘s the result
Alex Jones Defamation Case: Alex Jones Trial: Jurors Award Sandy Hook Parents $4 Million (Published 2022)
The jury decreed that the Infowars conspiracy theorist should pay compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old killed in the elementary school shooting, which Mr. Jones claimed was a hoax.
And from the Beeb
Alex Jones must pay $4m in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims
The parents of a child killed in the shooting say they endured harassment because of the radio host's claims.
www.bbc.co.uk
Cut and paste below
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $4.1m (£3.3m) in damages after falsely claiming the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was a hoax.
Parents of a victim have been seeking at least $150m in the defamation trial against the Infowars founder.
They said they had endured harassment and emotional distress because of the right-wing host's misinformation.
Twenty children and six adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012.
The jury in Austin, Texas, decided compensatory damages on Thursday, and must still determine any punitive damages.
- BACKGROUND: Sandy Hook: What happened that day
- LEGAL CASE: Sandy Hook parents sue for defamation
He has already lost a series of defamation cases brought by parents of the victims by default after failing to produce documents and testimony.
But this is the first in which financial damages were determined by a jury.
The case was brought by Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the separated parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis, who died in the school shooting.
Ahead of Thursday's decision, a lawyer for the plaintiffs revealed that Jones' lawyer had inadvertently sent him two years of texts from his client's phone.
The messages could be of interest to the congressional panel investigating last year's US Capitol riot. The committee says Jones helped organise a rally that took place just before the riot.
Despite retracting his claims about Sandy Hook, Jones has continued to use his platform to attack jurors and the judge in this case.
He also claimed he was bankrupt despite evidence that his companies were earning about $800,000 dollars a day selling diet supplements, gun paraphernalia and survivalist equipment.
During the emotionally charged two-week trial, Jones portrayed the case as an attack on his free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
"Speech is free, but lies you have to pay for," lawyers for the families countered in their opening arguments.
Jones also conceded the killings were "100% real" and accused the media of not allowing him to retract his false claim.
In her testimony, Mrs Lewis addressed Jones directly in court, saying: "Jesse was real… I'm a real mom."
She went on to say it is "incredible to me that we have to do this".
"That we have to implore you - not just implore you, punish you - to get you to stop lying," she continued, adding: "It is surreal what is going on in here."
Mr Heslin said that Jones' lies "tarnished the honour and legacy" of his son, adding that he had gone through nearly 10 years of "hell" since the attack.
According to lawyers for the parents, they were forced to hire private security for the trial out of concern that followers of Jones could seek to harm them.
One forensic psychiatrist testified that the parents were suffering from "complex post-traumatic stress disorder" similar to what battlefield soldiers or victims of child abuse endure.
Jones, who was not in the courtroom when the jury's punishment was announced, was the only witness to testify in his defence at trial.
Lawyers for the parents accused Jones of trying to hide evidence, and argued that he had committed perjury when he denied sending messages related to the Sandy Hook attack.
Jones' Infowars parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC, declared bankruptcy last week. The outlet has been banned by YouTube, Spotify and Twitter for hate speech, but continues to operate.
Other wild conspiracies pushed by Jones include that the US government is creating floods and tornados as "weather weapons" and that chemicals in drinking water are making frogs homosexual.
Lawyer Mark Banston, who represented the parents in the case, told reporters outside court on Thursday that his clients were not disappointed with the sum awarded so far by the jury.
"We aren't done folks," the attorney was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"We knew coming into this case it was necessary to shoot for the moon to get the jury to understand we were serious and passionate. After tomorrow, he's going to owe a lot more."
story
Changing the facts
She’s already the ex-wife. There’s a custody battle, I can’t see the courts awarding him custody tbh.
8ball
Check your privet hedge
This absolutely never happens, but I'd like it if he had some kind of change of heart and came to use his persuasive skills to good ends.
But yeah, won't happen. Let's go with your version.
story
Changing the facts
phone includes messages between him and 'a senator' apparently
Yeah but look at some of them. Hardly surprising.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
He remarried in 2017
story
Changing the facts
Flummoxed that someone would want to, but thanks for the update.
ETA
Oh, this was the one arrested for domestic violence back along
WhyLikeThis
Something, something, something
I’m patiently waiting for the Jones & Stone sexting.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
This thing that gets me is that he's still going on his show every day and continuing the same narrative. If I were that judge I'd slap a gag order on him and throw him in jail if her persists in continuing to claim that Sandy Hook was a false flag operation and the parents crisis actors.
8ball
Check your privet hedge
Fuck - he’s still actually doing it?
Yeah, agree totally there. Amazed it hasn’t happened.
Raheem
Well-Known Member
Blue Mudra
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
He must have known it wasn't a hoax right from the start, but he put the bereaved parents through hell just to make a buck. If I was in charge he'd be on a chain gang for life.
David Clapson
Well-Known Member
He made a ton of money. And really he's no different to Fox News. If Rupert Murdoch can be a billionaire, courted by presidents, why shouldn't everyone else have a go?
8ball
Check your privet hedge
Doesn’t flummox me at all.
See Boris Johnson, or Trump, or Putin, or Bill Clinton for that matter.
NoXion
his soul is marching on
I've seen similar musings being posted on the anti-Q subs on Reddit, with one of them bemoaning the fact that Jones isn't the only grifter like that. Like I said there, if America is to un-fuck itself, then the process has to start somewhere, so might as well start with this. Falling into the pit of fatalism isn't going to help anything, indeed, by potentially dissuading people from action it might actually be counter-productive.
Jones' disciples are effectively cult members, so nothing short of an intensive course of de-programming was ever going to shift them in the first instance. Jones has been booted off multiple platforms already, and his reach will be further blunted by a punitive fine. Even if it doesn't cripple his operation, this lawsuit could well have a chilling effect, by demonstrating how spreading such lies is not always consequence-free.
Cid
Proper break this time
Not sure why ineffective assistance of counsel is relevant to that point?
Cid
Proper break this time
I think level of punitive damages will be key here... At the moment, to any major grifter, this is really running at expenses level. And Jones' side has been astonishingly incompetent... Other narcissists will undoubtedly believe they can better defend themselves. And of course many do... And many just avoid responsibility; eg those that allowed him a veneer of credibility (looking at you Joe Rogan).
Still, gotta take the victories where they're available.
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two sheds
Least noticed poster 2007
Although just showing up the cult leader as a fraud or hypocrite can really damage them. It starts people doubting and they can start to do the rest themselves.
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