The Case Against Alex Jones

Posted on by under Social commentary

Well, well, well … well, well.  All I can say is it’s about time.  Well past time, if you ask me, that ol’ Alex Jones of Fox News’ InfoWars is heading off to court.  In December 2016, I considered Alex for an Idiot of the Week post, but I didn’t do that post.  Today, curious as to why I hadn’t, I found in my notes that I considered him simply too evil for an IOTW post.  A brief bit of background …

On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children between six and seven years old, as well as six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  As first responders arrived at the scene, Lanza committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.  President Obama, as well as leaders from many countries and organizations throughout the world also offered their condolences through the weekend after the shooting.There were a few however, who chose to further add to the grief and torment of the families, rather than join in offering compassion, and among those, Alex Jones led the pack.  Within days, Jones put out a video, since removed by YouTube for violation of terms of service, saying that the massacre was “staged,” “inside job,” “undoubtedly there’s a cover-up,” “giant hoax,” “the whole thing was fake,” “in my view, manufactured”.  He was selling snake oil, nothing more, and he knew his snake oil wasn’t the cure for anything, but guess what?  He didn’t care, for he was making money.  He was the talk of the town, his video having been viewed more than 10 million times by mid-January 2013, less than a month after the murders.

Nope, Alex didn’t care, but can you even imagine what it must have been like for the parents of those murdered children?  They lost the most precious part of their lives, and then to hear this nutcase say it never happened?  I remember now why I thought he was too evil for an IOTW post.  But it didn’t end there.  Jones’ claims that the ‘deep state’ government orchestrated the ‘event’ in order to justify shutting down or repealing the 2nd Amendment were as nothing as compared to what came next.

In a March 2014 broadcast, speaking of the parents of the murdered children in Newtown, Jones said …

“Undoubtedly, there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying, and they were pre-planning before it.” 

He has accused the families of the murdered children of being paid actors, of lying and the media of staging coverage with green-screen video technology.  Does Jones even belief this himself?  I seriously doubt it … any more than I think Leonard Nimoy believed he was on the Starship Enterprise saving the world from evil.  (All you Trekkies out there, please forgive me for my blasphemy!)  But it got attention, it had entertainment value, and Fox, InfoWars and Jones were making money.

Today, a few of those parents stand a good chance of getting a bit of their own justice.

Leonard Pozner and his former wife, Veronique De La Rosa, parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner who died in the shooting, have filed a lawsuit in Travis County District Court in Austin, Texas, where Jones lives and InfoWars is broadcast.  A second lawsuit, also in Travis County District Court, has been filed by Neil Heslin, father of murdered 6-year-old Jesse Lewis.  Both lawsuits are based on comments Jones made just last year in a segment on his radio show called “Sandy Hook Vampires Exposed,” which aired on April 22, 2017, as well as other broadcasts he has done over the 5-year period since the murders.  Four-and-a-half years later, and Jones was still milking this tragedy for all he could, bringing new waves of grief to the parents.  And not only grief over their lost children, but threats and obscene phone calls & letters.  One such threat was by 57-year-old Lucy Richards, who last June pleaded guilty to issuing death threats to Leonard Pozner, for she was convinced by Alex Jones’ taunts that the entire thing was a hoax and that the parents of the slain children were lying.  Ms. Richards is now serving a five-month prison term.

Noah Pozner

Jesse Lewis

The lawsuits contend the defendants acted with malice and their defamatory publications have injured the plaintiffs’ reputation and image and that they have exposed them to “public and private hatred, contempt, and ridicule.” Both lawsuits are for a minimum of $1 million, a paltry sum for Jones, whose net worth is estimated at between $7 million and $10 million.

I am a firm supporter of the 1st Amendment, the right to freedom of speech, the press, and religion.  However, I do not support unlimited free speech, nor does the law.  Remember Pizzagate, another of Jones wild conspiracy theories?  People almost died because one man actually believed his fantasies.  I hope these parents win their lawsuits, if for no other reason than to send a message to Fox and other media outlets that allow such pure garbage as Jones puts forth.  The message needs to be that there are limits, there is accountability, and the media has a responsibility to be truthful, else to label fiction as just that – fiction.  I think networks such as Fox and Breitbart that allow … nay, encourage … such falsehoods, should be obligated to label them as such, to present a clear and bold disclaimer that “what you are about to see is not based on fact, but is for entertainment purposes only.”

Jones is also being sued by Brennan Gilmore, who received death threats after Jones maliciously and incorrectly claimed Gilmore was a CIA operative who helped stage the scenario where a driver plunged into a group of protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia last year, killing Heather Heyer.

Alex Jones is not at all a nice man, not even a decent human being, for he puts forth his theories in order to make money, with no thought as to the lives he is endangering, the grief he is causing.  I would very much like to see Fox decide that he isn’t worth the trouble, but since he brings in the money, that is unlikely.  It is also unlikely that the public will tire of his garbage and tune out, or wise up and realize that he is not a newscaster, not an analyst, but merely an entertainer.

One final thought:  Donald Trump has praised Alex Jones, saying “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”  Perhaps Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, the one who also represents conspiracy theorist Sean Hannity, will take on Jones’ case. Think on that one for a while …

60 thoughts on “The Case Against Alex Jones”

  1. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    It’s amazing to see KARMA at work … you reap what you sow!!
    “Undoubtedly, there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying, and they were pre-planning before it.”
    I wish the parents the best and a just resolution!!

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Pingback: The Case Against Alex Jones — Filosofa’s Word – THE BIG BUCK HUNTER 2018

  3. While I have never been to his website, I have seen clips of Jones on other media like the Daily Show and Colbert. He is a raging buffoon. Hopefully the Sandy Hook parents will put an end to his career. Your posts about him raised a question: aside from his nutjob followers who purchase his merchandise, is he getting financial (or content) support from other entities?

    Liked by 2 people

    • Yes, he is a buffoon, but he accomplishes what he sets out to do … for him, it is a power-trip and a huge bank account. As for his income … I don’t really know, but I am certain he gets paid by Fox and the others who carry his show, plus all his guest appearances. I do hope that these lawsuits put some restraints on his future endeavors. YouTube has nearly banned him a couple of times … if they eventually do, it may well be the end of his run.

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  5. I don’t understand. How can anyone get away with this…this…evil? Why isn’t every parent suing for defamation or whatever it is? Why isn’t the government suing for defamation? What kind of world is it that human beings want to believe this kind of filth? I’m so shocked I want to hit something.

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    • I think the reason the parents did not all sue him in the beginning was that they just wanted to be left alone to grieve for their dead children, rather than being in the public eye, day after day. But after 5 years, and Jones just keeps on, at least these two parents have had enough, and I’m glad. I hope they win their suit, for it will set a precedent that may, ultimately, lead to some common-sense limitations on the right to free speech. Sooner or later, somebody will get killed because of Jones’ b.s. He is a fraud, a con artist, and in it for the money, but what I don’t understand is the many people who actually believe the filth he dishes up!

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      • I hope so too. Hope he’s bankrupted and his backers along with him, but I know it won’t come to that. Seems so wrong that something this ugly can only be tackled by a civil case. As for the people who lap this crap up? I don’t know. Is there a mental illness with symptoms like these? 😦

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        • It could well be that these lawsuits may cause him to lose some of his advertisers … that seems to be a growing trend these days, such as was the case with Laura Ingraham. One can hope. I’m sure he has some form of insurance, so the suits won’t likely bankrupt him, and Fox is also named in the suits, which may cost them some advertisers. As to the mental illness … I think it is largely ignorance and/or boredom. Ignorance needs no further explanation … there are people who aren’t intelligent enough to think beyond their immediate window. But as to boredom, there are, I believe, a lot of people who are in a rut, who have no intellectual stimulation, who do little beyond go to work and then sit in front of the television for the rest of the time. For those people, these conspiracy theories add a bit of excitement to their otherwise dull lives. Sigh.

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            • Nor can I … but I have a few friends like that. One in particular retired around the same time I did in 2008, and now she spends her entire days in front of the television … eating junk like potato chips, ice cream. She has gained over 100 pounds and can barely get around, hasn’t read a book in years … a sad excuse for a life. Actually, I should say I DID have a friend, for when I tried to get her to tell me what it was that appealed to her about Trump back in 2016, she informed me that I was too stupid to be her friend anymore. Hmmmm … see the irony?

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                • Oh, I have lost many friends over the past almost 3 years for my political views. I have been called names that made even me blush. I have been wished dead by at least one. Welcome to the era of Trump. Sigh.

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                    • I know. Never in my wildest imaginings could I have predicted this, but it is true. Sure, he has help from Congress and the NRA, but he is the driving force behind the hate, the divisiveness. I never before wished somebody dead until he came along. He is changing us all, I think.

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                    • I know the feeling. Before our present merry-go-round of prime ministers, we had one called John Howard. I hated him with a passion because of the way he demonized refugees arriving by boat and changed the whole narrative for political gain. But. Eventually he was ousted. At least yours has a maximum of 8 years to destroy the world. John Howard was in for 11 I think.

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                    • Ah yes, I remember ol’ John Howard! And ours, under current law, has a max of 8 years. I am hoping he doesn’t even serve 4. But if he should, somehow, serve 8, I would bet my savings that he will serve even longer, for he will have found a way to work around the Constitution and turn this nation into an oligarchy/plutocracy/anarchy. The only thing that might stop him would be his age and obvious obesity.

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                    • Yeah, that thought had occurred to me too. It’s a ‘meme’ that’s spreading. President Xi Jinping has done away with mandatory terms in China. As for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, he seems to have done away with the rule of law… 😦

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                    • Yes, and let us not forget Erdogan who has given himself additional power under the guise of ‘national security’ and is now calling for a special election to re-elect himself in June. Half his opponents are in jail, so he is pretty much a shoe-in.

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                    • Gah…I’d forgotten about /hiim/. It’s as if we’re reliving the Rise of the Dictators. 😦
                      I know there was never a movie with that title but there should have been, to warn us of the danger. 😦

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                    • Sigh. Perhaps we are meant to write that story … funny, I remember hearing my grandmother say many times, “What is the world coming to?” And I look back and wonder what she would say about the world today, if she thought it was bad in the 1950s.

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                    • lmao – would you believe the Offspring already feels nostalgia for the 90s? I kind of hanker for the 70s. That was the last time we, the people last felt moral outrage and did something about it. Things are bad, yes, but I’m seeing more and more good people standing up to be counted. That gives me hope.

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                    • Yes, my daughter waxes nostalgic for the ’80s. Personally, I think I’d like to go back to the latter part of the 18th century, when the Constitution was being drafted and perhaps I could have been a part … oh no … wait … women were still 2nd class citizens then and couldn’t even vote. Scratch that. 😀

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                    • LMAO! Yes, every time I think of an earlier era of history, that’s the same thing that brings me up short. For all its faults, the 20th century ushered in LOT of equality. We should never be complacent but, sometimes it’s good to remember that we have made progress.

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                    • Yeah. But I have to ask … do you really think that day will ever come about? I used to believe it would, but the more I look around, the more I look back at history, the less hope I hold out. We don’t learn … we just don’t learn. 😥

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                    • Honestly? No. You see it everywhere: self-regulation doesn’t work. The only way I see is for some global AI to take over and become the unbiased arbiter that the UN and all our governments have failed to be.
                      I know a lot of people would see that as a dystopia, but I figure if something is going to stop the world from being blown up or ground into dust, that’s good enough for me.

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                    • Hmmm … I’m not sure I would think of it as dystopian, but … not something I can envision. You are the sci-fi writer, while I have the mind of a pragmatist. Some days I think perhaps mankind is a failed experiment and should extinct himself and start over. :/

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                    • No! Beethoven. Chopin. Puccini. Two Steps From Hell. Jo Blankenburg. Shakespeare, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. LeGuin, Nelson Mandela….
                      We have a bad-egg gene that rears its ugly head every so often, but we can create magic too. 🙂

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                    • Okay … okay!!!! You’ve convinced me!!! I will never say it again! 😀

                      But I have to share this one with you. Remember the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. I just read tonight his latest conspiracy theory, and in light of what you said about AI … I had so share:

                      “Jones was speaking with a guest on his show when he declared that we are living in an “information apocalypse” where global elites “want to keep you in-the-moment confused.” Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he claimed that Trump is working with a group of people to defeat an automated intelligence computer program set on destroying humanity.” 👽

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                    • He…what? -giggles- And here I thought I was the sci-fi tragic. Do you suppose he’s laying the foundations for a plea of insanity/diminished responsibility for when the shyte hits the fan?

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  8. A day of reckoning is due for all of the con-men (and women) who have enriched themselves by destroying the lives and reputations of decent people. My dad said, “Your rights end where my nose begins.” This is a mature understanding that there are limits to everything, and rights come with responsibilities.

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    • Agreed. This is one instance where I believe there need to be limits on the right to free speech. I’m with your dad on that one … I’ve used that expression myself.

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  9. Jill, at the heart of what he does, he is a con artist. He has a very lengthy show where he sells heavily marked up good to survivalists who lap up his show. He has taken Steve Bannon’s institutions are the enemy schtick and made it conspiratorial. The fact that he winds up and releases his hounds on people to carry out cyber stalking and worse is very detrimental to our country. These Sandy Hook families are vilified by Jones and his followers as payment for having to bury their murdered children. With Trump endorsing him, that shows he does not have veracity behind his claims. Keith

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    • That is exactly what he is … a con artist. A snake-oil salesman. He knows full well that everything he says is a lie, but heck, he’s making money hand over fist, obviously. How long, I wonder, before he causes somebody to be killed?

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  10. While I can say, “I never watch him”? I have enough to know, I do not wish to listen to his tirades. Yet he makes some interesting points and on one, that I believe there is sufficient proofs. Is that Sandy Hook was a sick Psy-Op.

    His real name is something else, I’ve read.? Being a shock-jock is kinda hard sometimes? Another reason for paying him little heed.

    Yet always, I’ve noticed, they contain nuggets of what otherwise are interesting material. Did you catch the one about Bohemian Grove? Cheers Jamie

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    • No, Jamie … just … no … not this time.. Children died, parents are grieving and cannot find peace because of this nutcase and his so-called theories. There was no conspiracy theory, only a young man messed up in the head.

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  11. He should have lawsuits from the parent of every child there as well as the partners and parents f the staff that died. It would be easy to whittle his millions down though I guess he carries insurance against being sued. At least his premiums could be made to go through the roof.
    Cwtch

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, I was actually surprised that it took 5 years for any to file suit against him. I think the parents just wanted him to go away and shut up, rather than become a public spectacle. But, as we see, he didn’t shut up, not even after 5 years. YouTube has come close to banning him a couple of times … perhaps if he causes more strife for these parents, they finally will. He also has a few other lawsuits pending right now, and pays $40,000 a month to his ex-wife.
      Cwtch

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