Alex Jones Deserves To Spend The Rest Of His Life In Misery
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Because Alex Jones repeatedly claimed that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that took the lives of 20 children was “staged,” Scarlett Lewis not only had to grieve the loss of her 6-year-old son, Jesse, she also had to contend with harassment from people who believed her child’s death was faked.
On the day of the massacre, Jones claimed on his Infowars platform: “Don’t ever think this couldn’t be staged.”
Let Jones tell it at the time, the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax concocted by the government to go after guns. When Lewis testified at the defamation trial she and other parents filed against Jones, she reportedly looked directly in his eyes and said: “I wanted to tell you to your face. ... I am a mother, first and foremost, and I know you’re a father. And my son existed.”
Lewis told Jones, a man who has long trafficked in conspiracy theories for money: “I know you know that, and that’s the problem.”
That sentiment alone best explains how a suit that sought at least $150 million in damages resulted in the jury rewarding Jones’ plaintiffs $1.5 billion. How much money the families really get is up for debate. Jones is said to have only $9 million in assets, so there will only be so much for them to collect.
Moreover, because there was a separate suit filed by a different set of families that was also awarded damages, there will be more legal wrangling before any money is ever dispensed. Last week, a bankruptcy judge ruled Alex Jones does not yet have to turn over the Infowars bank accounts to the Sandy Hook families he owes millions.
What’s been described in The New York Times as an “increasingly acrimonious battle between two groups of Sandy Hook families” has, to Jones’ delight, delayed the shuttering of Infowars. The judge in that case, Christopher Lopez, said in a hearing, “The last thing I want to do is start hashing out another dispute about two sets of families that have been through enough already.”
But nevertheless — and sooner rather than later — the plan to liquidate Infowars will go through.
Jones is correct that he has a First Amendment right to lie and bullshit to the masses as much as he pleases. He is not obligated to be kind to anyone either — even the grieving parents of gunned-down children. But he did not have to lie about the victims for content and ruin the lives of their surviving family members further by placing a target on their backs.
And, like Lewis said, he did this all for money.
Alex Jones could have lied about anything else going through the news cycle at the time. He could have continued to tell stories about the One World Order or some other nugget from the deep-state genre of storytelling. Instead, he decided to go with questioning the massacre of children on behalf of the gun industry — as if it needs any further protection.
I could exercise my First Amendment right to express just how little I think of Alex Jones as a person and what other consequences he deserves, but I am exercising restraint.
It’s not as hard as some make it seem.
I’m not a big proponent of suing people, especially for things that they say. I did not like someone threatening to sue me for writing my opinion based on reporting from a news publication. In the case of Alex Jones, however, all I can say is: What took so long?
Alex Jones will be fine enough. It won’t be the end for him. One assumes he can set up another site and sell people more nonsense under a new name with a side of dietary supplements, survival gear and additional merch.
In the meantime, he deserves to be made an example of and pay for his lies.
Defamation is not ideological, but the conservative media ecosystem is known to be hospitable to conspiracy theories — many of which directly involve ordinary people, like poll workers or the parents of slain children.
When the likes of Alex Jones or Rudy Giuliani tell fake stories about real people, they expose them to threats and harassment. I wish legislators would step up (particularly about all the platforms that allow some of Alex Jones’ conspiracy colleagues to lie for money), but so far, the legal system has been their only recourse.
So, if they have to sue these right-wing liars into submission, so be it.
