🇺🇸 Jones’ Phone

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Jones’ Phone

Yesterday popular right-wing media personality and provocateur Alex Jones was ordered to pay upwards of $4 million for defamation in connection to comments he'd made concerning the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre. In the past, the Infowars owner and host described the events as a “false flag” but now says he was suffering from a form of psychosis.

News Coverage from the Right: Infowars star Alex Jones' parent company files for bankruptcy amid Sandy Hook $150M defamation trial in Texas (Fox News)

News Coverage from the Left: Alex Jones concedes that the Sandy Hook attack was '100% real' (NPR)

From The Flag: Earlier this week a highly dramatic moment unfolded when Jones found out a digital copy of his cell phone had been shared with opposing counsel, including all his text messages — seemingly by mistake. Here’s more from both sides.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Conservatives’ Conspiratorial Pied Piper Faces a Reckoning

• Alex Jones has made a career out of promoting falsehoods and escaping culpability, but in the courtroom he can’t hide from the truth.

• It would be a measure of justice if Jones loses his company as a result of his lies and the potential damages he’ll be forced to pay.

• The truly frightening aspect of the Jones case is that many Republicans have embraced conspiratorial thinking.

“Alex Jones Can’t Pretend His Way Out of This Reality” Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic: “It’s unclear still whether Jones will face true, career-altering consequences for his Sandy Hook lies. But whatever the damages rendered, the process has offered us a glimpse at the truth. The best way to understand Alex Jones is to put him inside the legal system, even if he opts to lie under oath. … Judge Gamble repeatedly scolded the conspiracist for his petulant behavior, while reminding him of the grave nature of his legal situation. … Only moments after her remarks, he confronted a Sandy Hook parent across the courtroom aisle. Seconds later, he yelled at the opposing lawyer about feeding the jury fake, doctored videos (they weren’t). It’s grotesque behavior, but, in the legal setting, it’s instructive. Jones has spent his entire life believing the rules don’t apply to him. For decades, he’s managed to build a fantasy world where that’s true. It’s only in a courtroom that the gravity of real-world consequences seems to apply.”

“Alex Jones’s Lies Blow Up in His Face in Explosive Sandy Hook Trial” Bess Levin, Vanity Fair: “If there’s justice in the world, Alex Jones, the infamous conspiracy theorist on trial for the unconscionable, disgusting lies he spread that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, and that the children and teachers who lost their lives that day weren’t actually killed, will have to pay the full $150 million the families suing him for defamation have asked for. Further justice would be for him to never again have a platform from which to spew his outrageous, indefensible lies, and total justice would be for him to be completely shunned by society and for a witch to take his voice away so no one ever has to hear from him again. … Jones claimed that any financial penalty over $2 million would destroy his company. Which, true or not, would seem to be a fully appropriate punishment.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: The scariest part of the Alex Jones story Nicole Hemmer, CNN Opinion

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Jones Deserves What’s Coming to Him, But Others Aren’t Blameless

• While Jones is a ghoul for promoting baseless conspiracy theories involving children who were murdered, social media companies share blame for not cracking down on his lies.

• In one of the most shocking moments in the history of televised trials, Jones learned all of his text messages were shared with opposing counsel.

• Across social media, a number of prominent right-wing pundits warned this trial could lead to other conservatives being silenced.

“​​Alex Jones lawsuit must be coupled with social media reform” Editorial Board, Dallas Morning News: “We are glad to see the consequences for the devastating lies that conspiracist Alex Jones promoted about the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre begin to materialize this week in an Austin, Texas, courtroom. But as much as Jones is the culprit for the defamation campaign that painted the families who lost children as liars or actors, and that caused at least one family to move a dozen times after being doxxed and threatened, so too are the social media companies that allowed this false narrative to catch fire on their platforms. When users on these websites make baseless, incendiary and defamatory claims in the way Jones did — describing the murder of children as a government plot and saying families faked their own children’s deaths — it can create echo chambers in comment sections or topical pages that suck in casual scrollers. Algorithms often facilitate and even boost this material. For their role in this, social media giants enjoy near total immunity from any liability.”

“Did Alex Jones's lawyers accidentally share all of his texts with opposing counsel?” Allahpundit, Hot Air: “Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was murdered, reminded Jones in court yesterday, ‘You’re still on your show today trying to say that I’m, implying that I’m an actress’ … Imagine having to confront an amoral goblin who monetized your child’s death by pretending it didn’t really happen and grasping for a way to shame him. ‘My son existed,’ an exasperated Lewis told Jones. ‘I am a real mom.’ … I’m not a litigator but I can’t imagine the circumstances in which a lawyer would deliberately turn over every electronic communication a client has had for years instead of just the ones pertinent to the case. After all, there are other parties who are keen to know what’s in those communications. … He’s also been bragging on his show about the financial techniques he’s using to try to shield his assets from the parents in case he loses.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Conservatives Warn Alex Jones Show Trial Sets Precedent For Silencing Dissent Against Establishment Jamie White, Infowars

FLAG THIS

The Info on Alex

In 2018 when Alex Jones was banned from several social media sites, a poll asked Americans if they agreed. The survey showed 61% thought banning Jones was the right move, while 39% disagreed (Harvard CAPS/Harris).

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