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Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

bbc.com

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Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#111

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

dominotw wrote: post #107
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that there are a ton implies that at some point one of them will luck their way into success.

does 'alcohol-fueling' increase one's chances though. otherwise it would be like saying ' he is not a genius, he is just fat' , which doesn't really make sense.

I don't think it increases the chances, but it also doesn't decrease them enough so as to make the eventual ascendancy of one of the many impossible. It's an argument that he's not specially gifted, just lucky.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#112

Post by pwinnski »

pibechorro wrote: post #20
dawnerd wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That per day figure is misleading since it was a particularly good couple of days. But yeah he still made tons of money over the years at the families’ expense.

Over years? Nah. He covered it, fracked up, took it back and moved on. Its the trial tha keeps it in the spotlight.

As revealed in the trial(s), that's not true. He continuously promoted that false story for many years, even after he first started running into legal trouble as a result.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#113

Post by pwinnski »

akudha wrote: post #5
lalaland1125 wrote: post #2

That's probably still a net profit for Alex Jones. According to the documents discussed in court he makes $800,000 a day from his show. If anything, he probably made more covering his own trial than what the trial cost.

Jeez! 800k per day. That is obscene, for a charlatan. How much of this is profit I wonder. 4M is chump change for someone making THAT much money. Plus, who knows how much money his nut job supporters are donating to him.

As outlined in the trial, that was 800k/day during a specific week, he claimed that was the highest ever figure.

He had previously claimed that profit was 20% of that, when pushed he said 20-40%, but documents suggest it's more like 70%.

Still, that $800k/day was for a week, it can't be extrapolated over the whole year.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#114

Post by MisterBastahrd »

vlovich123 wrote: post #77
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect that judges sorta know that people who are being sued or prosecuted are not exactly going to be reliable witnesses if they testify, and that it'd probably be a bigger deal if this were one of Jones' associates who wasn't on the hook for the money. There's also plenty of time for the judge to dial up some perjury referrals.

I could be wrong but my understanding is that technically lawyers are liable if they put someone on the stand they know is going to lie. I’m surprised that isn’t enforced more often.

Defendants in any proceeding have the right to not self-incriminate. It's not the judge's responsibility to do the job for a lawyer that a defendant hires. Once they hit that witness stand, they're fair game.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#115

Post by AnimalMuppet »

drexlspivey wrote: post #10
Loughla wrote: post #4

So all the memes aside, is anyone else astounded at how poorly that went for Alex Jones? Just a shit-show nearly the entire time. From his terrible legal representation, to his own terrible testimony. Just a mess. I mean, his 'on-air' personality is a mess, but I always sort of thought it was just a show. It's interesting to me that it turned out he really is just an absolute train-wreck of a person.

I am astounded how someone can sit on the stand and spew lie after lie after lie under oath with no repercussions.

Why do you assume that there were no repercussions?

The jury got to see that he was a liar. Do you think that played no part in their decision? Do you think it will play no part in their decision on punitive damages?

Or did you mean something more like prison? The provable perjury happened, what, two days ago? Indictments like that don't happen overnight, but I hope (and maybe even trust) that it is in fact coming.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#116

Post by dang »

faangiq wrote: post #80
titzer wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great line.

Quoted post unavailable.

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments? You've been doing it a lot, unfortunately, and it's not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#117

Post by jokethrowaway »

hotpotamus wrote: post #42
horsawlarway wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly - this is where I am. The system falls apart if it can't enforce its own rules, and if we don't see some serious perjury charges here, I think it's a very bad sign. The message will no longer be: It's unacceptable to cheat and lie to win. It will be: Cheat and lie better. -- edit: I'd like to see at least two felony perjury charges against Jones. Ideally with max sentences.

I always wonder what truly unlimited free speech would mean. How is it possible that perjury would be a crime? Fraud - just free speech right? And if money is speech, then corruption is just free speech as well. It doesn't really feel like it breaks the system down, it's more like does/did the system even exist?

None of the things you mentioned are free speech.

The crime is deceiving through lies and fraud (or bribes), speech is just the tool used to achieve that.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#119

Post by frellus »

I watched the entire trial. I couldn't turn it off, tt was so enlightening to watch the legal proceedings, and I learned a lot.

My opinion: to be fair, (not defending Alex Jones at all), the plaintiff's lawyers did not enumerate the actual damages these poor people suffered, nor did they tie them directly to what InfoWars or Alex Jones said (i.e. he never used their names).

Although I condem the things he said, if I were on the jury I would have had a hard time assigning a monetary value to something which isn't clear defamation to me.

To be fair, the things he said were beyond horrible, but the case and the behavior of all representatives and the judge should be shown in law school classrooms as a reference to "don't EVER do this".

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#120

Post by frellus »

Loughla wrote: post #4

So all the memes aside, is anyone else astounded at how poorly that went for Alex Jones? Just a shit-show nearly the entire time. From his terrible legal representation, to his own terrible testimony. Just a mess. I mean, his 'on-air' personality is a mess, but I always sort of thought it was just a show. It's interesting to me that it turned out he really is just an absolute train-wreck of a person.

I think his lawyer was intentionally bagging him. I can't imagine anyone is that bad at their job in not prepping their client for trial, in turning over documents they shouldn't have, in not following up.
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