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Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#101

Post by Zigurd »

donatj wrote: post #70

Quoted post unavailable.

Alex Jones did a lot more than that. His defaming the families of dead kids resulted in his followers and supporters harassing those people. The harassers need to be held civilly and criminally liable, too. But Jones persisted over years in encouraging this harassment.

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#102

Post by Taniwha »

saltminer wrote: post #23

As someone who's been closely following the Infowars/Free Speech Systems trials (watched all the depos, trial footage, etc.), all I can say is that I'm glad these families are finally getting justice. Even though I'm sure it'll be tied up in appeals for awhile (and reduced on appeal), hopefully it'll prevent future harassment campaigns against families when tragedies occur. And before anyone says "but why wasn't Jone…

People keep saying "it couldn't happen to a nicer person" when it literally wouldn't happen to a nicer person

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#103

Post by dfcowell »

donatj wrote: post #70

Quoted post unavailable.

Jones has a rabid following who engaged in a campaign of stalking and harassment - including death threats and harassment by mail to their homes - against the plaintiffs. It went quite a bit beyond one guy saying some mean things.

I think you’d probably find that harder to shrug off.

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#105

Post by M2Ys4U »

lurquer wrote: post #40
sterlind wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jones stated that the Sandy Hook victims were crisis actors. he knew that to be false. it was an egregious case of defamation. knowingly spreading lies that damage someone's reputation is called slander, and it's not protected by the first amendment. neither is shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, or committing perjury, or falsifying your income taxes.

So their reputation was worth a billion? Wow. That’s quite a reputation.

They have been repeatedly and viciously harassed by those who believed Jones' lies. So, yeah, besmirching their reputation is worth a billion.

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#106

Post by rocky_raccoon »

zackees wrote: post #24
ivraatiems wrote: post #4

This is great news, but we should temper our expectations: It's likely that Jones will appeal and keep this tied up for years before he has to pay anything. Even if he is eventually obligated to pay some amount, it is unlikely to be what the jury just decided. And even if it is what the jury just decided, Jones' company is already "bankrupt" (yet still on the air) and he will almost certainly avoid liability through…

Quoted post unavailable.

Yes, in a world of hyperbole you may be correct. In this case, you're taking a very nuanced situation to an extreme and throwing out ALL of the important details in the process. I trust you are an intelligent person and you're able to see this case for what it is, not for what potential "GOTCHA" counter arguments you can filter through it.

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#107

Post by AlexandrB »

TigeriusKirk wrote: post #44
Overtonwindow wrote: post #10

I think that is grossly excessive.

Despite my strong belief that he be strongly punished for his lies, I agree with you. It's so over the top that it discredits the whole process for me.

I think you should look at the theatrics Alex engaged in during the trial as well as his repeated failure to provide documents during discovery. He was arguably incompetently represented[1] (Infowars is probably going to sue their lawyer[2]) while treating the trial(s) as both a joke or a conspiracy against him. With that kind of behaviour, I'm not sure what kind of outcome he expected - him and his legal team failed to mount a serious defence of his actions.

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alex-jones-lawyers-acci...

[2] https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/alex-jones-turning-own-lawyers-0...

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#108

Post by peter422 »

zackees wrote: post #24
ivraatiems wrote: post #4

This is great news, but we should temper our expectations: It's likely that Jones will appeal and keep this tied up for years before he has to pay anything. Even if he is eventually obligated to pay some amount, it is unlikely to be what the jury just decided. And even if it is what the jury just decided, Jones' company is already "bankrupt" (yet still on the air) and he will almost certainly avoid liability through…

Quoted post unavailable.

What society has ever had unfettered right to free speech without any consequences for what you say?

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#109

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

donatj wrote: post #70

Quoted post unavailable.

In this case there is demonstrable harm here. The Sandyhook parents have had their lives threatened and confronted by strangers both on the street and in their home due to Jone's words - the problem is there were a lot of unreasonable people who very much believed Jones and while you claim you would, you wouldn't just shrug this off. His accusations made their lives unsafe by sullying their reputation with irrational people.

Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families

#110

Post by tootie »

probably_wrong wrote: post #62
belval wrote: post #5

So how were the damage calculated? I get that this guy is a nutjob but how can saying something is a hoax get you a 1B fine?

One of the lawyers made in the previous case what I consider an interesting argument: Alex Jones claimed under oath that his show reaches (off the top of my head) about a hundred million people. So the lawyer argued that Alex Jones should pay $1 for every person who heard him lie about Sandy Hook. By this measure, if I intentionally harass someone on Twitter I'd have to pay the victim about $50 (on a good day). Since…

It's hard to fathom how much damage he did. What he said is the absolute pit of human depravity. I know a jury isn't really empowered to "send a message" but I hope they did it. Alex Jones is absolute stain on humanity and should be destroyed (financially and reputationally, not physically). I think paying back the families who lost children is the most important step, but the entire country deserves punitive damages for what he did. I wouldn't want them to get paid directly, I'd think they should spend something to deprogram all the people who believed his lies.
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