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?
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Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
141–150 of 787 posts
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#142Quoted 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.
> encouraging this harassment
Did he actually encourage people to harass them? I haven't heard anything of that, because that changes the story if true.
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#143Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#144His lies encouraged harassment and death threats. Did they ever fine / jail those doing the harassment and death threats?
It's unlikely any of them will be sued civilly, as Jones was, because they for the most part weren't running successful businesses that profited by deliberately defaming the parents of shooting victims.
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#145No post body was provided.
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#146This is more than the amount that people that lied about WDM's in the middle East were ever fined with. Consider they killed millions. Please know that I am not siding with Jones but this is ludicrous.
It does seem based far less on his actions than on their personal opinion of him. That ought to make everybody nervous.
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I don't think holding a person accountable for another person's irrational behaviour is reasonable though. If you tell me "it's going to rain" and I take that as a call to attack people with umbrellas, is that your fault?
But that's not at all what happened. Jones lied in a deliberate attempt to provoke harassment of these poor people. If owned a radio show and I go on and said you were a child rapist and should be stopped by any means necessary would you believe me faultless if you got attacked?
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I am explicitly not siding with Alex Jones in any way.
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
He may not pay that amount, but he will spend the rest of his life bankrupt or spending most of his energy avoiding judgement, which is a not unreasonable fate for people who make a living lying, cheating, and stealing.
Unless his primary residence is in Florida which the homestead act prevents the courts taking. He could then shift all his funds to Crypto and use Crypto ATMs that don't require KYC to withdraw a few thousand (per wallet) at a time. OJ is a prime example of how a truly wealthy individual can prevent the bulk of the wealth being taken from a court order.
Well OJ at least lost the rights to his book and had it renamed something like “I did it”
Re: Alex Jones told to pay $965M damages to Sandy Hook victims' families
#150This 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…
The key here will be if they can attach any of his assets despite his pleas of poverty and filing for bankruptcy. The victims may end up owning the studio he is currently broadcasting from (and his cars, home and anything else of value).