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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

#171

Post by MisterBastahrd »

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.

Imagine your child being murdered, and then a guy comes along and starts making a profit on the idea that you are a crisis actor and your child never existed, and he doesn't stop even when the crazy people who listen to him start to stalk you.

Most people would probably say that this sort of behavior should not be only not be tolerated by a civil society, but that there should be penalties for it. You, on the other hand, have decided that being sued for libel is a totalitarian death wish.

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

#172

Post by tptacek »

norwalkbear wrote: post #153

Does he even have the money to pay nearly a billion dollars? Or is the point to bankrupt him with what seems like lawfare? America is not a place where people like being told to be quiet. Alex Jones went mainstream on the Joe Rogan show. Millions and millions of Rogan fans see Alex Jones are legitimized by this ruling. Joe Rogan has the biggest podcast in the world. Just some things to think about. Unintended consequ…

Those consequences being what, more people defaming the parents of dead children and losing their fortunes as a result? I don't think Rogan is dumb enough to make that particular mistake.

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

#173

Post by samstave »

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#174

Post by wara23arish »

techsupporter wrote: post #123
wara23arish wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

shouldn’t the harassers be tried ?

Some of them have been (for example: https://www.mcall.com/hc-sandy-hook-denier-harrassment-0225-... ) but the main problem is that it is, as most of us posting here know, difficult to track down the individuals directly performing the harassment. Alex Jones is directly inciting people to go harass the plaintiffs so he bears liability for his actions.

did he really say go harass these people or did he just say they’re crisis actors and its hoax?

Im genuinely asking because i don’t understand how this works.

I was under the impression that saying “Trump is a murderous liar” is fine, if I say “Go kill trump”etc then thats incitement.

Does that make sense?

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

#175

Post by Cyberdog »

gnopgnip wrote: post #86
serioussecurity wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Punitive damages were a large fraction of the award.

The $965m is entirely economic damages. Punitive damages will be added later

If that's true, I'd love to see how exactly they calculated that.

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

#176

Post by donatj »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #147
donatj wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> a deliberate attempt to provoke harassment of these poor people

That seems superbly unlikely. If that were true, what would he stand to gain from that? What did he have against these people?

I can't imagine he was just sitting there chuckling maniacally "yes yes I'm going to hurt these people who just lost their children". That's an imagined cartoon

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

#177

Post by wahern »

dexwiz wrote: post #21
Arrath wrote: post #3

While nothing can bring back their children, siblings, or classmates, one hopes (but doesn't expect) that this will help consign a particularly vile and repugnant conspiracy theory to the dustbin of polite discourse.

Doubt. The people who believe this kind of stuff will just say it's the deep state trying to cover up their conspiracy or some equally asinine garbage. They have a persecution fetish, and any sort of punishment will just cause them to double down.

Such public accounting does seem to have value in reducing the number of people (present and future) not yet committed to his cult, but who otherwise might. And while there'll be more Alex Jones personalities, for a little while at least they'll likely moderate their behavior more than they otherwise might.

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

#178

Post by nilespotter »

tptacek wrote: post #67
miked85 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

The framers of the First Amendment understood and accepted the tort of defamation.

Yes indeed. They would have been very pleased with someone being charged 1 billion dollars for saying that a single event didn't happen. Clearly they would have agreed that Jones is liable for the actions of his viewers. It's all right there in the founding documents.

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

#180

Post by jjulius »

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.

>Say the wrong words and get financially destroyed for ever...

This is an incredibly disingenuous take on Jones' actions here.

Edit: For additional context, OP has a history of direct ties to conspiracy theories, Project Veritas, etc.. See: their profile.

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