Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion • Hacker News Board

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#791

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 9:53 PM UTC

dukeofdoom wrote: post #745

ceejayoz wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is like getting accused of murder, and the judge finding you guilty because you didn't produce knife during discovery, the prosecution said you had. Just absurd. To extend the analogy, it helps if you don't subsequently mail the knife you said you didn't have to the prosecution. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alex-jones-lawyers-acci... > Then skipping ahead to the sentencing, and the judge telling your l…

Here's the clip of the testimony at the key moment in the trial. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DMbGhAU77ns?feature=share 1. The phone records are from the last 2 years. So not during the time frame of the actual broadcasts about Sandy Hook happened ( which happened way earlier...) 2. He gave the phone records to his lawyer, which goes against claims of him not co-operating. His lawyers would determine which messages…

> The prosecution also acted unethically by not informing the defence that they received protected communications, they weren't entitled to.

This is a flat-out lie.

https://www.nextpoint.com/ediscovery-blog/alex-jones-ediscov...

"For example, why didn’t Mr. Jones’ attorney take advantage of the 'snap-back' provision in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure (Rule 193.3) and assert a privilege on the text messages within the 10-day prescribed period? We know from court filings that Plaintiff’s counsel (Mark Bankston) sent an email to Mr. Jones’ attorney (Federico Reynal) shortly before midnight on July 22, 2022 stating, 'My assumption is now that you did not intend to send us this? Let me know if I am correct.'"

"All Mr. Reynal had to do was 'identify the material or information produced and state the privilege asserted,' and Mr. Bankston would be required to 'promptly return the specified material or information' and would be prohibited from using it in court."

(Of note: Jones' attorney faced, but dodged sanctions over this. https://www.law.com/ctlawtribune/2023/01/20/alex-jones-texas...)

> Also, just because he mentioned Sandy Hook in a text message with his lawyers, or privately, doesn't mean the prosecution is automatically entitled to it.

Your own clip shows he lied under oath, stating he personally searched the phone for "Sandy Hook" and got zero results.

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#792

Post by throw16180339 » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 9:54 PM UTC

cogman10 wrote: post #692

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> auction failed to maximize the amount of money I don't run auctions but something tells me there's a lot of research behind them that goes into optimizing for this precise thing. It's wild that the judge is disregarding the expertise of the person who was appointed by another judge to run the auction without asserting that the person is not qualified to run it.

It is quite wild and frankly just shocking. The hearings in the last 2 days seemed to have Lopez agreeing with the creditors and not Jone's FUAC. Yet, somewhat seemingly out of the blue, he decided to deny the sale. What's even more crazy about this ruling is he's told the trustee to come up with an alternative solution, that doesn't involve a new auction... But like no other guidance. That leaves the Trustee in a we…

Judge Lopez was appointed by Trump, so I'd assume that he's acting under instructions. Why would Trump have appointed a judge who wouldn't do favors for him?

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#793

Post by llamaimperative » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 9:55 PM UTC

selfmodruntime wrote: post #400

preciousoo wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about in a case where libel was relentlessly thrown at families over the course of years, on one of the internets largest and most engaged audiences, leading to harassment, threats, and assault? What should the judgment be for that?

This is a "millions of dollars" lawsuit. Not a 10 billion dollar lawsuit. Alex Jones owes what Reddit as a platform is worth. That is insane.

Good reason to listen to courts the first time!

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#794

Post by pyrale » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 9:59 PM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #773

jazzyjackson wrote: post #715

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No but honestly who has any use for the Infowars brand besides Alex Jones and the Onion? What would anyone do with it to get a return on their investment?

I don't really know, but Elon Musk has been known to buy media companies that don't give him a good ROI, and he was making noise about putting a bid together on this one.

> and he was making noise about putting a bid together on this one.

The list of things Musk makes noise about but does not do gets a little longer.

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#795

Post by capybaraStorm » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 10:04 PM UTC

mountainriver wrote: post #250

logicchains wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Wow go read the stories of the parents who dealt with this and think about who you are defending

Whether their stories about what they dealt with are true or not, they have incredible incentive to make sure they present such dealings as worth a billion dollars. You can't put a price on human life, but if you could surely those children are worth a billion and more, so they just took the money from Jones (the nearest lying person they hated) instead of the broke murderer.

Bernhard Gaetz famously said (accurately) the victims family never got a dime from him after the lawsuit. It's quite likely similar will be said from Jones, although they can take the scraps of Infowars which is worth very little without their star loon. They are grasping at straws while being yanked around by attorneys, while the brutal truth is the real enemy that murdered their children is in a grave and they will never be able to truly dish out justice to him while they flail around looking for it elsewhere.

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#796

Post by tz18 » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 10:05 PM UTC

WhatsTheBigIdea wrote: post #740

NoGravitas wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the legal pretext, which appears about 2/3 of the way through the article: > Judge Lopez said that the bankruptcy auction failed to maximize the amount of money that the sale of Infowars should provide to Mr. Jones’s creditors, including the Sandy Hook families, in part because the bids were submitted in secret.

[dead]

This is almost entirely wrong in all respects. You can review the first chapter of "Mechanism Design and Approximation" for a good introduction to auction design. https://jasonhartline.com/MDnA/

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#797

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 10:08 PM UTC

shakna wrote: post #131

n144q wrote: post #93

[flagged]

The deal wasn't shaky. It was an auction where there were only two potential buyers who actually rocked up. It wasn't secret, it was public. It was issued by a court, including a process where bidders had to submit offers before a deadline. [0] ThreeSixty Asset Advisors ran the process. As they often do. Tranzon Asset Advisors assisted, as they often do. There were confidentiality agreements and sealed bids... But th…

[deleted]

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#798

Post by tz18 » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 10:13 PM UTC

RobotToaster wrote: post #784

WhatsTheBigIdea wrote: post #740

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[dead]

> The Sealed-Bid auction should generate a price that is greater than or equal to the English Open Cry in all situations. Do you have a source for this? I find it hard to believe standard "English" auctions would be so popular if it was true.

Parent commenter's description of the difference between an ascending bid auction and a second price auction (or Vickrey auction) is very confused. You can review the first chapter of "Mechanism Design and Approximation" for an introduction to auctions and proofs of the optimality of different auctions for different goals (e.g. the second price auction is proven to maximize social surplus): https://jasonhartline.com/MDnA/

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#799

Post by wyldfire » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 10:16 PM UTC

akira2501 wrote: post #669

wyldfire wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is dangerously close to making the penalty the loss of his first amendment rights. They'll never be able to stop him from creating "The Alex Jones Off the Deep End Show" where he thrills listeners with zany tales of conspiracies that can only be held at bay with these brand new supplements. He just has to forfeit Infowars and its assets.

> They'll never be able to stop him from creating "The Alex Jones Off the Deep End Show" where he thrills listeners with zany tales of conspiracies that can only be held at bay with these brand new supplements So you're unable to think about this problem without putting your bias at the forefront? > He just has to forfeit Infowars and its assets. Actually, with this ruling, he does not. Roger Stone's group will get a…

> So you're unable to think about this problem without putting your bias at the forefront?

He is a conspiracy theorist, this is his thing. And he sells supplements on his show. Those are facts, right? I suppose my bias only shows with the characterization of "zany tales"? But IMO it's not even a stretch, this guy seems really quite off base.

> Why is forfeiture of his platform a necessity in your eyes?

I mean, it's not. But he has assets and liabilities, right? Right now his liabilities vastly outweigh his assets. So it's unjust to deny his creditors access to his assets. He can keep his house and a car, I guess. Or whatever is normal/typical assets to be preserved in bankruptcy. But his interest in Infowars is not an inalienable right.

He has free speech, freer speech than any generation before him. He could broadcast a new show from his personal cell phone and it would be dynamite production value compared to AM radio shows that have been used in decades past (and still used today). He can even resume saying things about Sandy Hook victims that he walked back during the trial. He just risks new liabilities if he does that.

Re: Bankruptcy judge rejects sale of Infowars to The Onion

#800

Post by pyrale » Wed, Dec 11, 2024, 10:17 PM UTC

shkkmo wrote: post #717

jasonlotito wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is probably the correct decision. It is 100% not. It makes fewer creditors whole. Simple as that. It's worse for all creditors involved, as per the creditors. Any suggestion that this is "correct" or better is out of ignorance or deceit. > The other creditors are far better off getting more cash The nature of the original deal guaranteed the other creditors got more money than they would from the other offer b…

It's correct if there's a new, open auction that does even better than the current Onion offer.

...But then, why not cancel that new auction too, in hopes that a third auction will yield even more?