He got off easy considering he was profiting by ruining these people's lives
Quoted post unavailable.
Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
221–230 of 360 posts
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#222Actually, no, the jury verdict on punitive damages is $45.2 million, but that is certain to be reduced before Jones is ordered to pay (there seems to be some dispute over whether a portion of the compensatory damages award is economic or not, and depending on the answer on that, the cap under Texas statutory punitive damages caps would seem to be somewhere between $750k and $1m; even if the plaintiffs succeed in thei…
Sure, the judge gets final say but they rarely change these things unless the jury awards something ridiculous like a billion dollars for a broken bone.
> Sure, the judge gets final say but they rarely change these things unless the jury awards something ridiculous like a billion dollars for a broken bone.
Or, say, if the jury orders $45 million in punitive damages when $0 of the compensatory damages were economic, and there is a statutory limit (that the jury is by law not informed of before deliberating) on punitive damages of $750,000 plus double the economic damages.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is posting an image part of your free speech? Absolutely yes. Then let's see, when was the last time you were exposed to a child pornography image? Hopefully never (though we do have this whole pornhub drama going on). It is obvious that there are ways of controlling speech and we do it all the time. I think only Americans believe in this absolute negative liberty view of speech.
> I think only Americans believe in this absolute negative liberty view of speech. That's a wonderful compliment.
I see it more as hubris then something beneficial. Any society that allows a man like Alex Jones to peddle what he peddles with just a light financial slap on the wrist isn’t a society I consider to be healthy or going in the right direction, even on principle. It creates a dog eat dog world and it doesn’t have to be that way.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you divide it by 20 before multiplying by 365, which is a charitable read to say the least, it would still be an insane amount of money.
Is 20x charitable? For many highly political topics attention varies wildly between times when it is topical and when it is not. And further, some big contributors may contribute zero on most days, and contribute huge sums on one day. Many political fundraisers bring in large fractions of their income on only during a few key days or events.
Yeah it's definitely charitable because they are constantly selling products to their audience throughout the year.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#225Quoted post unavailable.
For what it's worth, Jones did have to spend several years consistently abusing the discovery process (across multiple cases before this same judge) before it got to this point. It's not like he made one or two innocent mistakes and got slammed down for it. It escalated through a whole bunch of different penalties that didn't fix the misbehavior before this default judgement happened.
If you're curious you can read the court order: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21074211-alex-jones-...
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#226The Trial can be found here, if anyone wants to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hEYdiY_yGA&list=PLoW1SIeAWa...
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you divide it by 20 before multiplying by 365, which is a charitable read to say the least, it would still be an insane amount of money.
Is 20x charitable? For many highly political topics attention varies wildly between times when it is topical and when it is not. And further, some big contributors may contribute zero on most days, and contribute huge sums on one day. Many political fundraisers bring in large fractions of their income on only during a few key days or events.
Jones also made a whole bunch of money via InfoWars merchandising. A lot of it was consumables like suppliments. That's a steady revenue stream.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think only Americans believe in this absolute negative liberty view of speech. That's a wonderful compliment.
I see it more as hubris then something beneficial. Any society that allows a man like Alex Jones to peddle what he peddles with just a light financial slap on the wrist isn’t a society I consider to be healthy or going in the right direction, even on principle. It creates a dog eat dog world and it doesn’t have to be that way.
No post body was provided.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
He added a lot of undue trauma and made them the target of his rabid followers and they were constantly (and still are) inundated with harassing calls/emails/etc up to and including regular death threats, and some of Jones' unstable cult are fully capable of being mentally ill enough to do that. What would it be like to constantly be looking over your shoulder for someone ready to blow your head off
> stjohnswarts - He added a lot of undue trauma and made them the target of his rabid followers and they were constantly (and still are) inundated with harassing calls/emails/etc up to and including regular death threats, and some of Jones' unstable cult are fully capable of being mentally ill enough to do that. What would it be like to constantly be looking over your shoulder for someone ready to blow your head off…
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Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I'm a supporter of Jones being able to spread whatever insane theories" I think you are a supporter of freedom of speech in general - that's something I thoroughly approve of too. I also think you are able to understand the difference between seeing a horrendous crime and seeing that crime and attempting to profit from it. That seems to be what this bloke did: He tried to change and engorge the narrative regarding t…
>> He tried to convince the world that the crime didn't actually happen and even worse tried to convince the world that the dead were actors and other nonsense. I'm a Jewish grandson of Holocaust survivors. I'm also American. I'm pretty happy our country has not adopted laws against holocaust denial in the way Germany or Canada have. I appreciate the thought behind those laws. But I appreciate freedom of speech more.…
Meh... I always look back to this case when anyone talks about free speech. It's a tough pill to swallow here in the US. I would be more than angry, and emotionally scarred, if anyone picketed near a family member's funeral.
https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-a...