Sandy Hook Elementary School (Newtown, Conn)
Lies for Profit: Can Sandy Hook Parents Shut Alex Jones Down?
AUSTIN, Texas — When viral lies harm private people, are the courts their best refuge? A trial to decide how much the conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones must pay a Sandy Hook family for defaming them attempts to answer that question. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, 6, who died at Sandy […]
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Alex Jones Puts Company Behind Infowars Empire Into Bankruptcy
AUSTIN, Texas — Facing a potential $150 million judgment and two more damages trials for defaming the families of people killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, the conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones on Friday put his Infowars empire into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Last year, Mr. Jones lost four defamation lawsuits filed by the families […]
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Ties Between Alex Jones and Radio Network Show Economics of Misinformation
Ted Anderson, a precious metals seller, was hoping to rustle up some business for his gold and silver dealership when he started a radio network out of a Minneapolis suburb a couple of decades ago. Soon after, he signed a brash young radio host named Alex Jones. Together, they ended up shaping today’s misinformation economy. […]
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A Disturbing New Pattern in Mass Shootings: Young Assailants
The 22-year-old college student who murdered six people in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2014 offered one of the most direct expressions of a gunman’s mentality in a video posted on YouTube: The gun, he said, gave him a sense of power. The Buffalo gunman, emulating the 28-year-old anti-Muslim terrorist who massacred 51 people in Christchurch, […]
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Facing Judgment, Alex Jones Pleads for Help From the ‘Deep State’
WASHINGTON — Alex Jones, the far-right Infowars broadcaster and an ally of former President Donald J. Trump, has spent 25 years and reaped millions of dollars stoking suspicion and defiance of what he calls the federal “deep state.” Now, with his conspiracy empire under threat, Mr. Jones is seeking government relief. Facing monetary damages for […]
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Testify or Pay Up, Judge Tells Alex Jones in Sandy Hook Suit
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has subpoenaed Mr. Jones, who echoed Mr. Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and is scrutinizing his role in organizing “Stop the Steal” events. Late Tuesday, Mr. Jones’s lawyers filed an “offer of compromise” in Connecticut, proposing to pay the Sandy Hook […]
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Alex Jones Liable in Sandy Hook Defamation Suits
WASHINGTON — A state court in Connecticut granted a sweeping victory to the families of eight people killed in a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., who had sued the far-right broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars media outlet for defamation. The judge ruled on Monday that […]
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