You think this is fair?
Alex Jones ordered to pay nearly a BILLION dollars to the families of Sandy Hook victims
- Thread starter 728ups
- Start date
I sure do. Do you think telling the parents of dead kids that they're a bunch of fake actors and all of that was staged is ok? All that's going to happen is he'll declare bankruptcy and protect enough assets to live on. He most likely had already started the process of moving assets, relocating to a favorable state, etc in anticipation of a severe outcome. Probably has large sums of cash stashed away in safety deposit boxes under LLC names that are untraceable. Even
bags have ways of protecting themselves.No, but it sure as hell isn't a matter for the courts.
You state falsehoods on a nationally syndicated talk show, defaming people and causing them to receive death threats, then you take your chances that they don't take you to court. He miscalculated, they did.
He can't control what other people do. Sounds like the people who made the death threats needed to be tracked down and dealt with.
The whole idea of protecting free speech means protecting speech we don't like.
Up In Smoke
Well-Known Member
Should the train engineer who transported the Jewish prisoners to Auschwitz be considered a war criminal? He did nothing but operate the train and may have not even have known what was happening there. He was under direction of others who also didn't get their hands bloodied. At some point there is liability with the message makers.
That's quite a leap there. We're talking about speech, not actions. Ttku
wilberforce15
Well-Known Member
And when people falsely say there is one.
It is stupid to require seeing it yourself before you believe it. If the whole crowd starts running, it is dumb not to do so yourself.
Up In Smoke
Well-Known Member
The message was that the Jews were evil and needed to be eradicated. The ones who carried out the task believed they were doing a great service for county and mankind.
That has nothing to do with anything being discussed here.
Free speech doesn't give you the right to defame others. There's a responsibility that goes with your speech. If a guy says on the radio he dislikes gays his speech is protected. If he says gays are horrible and we should beat them up, drive them from their homes, etc and that happens, he can be sued for inciting people to harm others. His free speech rights don't give him a pass.
DriveInDriveOut
Inordinately Right
I understand some people's brains are programmed like that.
Seems pretty dumb to me, given that we both agree that's a good way to get trampled to death or suffocated between people overcrowding a small exit.
Did Alex Jones tell any of his listeners to harass and threaten these people, or did they do so of their own accord?
DriveInDriveOut
Inordinately Right
Since nothing like that happened it seems irrelevant.
Up In Smoke
Well-Known Member
Alex Jones has a loyal listener base and when he speaks people believe him and are moved to action. He can inspire a movement with his words. He inspired his followers to reach out to the victim's parents with unrelenting false accusations. Both parties should be held responsible. IMO
I didn't see all the evidence given in court. But there doesn't have to be some prescribed step by step accounting of his actions to prove he defamed them. He made unverifiable statements that the whole event was phony, never happened, and the ones involved were trying to get gun control. As a result death threats were made against them. That alone besides the mental anguish he caused got him burned.
It's called giving an example to make a point.
wilberforce15
Well-Known Member
No, that's good programming. Requiring personal verification instead of following the crowd is stupid.
Whether Waukesha or the Vegas massacre or an actual fire, you don't stand and stare to see if something is worth running from. People don't like looking stupid or freaking out over nothing. That's why they freeze like deer and get shot like deer.
When the crowd is disturbed you flee or fight, whichever is first available.
You don't want to be the zebra who says "Yeah, they're all running but I didn't see the lion myself"
DriveInDriveOut
Inordinately Right
Okay thank you for your irrelevant example that makes an irrelevant point.
So all he did was make unverifiable statements that got a bunch of idiots who listen to him riled up, and that justifies a judgement of nearly $1 billion?
