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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32856 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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This is trending on Twitter Jury decides Alex Jones must pay $965 million in Sandy Hook defamation trial

The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided Wednesday.

The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.

It is unclear how much of the verdicts Jones can afford to pay. During the trial in Texas, he testified he couldn’t afford any judgment over $2 million. Free Speech Systems has filed for bankruptcy protection. But an economist testified in the Texas proceeding that Jones and his company were worth as much as $270 million.

There is no way he or his company can afford $1 billion. What is the point of these huge verdicts if there is no hope of it being paid. From what I understand, collecting on a judgment can be as hard as winning. Likely Mr. Jones has various forms of asset protection set up. Texas and Florida have the most generous homestead protection.

Because this is a civil matter , not criminal, it means Mr. Jones can avail himself of these protections.

What exactly is Alex Jones being held liable for here? Did he say that people were crisis actors, or only imply it? I never see any relevant quotes in these articles.

Does Jones have grounds to appeal? Snyder v Phelps seems like one avenue. Sandy Hook might be considered a matter of public concern given the impact on gun policy discussions it had.

It is pretty undisputed that Alex Jones repeatedly falsely claimed that specific parents, who he named by name, were "crisis actors" who were lying about losing children at Sandy Hook, and that those parents were rather viciously harassed (death threats, etc) by some of his listeners. Whether he is liable for those actions is a different issue, and I don't know enough about the facts to know, but of course normally much of the actual damages from defamation are the result of actions by third parties who hear the defamatory statements, so it is not exactly a stretch.

Snyder v. Phelps is not going to help him: In that case, the Court emphasized that the speech was not directed at a particular person, and for that very reason Snyder was not a defamation case (the trial court dismissed the count alleging defamation). Snyder was basically about the right to make non-defamatory statements which cause emotional distress.

that specific parents, who he named by name,

Pretty sure he only named like one or two.

I read this article a couple days ago which claimed it was procedural:

As it happens, no jury ever found Jones liable for defamation, and no judge ever ruled on the merits of the claims or Jones’ counterclaims. He was found liable by default after failing to produce documents. A finding of ultimate liability is technically a permissible sanction for discovery recalcitrance (refusing to cooperate and produce documents) but it is a draconian one rarely imposed by judges. Suffice to say, the court — with an elected judge, mind you — was not a fan of Jones.

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