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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32884 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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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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