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Alex Jones in a lawsuit related to the Sandy Hook Rants

Those of you who seem to have a problem with Elon Musk using his own money to promote his ideological POV sure didn't seem to have any problem with George Soros using his to promote yours.

No matter what you think of him personally this Alex Jones verdict sets a very bad precedent for the independence of journalists. I think you are about to find that out when Trump or Matt Gaetz or somebody uses it to sue some left-leaning media source out of existence.
 
Those of you who seem to have a problem with Elon Musk using his own money to promote his ideological POV sure didn't seem to have any problem with George Soros using his to promote yours.

No matter what you think of him personally this Alex Jones verdict sets a very bad precedent for the independence of journalists. I think you are about to find that out when Trump or Matt Gaetz or somebody uses it to sue some left-leaning media source out of existence.
You think that's what Americans want, the government interfering in the free flow of news and ideas, and coming in and CENSORING and JAILING those that speak out?

This is America. This isn't 1930s Europe.
 
You're equating what he did with journalism.
Jones didn't merely state his opinion that he thought Sandy Hook was a "false flag."
If it were mere opinion, it wouldn't likely be an issue.
He and his disciples went out and HARASSED the Sandy Hook victims' parents.
Ala the "God Hates Fags" types of protests you saw from "Rev." Phelps.
This wasn't some "free speech" case. This was behavior. Actions.
 
Fitting for a conspiracy theorist to get civilly sued for supporting debunked conspiracies.
After all, this so-called "expert," who claims the "New World Order" is "going to put us all in FEMA detention camps" has little education, yet knows everything.

Listen to his tiny, almost unlistened to show (now mostly only on shortwave). All he talks about is how Biden and others want to jail their fellow citizens.



Jones has repeatedly spread disproven conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, including claiming that it was a "false flag" operation perpetrated by gun control advocates, that "no one died" in Sandy Hook, and that the incident was "staged", "synthetic", "manufactured", "a giant hoax" and "completely fake with actors".[252][253][254][255] Jones faced numerous defamation lawsuits due to these lies.[256]
 
The comparison of Musk and Soros isn't apples to oranges.

Soros (and to be fair, later Musk) donated to organizations that did grass roots work to further their political beliefs.

Musk's purchase of Twitter claiming to be in the name of "free speech" took a reasonably useful tool for people of all sides and no side to do their work or express their point of view, and claiming to be removing "bias" tilted it back in favor of his own.

I and many others actively used Twitter for media work and engaged in dialogue with people of a wide variety of views. There were no shortages of conservative views in my feed. It was a very useful tool in local newsrooms to stay engaged with events in real time.

Just to experiment, I signed up not too long ago for a completely new X account. I've done this for other projects in the time since Elon. No ties to me personally, no cookies held over, completely fresh.

Upon signup, you're required to pick interests and encouraged (to legitimize your account) to follow several accounts. The suggested list includes a few non-political and entertainment oriented accounts (ESPN, and so on) but the majority? Conservative and right-wing podcaster and "news' sites.

You're recommended Elon, Candace Owens, Benny Johnson, Clay Travis, those types of people.

You're not recommended in the mix things like NPR, CBS, Washington Post. Respected mainstream center to center-left sources.

So it appears what concerned Elon wasn't an "echo chamber." It was that it wasn't echoing the side he now prefers enough. Oh, and I was also on Twitter during the period when they heavily purged some serious white nationalist junk. We're not talking "conservative" - we're talking ethnostate advocates. I've now seen those accounts return to X. Oh and he let Jones back on too.

Jones isn't a journalist. He's free to speak his mind and sell his garbage supplements. But what he did got people stalking the families of dead children. He could have gotten people killed. One of his cult followers took an AR-15 into a pizza place in DC because he bought into Jones' BS. When you clearly lie knowing your cult following can act on those lies, I have zero sympathy for the consequences that come after. I don't think Jones even believes what he says. He's a skilled improv act that says whatever will "hit" and he's become filthy rich for it. Play high risk games, sometimes you lose. He lost and he deserves to, if on no other level, than simply on the level of human decency. Children died, Alex. And he has no shame.

Not a single conservative, liberal, or otherwise that I associate with or have worked with in broadcasting would stoop that low. They're not at risk here. And besides, have you heard what Gorka, Bongino, and a myriad of others say on a daily basis? Some of it's one inch from insurrection and they're free to say it and tweet it. No one's taken them off the air or dipped into their millions.
 
Those of you who seem to have a problem with Elon Musk using his own money to promote his ideological POV sure didn't seem to have any problem with George Soros using his to promote yours.

A lot of conservatives claim Soros invested in radio stations to promote an ideology. But I've not seen any examples where he in fact did any such thing.

BTW there's nothing wrong with buying radio stations to promote an ideology. EMF does it all the time.
 
No matter what you think of him personally this Alex Jones verdict sets a very bad precedent for the independence of journalists. I think you are about to find that out when Trump or Matt Gaetz or somebody uses it to sue some left-leaning media source out of existence.
You consider Alex Jones, Levin, Bongino, Hannity, Beck, et. al, those highly partisan "the Dems are always WRONG!" radio hosts as "journalists?"

And that MASH is "history" and the Johnny Carson is "news" (as described in an on-screen TV guide?

I think someone needs to go back to j-school and learn the fundamentals of journalism.
Like reporting BOTH sides and being "fair and balanced." The radio loudmouths don't do any of that.
 
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A lot of conservatives claim Soros invested in radio stations to promote an ideology. But I've not seen any examples where he in fact did any such thing.

BTW there's nothing wrong with buying radio stations to promote an ideology. EMF does it all the time.
Agreed didn't Clear Channel (or had they changed to iHeart by then) buy WOR and put Rush on it?
 
All I am saying is the Obama administration didn't make a big deal about WOR. Now the same thing reverse parties and position and some folks in the GOP are getting their underwear up in knots.

Nobody made a big deal about anything in radio until the Soros name comes up. Previous administrations approved similar bankruptcy deals for iHeart, Cumulus, and Alpha. The only issue with Audacy is Soros. Nothing else matters to them.
 
So stations can be bought to spread the GOP's message only?
If they want to be profitable, yeah.

The right and left evangelize their ideologies as disparately as they think politically. The classical right prefers authority- and accreditation-based hierarchical structures where a vetted teacher-leader figure speaks centrally for and gives instruction to the whole, top-down. This fits the one-to-many broadcast radio model perfectly. By comparison, the classical left prefers the decentralized, grass roots, communal activism model. That model fits leaderless people-powered hive systems like the university campus scene (in the past), musical and artistic expression, and social media (in the present).

Alex Jones and the rest of the alt-right are simply the fusion of conservative ideology with leftist evangelizing tactics (decentralized, unaccredited, social/independent media). That fusion represents the first "making accessible" of conservative ideology to the masses of youth since the 1960s, when youth culture began rejecting and distrusting the mere model of centralized authority in favor of bottom-up people power.

If anyone wants to buy up stations to spread the DNC's message, they will need to convert their innards to data centers immediately after the sale.
 
Those of you who seem to have a problem with Elon Musk using his own money to promote his ideological POV sure didn't seem to have any problem with George Soros using his to promote yours.

No matter what you think of him personally this Alex Jones verdict sets a very bad precedent for the independence of journalists. I think you are about to find that out when Trump or Matt Gaetz or somebody uses it to sue some left-leaning media source out of existence.
Yeah, Soros is the boogieman. Elon is doing what you all accuse Soros of doing but 1000 times more.
 
Alex Jones and the rest of the alt-right are simply the fusion of conservative ideology with leftist evangelizing tactics (decentralized, unaccredited, social/independent media).

It's why we say the political spectrum isn't a straight line with left on one side and the right on the other. It's a circle, and at some point, the far right actually becomes the left, both aiming to destroy the government. That's where we are now. We have someone who claims to be a conservative who wants to shut down the FBI. That's what Eldridge Cleaver wanted to do. That's what January 6th was all about, and Jones was there leading the charge. Alex Jones is the modern day Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Except now they're running the government.
 


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