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SOURCE: Wikipedia, 2020-05-29
Alexander Emric (or Emerick) Jones (born February 11, 1974) is a far-right American radio show host and conspiracy theorist. He hosts The Alex Jones Show from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network syndicates across the United States and online. Jones' website, InfoWars, is derived from conspiracy theories and fake news, as are websites NewsWars and PrisonPlanet.
Jones began his broadcasting career in the 1990s running a live public-access cable television program, later switching to radio. He has been at the center of many controversies: he promoted conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. In other conspiracy theories, Jones has accused the US government of planning the Oklahoma City bombing, the September 11 attacks, and falsifying details regarding the 1969 Moon landing. He has claimed that several governments and big businesses have colluded to create a "New World Order" through "manufactured economic crises, sophisticated surveillance tech and-above all-inside-job terror attacks that fuel exploitable hysteria." He aggressively opposed gun control in a debate with Piers Morgan.
Jones has described himself as a conservative, paleoconservative and libertarian, terms he uses interchangeably. Others describe him as conservative, right-wing, alt-right, and far-right. New York magazine has described Jones as "America's leading conspiracy theorist", and the Southern Poverty Law Center describes him as "the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America." Asked about such labels, Jones said he is "proud to be listed as a thought criminal against Big Brother."
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Jones began his career in Austin working on a live, call-in format public-access cable television program. In 1996, Jones switched to radio, hosting a show named The Final Edition on KJFK (98.9 FM). While running for Congress, Ron Paul was a guest on his show several times.
When the Oklahoma City bombing took place in 1995, Jones began accusing the federal government of having caused it: "I understood there's a kleptocracy working with psychopathic governments-clutches of evil that know the tricks of control." In 1998, he released his first film, America Destroyed by Design.
In 1998, Jones organized a successful campaign to build a new Branch Davidian church, as a memorial to those who died during the 1993 fire that ended the Waco siege of the original Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Texas. He often discussed the project on his public-access television program. He claimed that David Koresh and his followers were peaceful people who were murdered by Attorney General Janet Reno and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms during the siege. In the same year, he was removed from a George W. Bush rally at Bayport Industrial District, Texas. Jones interrupted governor Bush's speech, demanding that the Federal Reserve and Council on Foreign Relations be abolished. Journalist David Weigel, reporting on the incident, said Jones "seemed to launch into public events as if flung from another universe."
In 1999, Jones tied with Shannon Burke for that year's poll of "Best Austin Talk Radio Host", as voted by readers of The Austin Chronicle. Later that year, he was fired from KJFK-FM for refusing to broaden his topics. The station's operations manager said that Jones's views made it difficult for the station to sell advertising. Jones said:
It was purely political, and it came down from on high [...] I was told 11 weeks ago to lay off Bill Clinton, to lay off all these politicians, to not talk about rebuilding the church, to stop bashing the Marines, A to Z.
In July of that year, a group of Austin Community Access Center (ACAC) programmers claimed that Jones used legal proceedings and ACAC policy to intimidate them or try to get their shows thrown off the air. On July 15, 2000, Jones infiltrated the Cremation of Care, which he called "a ritualistic shedding of conscience and empathy" and an "abuse of power."
In 2001, Jone's radio show was syndicated on approximately 100 stations. After the 9/11 attacks, Jones began to promote the conspiracy theory that the Bush administration was behind the attack. As a result, several stations that had carried his program dropped Jones, according to Will Bunch. Jones became a leading figure of the "9/11 truther" cause.
On June 8, 2006, while on his way to cover a meeting of the Bilderberg Group in Ottawa, Jones was stopped and detained at the Ottawa airport by Canadian authorities. They confiscated his passport, camera equipment, and most of his belongings. He was later allowed to enter Canada legally. Jones said about his immigration hold: "I want to say, on the record, it takes two to tango. I could have handled it better."
On September 8, 2007, Jones was arrested while protesting at 6th Avenue and 48th Street in New York City, when his group crashed a live television show featuring Geraldo Rivera. He was charged with operating a megaphone without a permit, and two other persons were also cited for disorderly conduct. One of Jones' fellow protesters was reported as saying, "It was ... guerrilla information warfare."
On July 21, 2016, following the 2016 Republican National Convention, Jones and Roger Stone began to plot the removal of Ted Cruz (R-Texas) from his Senate seat after he failed to endorse Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate. Potential primary challengers Katrina Pierson and Dan Patrick were discussed as replacement Republican candidates for the 2018 Texas election for Senate.
On July 6, 2017, alongside Paul Joseph Watson, Jones began hosting a contest to create the best "CNN Meme", for which the winner would receive $20,000. They were responding to CNN reporting on a Reddit user who had created a pro-Trump, anti-CNN meme.
On January 23, 2018, Jones announced he would be working with author Neil Strauss on his upcoming book, titled The Secret History of the Modern World & the War for the Future. In February 2018, Jones was accused by two former employees of antisemitism, anti-black racism and sexual harassment. He denied the allegations.
The Alex Jones Show is syndicated nationally by the Genesis Communications Network to more than 100 AM and FM radio stations in the United States. In 2010, the show attracted around 2 million listeners each week.
According to journalist Will Bunch, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, the show has a demographic that leans more towards younger listeners than other conservative pundits due to Jones's "highly conspiratorial tone and Web-oriented approach." Bunch has also stated that Jones "feeds on the deepest paranoia." According to Alexander Zaitchik of Rolling Stone magazine, in 2011 he had a larger on-line audience than Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh combined.
Main article: InfoWars
Jones is the publisher and director of the InfoWars website. The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making its reach more extensive than mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek.
His website InfoWars has been described as a fake news website and has been accused of spreading conspiracy theories. According to a court testimony Jones delivered in 2014, InfoWars has revenues of over $20 million a year.
After InfoWars was banned from Facebook for violations of its policies against harassment and hate speech, Jones used another site, NewsWars, to get around the ban. Jones also operates the PrisonPlanet.com website.
Further information: Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic
A 2017 piece for German magazine Der Spiegel by Veit Medick indicated that two-thirds of Jones' funds derive from sales of a successful range of his own products. These products are marketed through the InfoWars website and through advertising spots on Jones' show. They include dietary supplements, toothpaste, bulletproof vests and "brain pills," which hold "an appeal for anyone who believes Armageddon is near", according to Medick.
In August 2017, Californian medical company Labdoor, Inc reported on tests applied to six of Jones' dietary supplement products. These included a product named Survival Shield, which was found by Labdoor to contain only iodine, and a product named Oxy-Powder, which comprised a compound of magnesium oxide and citric acid; common ingredients in dietary supplements. Labdoor indicated no evidence of prohibited or harmful substances, but cast doubt on InfoWars' marketing claims for these products, and asserted that the quantity of the ingredients in certain products would be "too low to be appropriately effective."
On a 2017 segment of Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver stated that Jones spends "nearly a quarter" of his on-air time promoting products sold on his website, many of which are purported solutions to medical and economic problems claimed to be caused by the conspiracy theories described on his show. Jones continued this behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 12, 2020, Jones was issued a cease and desist from the Attorney General of New York, after he claimed, in complete absence of evidence, that products he sold, including colloidal silver toothpaste and dietary supplements, were an effective treatment for COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration also sent him a letter on April 9, 2020 warning that the federal government might proceed to seize the products he was marketing for COVID-19 or fine him if he continued to sell them.
Mainstream sources have described Jones as a conservative, far-right, alt-right, and a conspiracy theorist. Jones has described himself as a libertarian and a Paleoconservative.
In December 2015, Jones says he initially "formed a bond" with Donald Trump, after the presidential candidate appeared on The Alex Jones Show, with Trump stating "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down." During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton criticized Trump for his ties to Jones.
He indicated his support for Donald Trump during the Presidential campaign in 2016 also denouncing Trump's rival Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Jones said that Trump called him on the day after the election to thank him for his help in the campaign.
In April 2018, Jones publicly criticized President Trump during a livestream, after Trump announced a military strike against Syria. During the stream, Jones also stated that Trump had not called him during the prior six months.
Mother Jones has said that Jones is a believer in weather weapons, and Salon has covered his claim "that the president has access to weather weapons capable of not only creating tornadoes but also moving them around, on demand." His belief in weather warfare has been reported by mainstream media. He has claimed that Hurricane Irma may have been geo-engineered.
Jones has promoted the white genocide conspiracy theory. Media Matters for America covered his claim that NFL players protesting during the national anthem were "kneeling to white genocide" and violence against whites, which the SPLC featured in their headlines review. On October 2, 2017, Jones claimed that Democrats and communists were plotting imminent "white genocide" attacks. His reporting and public views on the topic have received support and coverage from white nationalist publications and groups, such as the AltRight Corporation and the New Zealand National Front.
Jones is known for both his opposition to vaccines, and his views on vaccine controversies. On June 16, 2017, Vox covered his claim that the introduction of the Sesame Street character Julia, an autistic Muppet, was "designed to normalize autism, a disorder caused by vaccines." On November 20, 2017, The New Yorker quoted Jones as claiming InfoWars was "defending people's right to not be forcibly infected with vaccines." Critics argue that he endangers "children by convincing their parents that vaccines are dangerous." Jones has specifically disputed the safety and effectiveness of MMR vaccines.
Jones is a vocal gun rights advocate. MTV labeled him a "staunch Second Amendment supporter", while the London Daily Telegraph called him a "gun-nut." He has been quoted in the media for claiming, in a debate with Piers Morgan, that "1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms." Jones was referencing the American Revolutionary War in relation to theoretical gun control measures taken by the government. He has been reported to own around 50 firearms.
Jones believes that global warming is a hoax made up by the World Bank to control the world economy through a carbon tax.
Jones has been at the center of many controversies. In 2009, Jones claimed that a convicted con man's scheme to take over a long-vacant, would-be for-profit prison in Hardin, Montana was part of a FEMA plot to detain US citizens in concentration camps. Jones was in a "media crossfire" in 2011, which included criticism by Rush Limbaugh, when the news spread that Jared Lee Loughner, the perpetrator of the 2011 Tucson shooting, had been "a fan" of the 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change of which Jones had been an executive producer.
In January 2013, Jones was invited to speak on Piers Morgan's CNN show after promoting an online petition to deport Morgan because of his support of gun control. The interview turned into "a one-person shoutfest" by Jones. According to The Huffington Post, Morgan and others such as Glenn Beck "agreed that Jones was a terrible spokesman for gun rights."
On June 9, 2013, Jones appeared as a guest on the BBC's Sunday Politics, discussing conspiracy theories about the Bilderberg Group, with presenter Andrew Neil and journalist David Aaronovitch. Aaronovitch implied that, since Jones had not been killed for exposing conspiracies, they either do not exist or that Jones is a part of them himself. Jones began shouting and interrupting, and Neil ended the interview, describing Jones as "an idiot" and "the worst person I've ever interviewed." According to Neil on Twitter, Jones was still shouting until he knew that he was off-air.
In April 2017, Jones was criticized for claiming that the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack was a hoax and false flag. Jones stated that the attack was potentially carried out by civil defense group White Helmets, which he falsely claims are an Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist front financed by George Soros.
In February 2017, James Alefantis, owner of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria, sent Jones a letter demanding an apology and retraction of his advocacy for the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. Jones was given one month to comply or be subject to a libel suit. In March 2017, Jones apologized to Alefantis and retracted his allegations.
In April 2017, the Chobani yogurt company filed suit against Jones for his claims that their factory in Idaho employing refugees, was connected to a 2016 child sexual assault and a rise in tuberculosis. As a result, Jones issued an apology and retraction of his allegations in May 2017.
In March 2018, Brennan Gilmore, who shared a video he captured of a car hitting anti-racism protesters at the 2017 Unite the Right rally , filed a lawsuit against Jones and six others. According to the lawsuit, Jones said that Gilmore was acting as part of a false flag operation conducted by disgruntled government "deep state" employees promoting a coup against Trump. Gilmore alleged he received death threats from Jones' audience.
See also: Judge Orders Alex Jones and InfoWars to Pay $100,000 in Sandy Hook Legal Fees.
Jones has spread conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting being false flag operations by gun control advocates. He stated "no one died" in Sandy Hook and Stoneman Douglas survivor David Hogg was a crisis actor. These claims have been proven false.
In March 2018, six families of Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, filed a defamation suit against Jones for spreading false claims, resulting in the harassment, stalking and threatening of survivors. By February 2019, 10 families joined suits and won a series of court rulings requiring Jones to testify under oath. Jones was later ordered to undergo a sworn deposition, along with three other defendants related to the operation of InfoWars. He was also ordered to turn over internal business documents related to InfoWars. In this deposition, Jones acknowledged the deaths were real, stating he had "almost like a form of psychosis", where he "basically thought everything was staged."
Leonard Pozner, father of a victim in the Sandy Hook shooting who has been forced to move several times to avoid harassment and death threats was accused by Jones of being a crisis actor. Pozner filed a defamation suit against Jones in Texas. Jones was found to be in contempt of court even before the trial started, failing to produce witnesses and materials relevant to the procedures. Consequently, Jones and InfoWars were fined a total of $126,000 in October and December 2019.
On July 24, 2018, YouTube removed four InfoWars' videos citing "child endangerment and hate speech", issued a "strike" against the channel, and suspended the ability to live stream. On July 27, 2018, Facebook suspended Jones's profile for 30 days, and also removed the same videos, saying they violated standards against hate speech and bullying. On August 3, 2018, Stitcher Radio removed all of his podcasts citing harassment.
Later that year, on August 6, 2018, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify removed all content by Jones and InfoWars for policy violations. YouTube removed channels associated with InfoWars, including The Alex Jones Channel. On Facebook, four pages that were associated with InfoWars and Alex Jones were removed due to repeated policy violations. Apple removed all podcasts associated with Jones from iTunes. On August 13, 2018, Vimeo removed all of Jones' videos because of "prohibitions on discriminatory and hateful content." Facebook cited instances of dehumanizing immigrants, Muslims and transgender people, as well as glorification of violence, as examples of hate speech.
Jones' accounts were also removed from Pinterest, Mailchimp and LinkedIn. As of early August 2018, Jones still had active accounts on Instagram, Google+ and Twitter. Jones tweeted a Periscope video calling on others to get their "battle rifles" ready against antifa, the mainstream media, and Chicom operatives. In the video he also says, "Now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag." Twitter cited this as the reason to suspend his account for a week in August.
In September, Jones was permanently banned from Twitter and Periscope after berating CNN reporter Oliver Darcy. On September 7, 2018, the InfoWars app was removed from the Apple App Store for "objectionable content." He was banned from using PayPal for his business transactions, citing "hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions."
InfoWars remained available on Roku devices, in January 2019 a year after its removal from multiple streaming services. Roku indicated that they do not "curate or censor based on viewpoint," and that it had policies against content that is "unlawful, incited illegal activities, or violates third-party rights," but that InfoWars was not in violation of these policies. Following a social media backlash, they removed InfoWars and stated "After the InfoWars channel became available, we heard from concerned parties and have determined that the channel should be removed from our platform."
In March 2019, YouTube terminated the Resistance News channel due to reuploading live streams from InfoWars. On May 1, 2019, Jones was barred from using both Facebook and Instagram.
In March 2020, the InfoWars app was removed from the Google Play Store due to Jones disseminating misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Google spokesperson stated that "combating misinformation on the Play Store is a top priority for the team" and apps that violate Play policy by "distributing misleading or harmful information" are removed from the store.
Jones has three children with ex-wife Kelly Jones. The couple divorced in March 2015. In 2017, Kelly sought sole or joint custody of their children due to her ex-husband's behavior. She claimed "he's not a stable person" and "I'm concerned that he is engaged in felonious behavior, threatening a member of Congress" (Adam Schiff). His attorney responded by claiming that "he's playing a character" and describing him as a "performance artist." On his show, Jones denied playing a character and he called his show "the most bona fide, hard-core, real McCoy thing there is, and everybody knows it." In court, Jones clarified that he generally agreed with his attorney's statement, but that he disagreed with the media's interpretation of the term "performance artist." Kelly was awarded the right to decide where their children live while he maintains visitation rights.
His son, Rex Jones, has worked for InfoWars, receiving media attention for a video which was critical of gun control and BuzzFeed News.
On March 10, 2020, Jones was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated in Texas. The Travis County jail in Austin confirmed that Jones was charged with DWI, a class B misdemeanor. Authorities said he was booked at 12:37 a.m. and was later released at 4:11 a.m. "on a personal recognizance bond."
[📌 pinned article] [ProjectCensored.org, 2022-08-19] The Alex Jones Playbook. Jones and Legacy News Media Hate Each Other, but They Often Use the Same Playbook.
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The Association of College & Research Libraries defines
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[NPR.org, 2022-12-02]
Conspiracy theorist
On his
Alex Jones has recently claimed on his show that he only has about $2 million to his name. But
Alex Jones's new bankruptcy filing covers his individual finances.
[NPR.org, 2022-08-06] How Alex Jones helped mainstream conspiracy theories become part of American life.
[CTVNews.ca, 2022-08-05] Jury awards US$45.2 million in punitive damages in Alex Jones Sandy Hook trial. U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre US$45.2 million in punitive damages - on top of $4.1 million in compensatory damages already awarded -- for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax, a Texas jury decided on Friday [2022-08-05]. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, separated parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, testified that followers of Jones harassed them and sent them death threats for years in the false belief that they were lying about their son's death in the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting that killed 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. ...
[CBC.ca, 2021-11-15] U.S. judge rules Alex Jones of Infowars liable for defamation over Sandy Hook 'hoax' claims. Jones was sued by parents whose children were killed in Connecticut school shooting.
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Judge Barbara Bellis took the rare step of issuing a default judgment in the case because she said Alex Jones and his companies, InfoWars and Free Speech Systems, LLC [doing business as InfoWars.com], had failed to turn over documents, including records that might have showed how - and if - they had profited from spreading misinformation about the
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Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed in the December 2012 shooting. The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother at their Newtown, Connecticut, home before the shooting, and killed himself at the school as police arrived, officials said.
The shooting was portrayed on Alex Jones' InfoWars show as a hoax involving actors aimed at increasing gun control. Jones has since acknowledged the school shooting did occur.
Families of the victims said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Alex Jones' followers because of the hoax conspiracy pushed on InfoWars. They sued Jones and his companies for defamation and infliction of emotional distress. The hearing on damages before a jury is expected to be held next year [2022].
"What's clear from Judge Barbara N. Bellis' ruling is that Alex Jones and the Jones defendants have engaged in a long, continuous course of misconduct in this case designed to prevent the plaintiffs from getting evidence about Mr. Jones' business and about his motives for publishing lies about them and their families," said Christopher "Chris" Mattei, a lawyer for relatives of eight of the victims who sued Jones in Connecticut.
Messages were left for parents of some of the children killed in the shooting.
[washingtonPost.com, 2016-01-13] The father of a boy killed at Sandy Hook gets death threats; some people say the shooting was a hoax. | Archive.today snapshot | local copy
A Texas judge recently issued similar rulings against Alex Jones in three defamation lawsuits brought by Sandy Hook families in that state, finding Jones liable for damages after defaulting him and his companies for not turning over documents. Hearings on damages also were ordered.
In one of the lawsuits, a Texas judge in 2019 ordered Alex Jones to pay $100,000 US in legal fees and refused to dismiss the suit. And a jury in Wisconsin awarded $450,000 US to one of the parents in his lawsuit against conspiracy theorist writers, not including Jones, who claimed the massacre never happened.
In the three Connecticut lawsuits, Alex Jones previously was sanctioned for violating numerous orders to turn over documents and for an angry outburst on his web show against Christopher Mattei. A judge barred Jones from filing a motion to dismiss the case - a ruling that was upheld after being appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, which declined to hear Jones' appeal in April 2021.
[NPR.org, 2021-11-15] Alex Jones found liable for defamation in Sandy Hook 'hoax' case.
InfoWars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was found liable Monday [2021-11-15] for damages in lawsuits brought by parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting over Alex Jones' claims that the massacre was a hoax.
Judge Barbara Bellis took the rare step of defaulting Jones in the defamation lawsuits for his and his companies' "failure to produce critical material information that the plaintiffs needed to prove their claims." The default means the judge found in favor of the parents and will hold a hearing on how much damages he should pay.
Lawyers for the parents claimed Jones and his companies, including Infowars and Free Speech Systems, LLC [doing business as InfoWars.com], violated court rules by failing to turn over documents to them, including internal company documents showing how, and if, Jones and InfoWars profited from talking about the school shooting and other mass shootings. "Their pattern of defying and ignoring court orders to produce responsive information is well established," lawyers for the family wrote in a court brief in July 2021.
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[AlterNet.org, 2021-09-30] Alex Jones loses 2 Sandy Hook cases by default after failing to comply with court orders: report. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was found guilty of two defamation lawsuits after pushing the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a "false flag" operation carried out by "crisis actors." "Judge Maya Guerra Gamble on Monday [2021-09-27] issued her ruling for default judgments against Jones in two different cases, which means he and the conspiracy-theory-spewing outlet InfoWars have been found liable for all damages and a jury will now be convened to determine how much he will owe the plaintiffs," Sebastian Murdock reported for HuffPost. The rulings against the InfoWars host were made public on Thursday [2021-09-30]. ...
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