Alex Jones claims they want to take his expensive cat because he's bankrupt. "This is Mushu," Jones said, cradling the animal in his arms. He estimated the cat was worth around $2,000. "They were very serious about the cat and its value, and they may want the cat" he said. He claimed harassment.

submitted by Orangutan from news.yahoo.com

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[–]Site_rly_sux 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The damages were decided by the jury.

It was up to the lawyers on both sides to convince the juries.

Here's how the juries were convinced to award this billion dollar amount -

  1. They were shown evidence concerning the reach of Alex's lies (and you're here as evidence to that)

  2. They were shown how Alex tailors his show's conspiracy content to his products and revenue. They heard from Alex's dad and business manager that Infowars work out which of Alex's rants bring in the most money, and try to replicate that

  3. They were shown how Sandy Hook lies in the Google analytics led to the biggest bump in clicks and revenue ever. They were shown how Infowars' rep Brittany Paz lied (including on the stand, in court, infront of the jury) about whether the company uses Google analytics, because the truth is so damaging to Alex.

  4. They were shown how Alex specifically directed his unhinged callers towards the families, including one guy who Alex caused to interrupt the family annual remembrance event for the murdered teacher. Also they were shown how Alex sent his employee Dan Bidondi to harass the families and victims, personally and directly.

  5. The judge explained how Connecticut law works. The jury had to work out the dollar amount of damage caused to each of the dozen or so plaintiffs. Then multiply that if they think it was deliberate (which Alex's dad's testimony proved). I am fuzzy on the law, but with a dozen or so plaintiffs each getting a slice of the hundreds of millions of dollars that Alex directly made from maliciously lying about them....it adds up to a billion.

If Alex wanted to defend himself, he could have. Instead he dissembled for six years of legal sanctions and defaults. They lied in deposition and on the stand. They rotated through twenty odd lawyers, before setting on Reynal in Texas (for whom this was his first civil case) and Norm in Connecticut (a failed stand-up comedian whose best joke involves lowering his trousers and shouting the N word).

There was no hope for Alex. Because he was guilty and knew it. So he fucked around for six years until finding out.

[–]dicknipples 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Excellent points, as usual, in all of these responses from you. And this specific response is one of the best on Saidit. I wish we could all appreciate the importance of holding people accountable for the severe damage they've caused. And I'm not referencing the occasional racist outburst or unpopular opinion, which of course should be protected free speech. Alex and his associates made millions by selling disinformation and hatred of many kinds, for years. He's merely one of the tips of many extremist talking head iceburgs profiting from a disinformation promotion market. May they get what they deserve, and their little cats too.