Alex Jones Should Be Cross-Examined in Front of the Nation

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

25 July 18

he crazy train has opened a new depot in Hartford. Back in April, families who lost children in the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 filed a defamation suit against radio crazy person Alex Jones for initially saying on his crazy person’s electric radio program that the massacre was a hoax and that their children were not really dead, but, rather, “crisis actors” in a drama aimed at grabbing all the guns. (Later, Jones copped to believing that the massacre actually happened. What a guy.)

The lawsuit has progressed now to an attempt by Jones and his interesting legal team to dismiss the suit. This means that Jones and his interesting legal team have to present documents supporting their motion. This means fun! From CBS News:

"Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein relied on allegations from 'Deep Throat' to link the Nixon Administration to the Watergate break-in," his lawyers wrote in filing for a dismissal. "Such journalism, questioning official narratives, would be chilled if reporters were subject to liability if they turned out to be wrong,"

There are also lawsuits filed in Texas, where Jones’ crazy person’s electric radio program is based. There, an interesting character named Wolfgang Halbig is also named as a defendant.

Halbig, a former police officer who lives in Sorrento, Florida, said in April that he believes people died in the shooting, but that authorities refuse to clear up what he believes are discrepancies in the official story. Jones acknowledged allowing Halbig and others to question the shooting on his show, but said he has a constitutional right to do that. "To stifle the press (by making them liable for merely interviewing people who have strange theories) will simply turn this human tragedy into a Constitutional one," his attorneys wrote.

To be entirely honest, this case does contain some interesting constitutional questions. It will test the constitutional limits on things like talk radio, pundit TV, and the wilder fringes of Internet broadcasting.

And Jones’ interesting legal team has defended not only neo-Nazi goons, but also perennial New Hampshire primary character Vermin Supreme. From HuffPost:

Marc Randazza has represented a gay porn producer, far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich, civil rights lawyer Lisa Bloom, performance artist and activist Vermin Supreme, and the Satanic Temple, among others. He’s also appeared on Infowars in the past. Currently, the firm is representing Andrew Anglin, co-founder of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer.

“If you’re a First Amendment attorney, and you say, ’This person’s speech is good enough for me, but this person’s isn’t,’ you’re doing it wrong,” Randazza recently told The Daily Beast. Anglin is being sued by Tanya Gersh after Anglin allegedly directed his followers to harass and intimidate the Montana woman. Gersh said that she has received more than 700 threatening and harassing communications because of Anglin’s actions ― which allegedly began after she got into a feud with the mother of white supremacist Richard Spencer.

The question seems to be whether or not Jones’s program defamed Adam Lanza’s victims by claiming that they were participants in a hoax—namely, that they weren’t really dead. My guess is that, if they survive the motion to dismiss, these suits will be settled quietly somewhere down the line. But, if there were any true justice to be found here, Jones would have to go all the way through the legal mill, testifying publicly and squirming under cross-examination, all with the entire nation watching him sweat and holler. It would be great TV.