Alex Jones has been featured prominently in the news of late for a number of reasons. None of them very flattering to his cause.
Jones has been removed from several social media sites, e.g., Facebook, Apple’s App Store, YouTube, iTunes, and Spotify. Twitter was holding out on removing him. But under pressure from the MSM and Congress, they also decided to remove him. This is probably related to the fact that Jones has been involved in several legal actions of late.
Early last year, Jones was threatened with a libel suit by James Alefantis who owns the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria. Jones had been pushing the wild Pizzagate conspiracy theory. A month later, Jones retracted his accusations and apologized. The same thing happened with Chobani yogurt. He accused them of employing refugees and being connected to child sexual assaults and a rise in TB. Again, Jones was threatened with a lawsuit. Again, he issued a retraction and an apology.
But perhaps the most infamous accusations Jones has made concern the Charlottesville racist rally and the Sandy Hook shootings. In 2012, the latter took the lives of 20 first graders and 6 adults. Like Jim Fetzer, Jones took the stance that the incident was a government-backed hoax, and that the families of the murdered students were actually actors. And as with Fetzer, this accusation is wild, unfounded and easily shown to be ersatz.
The parents’ lawsuits are based on the charge that in the five years since the event, they have been harassed and threatened by those who listen and buy into the radio and TV speeches of Mr. Jones. In fact, just recently, Jones has been accused by the lawyer for one of those plaintiffs of removing evidence from his site, Infowars, in which he did more of the same. (The Independent, August 18, 2018).
This year, Brennan Gilmore also sued Jones. Gilmore took a video in Charlottesville of a car smashing backwards into anti-racist protestors at the 2017 Unite the Right rally. That assault killed Heather Heyer and injured almost 20 other persons. Gilmore happens to live in the city and was on the scene when it happened. He gave his cell phone video to the police and posted it on social media.
As a result, Jones’ Infowars began to broadcast that ‘They had known CIA and State Department officials in Charlottesville … first being on MSNBC, CNN, NBC. The mayor is involved. … Everybody is a cut out.” They then insinuated that several of the participants in the operation were on the payroll of George Soros. (see this Washington Post article)
Gilmore has stated that he has also been harassed and threatened by some of Jones’ listeners. And for the same reason. Jones accused him of being part of some kind of false flag operation in order to enable a coup against President Trump. (watch here)
This is a complex and sensitive subject. Yes, there is the first amendment, which we all value and treasure. But as more than one writer has noted, the first amendment is not absolute. One cannot use it to harm another citizen or endanger his health and well-being. And this may be why these corporate entities heave decided to back away from carrying Jones: fear of legal exposure.
As the New York Times has reported during his recent divorce proceedings, Jones had become a millionaire due to his radio and TV programming. His programs are distributed nationally though Genesis Communications Network to almost 100 AM and FM radio stations. It is estimated that he has about 2 million weekly viewers/listeners. The Rolling Stone estimated that he has a larger online following than Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh combined. (March 20, 2011)
This site (CTKA) has reported on Alex Jones several times in the past. Our main author on that subject was Seamus Coogan. Seamus took the time to actually listen to the man’s program for hours on end and to investigate his various web sites. To say the least, when it comes to the JFK case, Jones does not review his information very well. What makes that so puzzling is that there is more good information out there on that case than almost anything else Jones covers.
Jones is a very successful showman. No one plays the outrage card as well as he does. I saw him do this firsthand in Dallas at the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. Dealey Plaza had been completely cordoned off at all intersections. The police guarded the obstructed entryways. Jones had pinned up signs outside that area that accused Lyndon Johnson of killing Kennedy—he had bought Barr McClellan hook, line and sinker—and was yelling at the police guardians with his famous bullhorn. To put it mildly, I failed to see how this helped our cause.
Jones has made millions off the exposure of his radio and TV shows and his online presence. He knows how to market products to the millions of visitors he gets each week. The reason he gets those visitors is not because of the quality of information he broadcasts. In fact, once the reader reads Seamus Coogan’s articles, he will see that Jones has very little aptitude for scholarship. That is not what he is about.
What Jones has tapped into is the aimless skepticism that much of the public, especially youths, have about both the MSM and our political system. He often calls them discredited. Which is largely accurate. The problem with Jones is simple: So is he. It is one thing to blow apart the MSM. That is pretty easy. But with his millions, Jones could have built a true alternative to them, on the order of the late, lamented Ramparts magazine. He did not. In fact, he has failed to construct any kind of credible alternative: either in his work or his overall political philosophy. In his admiration of Donald Trump, he comes off as some kind of gadfly conservative Libertarian. One who is so maniacally pro-gun rights and NRA, that when you push the right buttons, he loses control and becomes his own worst enemy. (watch here)
But the main problem for Alex Jones is the basis of his information. As Seamus shows, he is so scattershot in his approach and so careless in his renderings that he is hard to take seriously. Which is why he fails to offer any viable alternative.
Of course, there is an element of national tragedy in all this. Pity the country that has to choose between Jones and CNN.
~Jim DiEugenio
From the CTKA archives: Seamus Coogan on Alex Jones
- Alex Jones on the Kennedy Murder: A Painful Case (part 1) [March 10, 2010]
- Alex Jones on the Kennedy Murder: A Painful Case (part 2) [March 17, 2010]
- Point–Counterpoint: Feedback–Response on Alex Jones (with Gary King) [July 29, 2010]
- Alex Jones on the Kennedy Murder (addendum) [August 31, 2010]