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Alex Jones sues Sandy Hook families and Onion over ‘Frankenstein bid’ for Infowars
(www.the-independent.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2024
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The dude is a giant shit stain and an embarrassment on society.
That said, he might actually have a point with this suit.
If I'm understanding the situation correctly, you have a situation where his website and media platform are up for auction to pay the huge judgment against him.
Ordinarily that would be fairly simple, various interested parties submit bids for whatever is on the block, and whoever bids highest gets it.
But it seems like in this case a significant portion of the 'money' from the 'winning bid' came from families who would receive that money agreeing to forfeit it as part of this particular bid. So the bid was 'we will pay XYZ in cash and defendants ABC will forfeit their claims if we win'. And furthermore, there is a claim of collusion between the winning plaintiffs and the auctioneer. That is of course a huge ethical issue.
One could, without in any way supporting Jones, make the argument that due process is not being followed here and the auctioneer is not maintaining impartiality.
Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no love for the guy. But as much as I dislike him and the awful effect he has on our country, the judicial process must stay neutral. That is the difference between a fair trial and a witch hunt. If it truly was the case that the auctioneer was not neutral, and acted with the goal of ensuring Jones did not maintain any control over InfoWars, then he has an excellent chance of winning this lawsuit and at the very least having a new auction process for his media empire.
the sandy hook families can easily make the argument that alex jones has frequently lapsed and incurred new defamations and that the onion mitigates that harm.
Plus a portion of those damages are punitive so the state has an interest in seeing punitive damages be punishing to set an example.
If sandy hook waives punishment damage because they see justice served in the ruling, that is very much the goal of anti defamation laws.
Just like the legal system allowed him to transfer assets to his father, who is the other party bidding on info wars... he is just trying to buy it with the money he hid during bankruptcy. You have a point but I don't really care anymore if the legal system is a witch hunt with these snakes all the do is lie cheat and steal while I have to be good and maintain a "neutral" justice system for them to fuck everyone else over with.
An auction doesn't necessarily need to go with the highest bidder. Things can be sold to whoever the beneficiary of the sale decides. The families of Sandy Hook are taking less money than they would have otherwise by taking the Onion's bid and they are accepting of that fact that they will get less money as a result. The other outcome is Alex Jones buying his company back or some other company that may use the platform for more continued disinformation. The Onion is the only business that can give confidence that their platforms will continue to push Satire rather than spewing hatred into the world.