'The truth against Alex Jones': The first trial of 'fake news'

The news, worthy of 'El Mundo Today', serves as an accompaniment to the main course of 'Infowars': the four hours of daily streaming of 'The Alex Jones Show', which sports the tagline of “the most censored news program in the world.” . The most followed propagator of hoaxes and conspiracy theories in the United States was sentenced in 2022 to pay $965 million to the families of the Sandy Hook massacre for defaming them. But there it is still, intoxicating from his podcast without him having paid a single dollar in compensation. His story is told in a creepy documentary released on HBO Max, 'The Truth Against Alex Jones'.

In December 2012, a gunman shot indiscriminately at a Connecticut preschool, killing 20 children and 6 teachers before committing suicide. That same day, Alex Jones (Dallas, 1974) dared to maintain that it was all a hoax to more strictly regulate gun ownership: there had been no dead children and his parents were actors. He needed no more evidence than a distorted video, in which a distraught father smiled nervously before appearing in front of journalists. The proof that he was lying.

25% of Americans firmly believed that Sandy Hooks was an invention of the Government and the media. Parents were insulted in the street and harassed online. Some received calls from Jones' followers, claiming that they were urinating on her six-year-old son's grave because it was empty. A book was published, 'No One Died at Sandy Hook', and demands that the bodies be unearthed to prove the conspiracy. The torment lasted ten years, until the parents united and put Alex Jones on trial.

Over the course of four years, HBO managed to record the two trials against the founder of 'Infowars', which did not seek so much to dismantle his unsustainable theory as to sink him financially so that he could not continue spreading hoaxes. “Americans have the right to choose what to listen to and what to believe,” defends Jones' lawyer in this era of the so-called post-truth, where 'fake news' always finds more receptivity than truthful and verified information.

Alternative facts

Cornered by the evidence, the accused has no problem recognizing that, indeed, he was not right and the massacre occurred. He appeals to freedom of expression, although as one lawyer remembers, “telling lies and false news is not protected in the First Amendment.” The first trial of 'fake news' concluded with a verdict worthy of a thriller with a happy ending, although 'Infowars' continues to broadcast and the convicted person had only to declare bankruptcy.

Just as grotesque as the manipulation of reality is Jones' way of getting rich: selling vitamin and iodine supplements to purify poisoned tap water. The 30-milliliter bottle of Survival Shield costs $24. The greater the nonsense that the presenter defends, the more traffic the website accumulates and the more sales are produced. Republican supporters of 'alternative facts', including former President Trump, who appeared on his show, have made Jones very rich: it is estimated that he has amassed a fortune valued between $135 million and $270 million through a network of front companies.

Obama, Hillary Clinton, immigrants, vaccines, the trans community and the media have been the betes noires of the denier, who started on a small local station in the early 90s launching conspiracy theories about the massacre of the Davidian sect in Waco and the Timothy McVeigh attack in Oklahoma. Twitter suspended his accounts in 2018 for inciting hatred and promoting violence with his posts, but last year Elon Musk consulted X users and returned one of his speakers. He already has 2.2 million followers. “What is the reason for the sharp increase in mass murderers with gender dysphoria?” he asks in one of his latest tweets.