Posted on 08/10/2022 9:57:06 AM PDT by Subcutaneous Fishstick Blues
During Monday’s transmission of MSNBC‘s “The Beat With Ari Melber,” the host touched on last week’s Alex Jones Sandy Hook lawsuit verdict that resulted in a jury issuing a $50 million fine against the Infowars founder.
Melber’s segment explained the precedent set by the Jones trial will now be used to take out other media personalities and outlets countering establishment narratives, which will be a death blow to the First Amendment.
“This is actually a larger warning for other liars and conspiracy theorists in our society and our politics,” the MSNBC host said. “It’s a rebuke and a punishment that we believe according to a lot of legal experts will set a new precedent.”
Explaining what the Jones case could mean for others, Melber cited a current $1.6 million defamation suit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems.
Next, Melber laughably said he was going to interview an expert on “lies” before introducing Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief David Corn.
The wide-eyed anchor asked Corn what the Alex Jones trial could mean for other outlets and personalities and he answered, “Right now we see Dominion not just suing Fox. Dominion Voting is suing OAN, it’s suing Newsmax, it’s suing [former NYC mayor] Rudy Giuliani, it’s suing the pillow guy, it’s suing [attorney] Sidney Powell.”
Moving on to what he claimed is an even bigger issue, Corn said, “We’ve seen conspiracism take deep root within the Republican Party and the conservative movement over the last five, ten, fifteen years. Alex Jones helped put it there, he wasn’t the only one who did this. Trump did it with birtherism.”
“The whole conspiracy theory industry has sort of subsumed the Republican Party and the conservative movement,” he added before telling viewers the Alex Jones verdict spells trouble for other controversial figures.
Finally getting to the big elusive fish the political establishment has been trying to hook for years now, Corn said, “Donald Trump went out on election night and claimed there was fraud, claimed… you know the Big Lie started immediately without having any evidence, any facts.”
The Mother Jones DC Bureau Chief also claimed former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr was subpoenaed in the Dominion case against Fox because he told Trump “the conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting machines is total crap.”
This sentiment being promoted on mainstream cable news echoes what attorney Wesley Ball admitted during the closing arguments of the Alex Jones Sandy Hook trial last week.
“I ask that with your verdict you not only take Alex Jones’ platform away, I ask that you make certain he can’t rebuild the platform. That’s what matters. Take him out of this discourse of this misinformation, of this peddling of lies and make sure he can’t do it again. That is punishment. That is deterrence,” Ball said.
“I hope we never see someone like him again… Alex Jones is patient zero for alternative facts,” the attorney argued, proving the case is less about the families and more about the establishment’s war on free speech.
While I think Alex Jones is an absolute idiot and embarrassment, I don’t see how or why he should be sanctioned and fined for exercising his first amendment right to speak out. This was defaming a person by name, he didn’t yell fire, etc. It is just words, stupid words, stupid ideas. Nothing defensible about the content of what he’s said, but the first amendment gives him the right to say it. I think they appeals or supreme courts will and should throw this out.
Can MSNBC be sued? Isnt it defamatory to report a private citizen is a Russian asset to try and destroy him as a political candidate without any evidence?
Stay strong. It’s a badge of honor to be called names by Sorosbot/Zelensky warmongering scumbags. They don’t have anything else to offer but their deranged hate. Every last damn one of those trolls should be kicked off FR.
Good to know. Thanks. This is not something I follow closely. I’m glad I commented because I learned something.
In an Infowars show from January 13, 2015, Jones told a caller that "Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured."
"I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors," he said.
In another episode published on December 28, 2014, Jones said the shooting was a "giant hoax" and falsely claimed that "the whole thing was fake."
"You're still on your show today trying to say that, implying, that I'm an actress, that I'm deep state. You have, this week. And I don't understand," Lewis told jones on Tuesday.
Should this ruling tell MSNBC and the others to get ready for Nick Sandmann’s Brinks trucks to start backing up to their loading docks?
Well, if that’s their opinion, no, you can’t.
But statements of fact are not statements of opinion. It’s very sad commentary so many around here no longer know the difference in those two concepts. Facts and evidence are merely someone else’s opinion. We are becoming more like the Left every single day.
Re: 4 - Good grief, grow up.
Buzz off, Constitution hater.
The problem (even ignoring the left vs right) issue is that “facts” are not always super obvious and most “facts” rely on assumptions that often turn out to be little more than opinions.
The Russia/Ukraine conflict is a classic example.
Most Freepers cannot agree on even the most basic facts of the history behind the conflict, much less who is at “fault”.
That is part of why defamation law is a very dangerous tool for anything remotely related to politics and political speech.
Yeah, a closely cropped 1.5 second video. It was clearly cut out of a discussion with zero context. Guaranteed the full clip would not be hun saying he thought it was certain. That’s him referring to what others said. That is why you cannot post the clip.
Should be easy to find, shouldn’t it?
now that the ground work is laid..
use this awful decision on MSNBC and other liberal outlets
lets sue hillary for calling us deplorables.
Yes, it will surely help those families bring their lost child back to life.
Sorry. To me, the scale of the award is lawyer grift and parent greed.
This is actually a larger warning for other liars and conspiracy theorists in our society and our politics,” the MSNBC host said. “It’s a rebuke and a punishment that we believe according to a lot of legal experts will set a new precedent.”
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Well if it will stop MSNBC/LSD from lieing and promoting conspiracies about the rightwing and election integrity that would be ok with me.
But it won’t and it’s not.
Oh, they know all right. So do the posters that are assigned to debate this issue.
Shush, CINO!
MSNBC actually thinks it’s a news organization
It seems like what the censors (here and elsewhere) want is for talk show hosts to say “Sorry, I would like to answer that question but if I did I could get sued.”
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