Truth in a Post-Truth Era: Sandy Hook Families Sue Alex Jones, Conspiracy Theorist
Image by Sean P. Anderson
In three separate lawsuits, the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims as well as an FBI agent who responded to the shooting seek damages from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for defamation, reports The New York Times.
Jones has claimed that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six adults at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., was an elaborate hoax invented by government-backed “gun grabbers.”
Reporter Elizabeth Williamson writes that, “The families allege in one suit, filed by Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder in Bridgeport, that Mr. Jones and his colleagues ‘persistently perpetuated a monstrous, unspeakable lie: that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged, and that the families who lost loved ones that day are actors who faked their relatives’ deaths.’”
Plaintiffs in a suit filed Wednesday challenged any First Amendment defense: “The First Amendment has never protected demonstrably false, malicious statements like the defendants’.”