There Are No Girls on the Internet - Elon Musk welcomes BFF Alex Jones back to Twitter

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been let back on Twitter after being banned for building a media empire on the lie that the Sandy Hook school shooting wasn't real. When Elon first took over Twitter he said he would never let Jones back on, but that promise turned out to be worth as much as most of Elon’s promises. This week he rolled out the red carpet and sat down for a chit chat in Twitter spaces to talk about how much they both love free speech and hate grieving parents.  In honor of Elon Musk and Alex Jones’s new friendship, we’re re-airing this episode about the defamation trial of Alex Jones in which he was found guilty and ordered to pay over a billion dollars to the families of the victims he profited by lying about. These people make us sick, but enjoy the episode!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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844-844-I-Hart. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the radio 831 podcast, join us Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall. As we unpack all the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now. Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There Are No Girls on the Internet as a production of IHeart Radio and UnBossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.

So we have a little news on the slow downfall of the platform formerly known as Twitter. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been let back on Twitter after being banned from the social media platform and, honestly, most social media platforms for the last five years. Back when Elon Musk first took over Twitter, he started letting a bunch of people who had been previously banned back on, including Donald Trump. And when he was asked if he'd be letting Alex Jones back on, he said that he would never do that because he had a baby that passed. away and he would never allow someone who profited from lies about dead children, which Alex Jones did about Sandy Hook, back on the platform. Tucker Carlson, formerly a Fox News host, who I guess now hosts some kind of a show on Twitter, did a 90-minute interview with Alex Jones, where Jones returning

to Twitter came up. It was really clear that Alex Jones wants to be back on social media. And I guess this whole conversation about him coming back to Twitter must have changed Elon Musk's mind. Because Elon Musk did one of those easily gamified, totally unscientific polls on Twitter, asking people whether or not Alex Jones should be left back on the platform. Side note, I just have to say, I hate it when Elon Musk does those polls. It seems like an attempt to put the onus of whatever he wants to do on the people who vote and then blame them for driving the direction of his business, like totally spineless. Anyway, the choice to let Alex Jones back on Twitter does not bode well for the platform, and it feels like just another signal that the platform is

being overrun by the worst types of grifters, liars, and scam artists. Just like back when Elon Musk was promoting anti-Semitism, it feels like a new low for the platform where people, not to mention advertisers, just don't want to be associated with it anymore. Because Musk did not just let Alex Jones back on Twitter, oh no, he rolled out the digital red carpet for him by hosting a Twitter spaces on Sunday that included former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate, and presidential candidate Vivek Ramoswamy, who might have actually gone to the bathroom without muting during the spaces. Gross. So during Elon Musk's conversation on Twitter spaces with Alex Jones, Alex Jones seemed to imply that the statements that got him booted from

pretty much every social media platform out there were either taken out of context or deep-faced. The whole thing really just did not bode well. When Musk asked Jones about his comments about Sandy Hook, he really just downplayed it like it wasn't a big deal, saying, I had a very small operation and I did not even understand how powerful I was. And so in that event, the school shooting, which I do believe happened 11 years ago, the internet exploded and it was the top story and went on for years. All these professors and former school safety people, all of them said that they believed it was a drill. And I was simply covering that. So I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I not think that we should be letting Alex Jones completely rewrite history in a way that obscures

his culpability for the way that he made a fortune lying about people who lost their babies in Sandy Hook. And Elon Musk might accept Alex Jones's lies that he basically had nothing to do with calling Sandy Hook a hoax, but we don't have to buy that, especially since there are receipts, like he was found liable in court. This man shamelessly lied about Sandy Hook, the kids who lost their lives, and the parents and family who grieved those losses to fatten his own pockets. He was sued by the families for it, and all during the trial, sat on the stand and continued to lie about it. Today, Alex Jones owes the Sandy Hook family's $1.5 billion, and so far, he's not really paying up. He tried to weasel out of it by declaring bankruptcy.

On his show, he called the amount that he was ordered to pay, quote, hilarious, and said, do these people really think they're getting their money? So here's our breakdown of what happened in that trial, and I'm rerunning it in the hopes that it serves as a reminder of exactly what kind of person Alex Jones is and an example of what kind of person Elon Musk thinks should be elevated and given a platform on Twitter. So here's our episode from 2022,

all about the many lies of Alex Jones. Something we talk about a lot on this podcast are the ways that people who traffic in things like lies, conspiracy theory and disinformation are oftentimes doing it because it makes them money. It's a scam. It's a grift. And I think it's important that we frame it this way because I don't think we will ever truly beat disinformation until we make spreading it unprofitable. And right now, spreading lies for profit is a booming business.

Just ask Alex Jones. So on Thursday, a jury determined that conspiracy theorist Info Wars Radio show host Alex Jones will have to pay Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the parents of a six-year-old child who was shot and killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting, $4.1 million in damages. Now, this is a lot less than what the parents had initially asked for, which was at least $150 million, but there's still a chance that he'll have to pay more in punitive damages. This trial was the first of three trials brought by the families of the victims of the shooting. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting happened back in 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut.

20 elementary school kids and six school staff were shot and killed. It was a horrific tragedy, and Alex Jones spent the aftermath of that tragedy, baselessly and repeatedly claiming that it never happened, and that it was staged in order to increase gun control, and that the children who lost their lives and the parents who grieved them were actually actors. Well, they're obviously looking for a big PR, bonanza, and then to bring in it and all, and I think we're such different people. They're real parents, whatever, but when you've got somebody laughing and smell on anyone, watch this, and then walk over, and they start crying for the cameras. Now, this is a pretty well-worn conspiracy theory, and whenever a mass tragedy, like a shooting happens, conspiracy theorists will claim that it didn't really happen and that it was actually a false flag operation.

Like you'll see memes falsely claiming that the people who died were actually actors who were later seen performing in the Super Bowl, or that an actor has been used in multiple mass shootings. At this point, it's really predictable. I saw the same bogus claims floating around the web after the awful, awful shooting in Texas earlier this year. Now, it's not clear if the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories started with Alex Jones, but the families say that Alex Jones, with his millions of listeners,

lit a match and ignited it and turned their lives into a nightmare. Neil Husslin testified that Alex Jones turned his life into a, quote, living hell, and that because of Jones, he'd been harassed and threatened, saying, what was said about me and Sandy Hook itself resonates around the world. As time went on, I truly realized how dangerous it was. My life has been threatened. I fear for my life. I fear for my safety. I can't even describe the last nine and a half years of the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the negligence and the recklessness of Alex Jones. Now, Alex Jones was called in multiple lies during the court proceedings.

Honestly, it would take way too much time to list through all of them here, but here's a little sampling. At one point, the plaintiff's lawyers asked Jones if he had tried to connect Maya Guerrera Gamble, the judge overseeing the trial to things like human trafficking and pedophilia, and he said no. And then the lawyer played a clip of him doing exactly that. Jones went on his show

and noted that the judge once worked for CPS or child protective services. Judge Maya Gamble comes from CPS, who has been exposed for human trafficking and... That's what you mean when you say you're taking this seriously. I take this a serious to cancer. And in one of the more bizarre lies that I have ever seen happen in a courtroom,

Jones testified that he searched his own cell phone for any mention of Sandy Hook and that he didn't find anything. So that means he did not give any text messages about Sandy Hook from his phone to the court as evidence, because, as he said, there weren't any. But that turned out to be a lie, which was revealed in the most ridiculous way you could ever imagine. Apparently, Jones's attorneys accidentally sent the content of two years' worth of text messages from his cell phone to the plaintiff's attorney. And then after the plaintiff's attorney did what they were supposed to do and told them this, Alex Jones's attorneys took

no action to remedy it. So that's how it was determined that there actually were tax messages on Jones's phone pertaining to Sandy Hook, and that he failed to turn them over to the court as evidence and lied about it. Pretty badly, I should add. Mr. Jones, did you know that 12 days ago, 12 days ago, your attorney's messed up and sitting an entire digital copy of your entire cell phone with every text message you've sent for the past two years and when informed, did not take any steps to identify it as privileged or protected in any way. And as of two days ago, it fell free and into my possession. And that is how I know you lied to me. This led the judge to giving Jones a pretty stunning reminder that he is obligated to tell

the truth because he's under oath, which I feel like if the judge in court has to remind you that you can't lie, like something is going wrong. Things are not going your way. You're already under oath to tell the truth. You've already violated that oath twice today in just those two examples, it seems absurd to instruct you again that you must tell the truth while you testify, yet here I am. You must tell the truth while you testify. This is not your show. You need to slow down and not take what you see as opportunities to further the message you're wanting. Let's take a quick break. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy,

not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. There's that worst singer in the group? The worst?

Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, You only got in because your parents made a huge donation. The group. The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yardt, but they're open.

Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle-aged, one erection. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Huber me. I need some jokes to make me seem funny. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting, think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora.

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So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. So we're breaking down the Alex Jones trial for a defamation lawsuit brought by the parents of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims. And some of the different lies that Alex Jones got caught in during the proceedings. Jones also lied about being bankrupt. Basically, he is being accused of suing himself. According to Reuters, the Sandy Hook family said that the company could not be trusted to make accurate statements about its finances, and that Jones took $62 million from the company while burdening it with $65 million in, quote, fabricated debt owed to a company that he himself owns

to try to make it seem like he has less money than he actually does to avoid having to pay more in damages. But, despite what he might have tried to say in court, Alex Jones actually makes really, really good money telling lies about the families of murdered children. After the plaintiff's attorneys got the contents of his cell phone from that ridiculous mistake that Alex Jones's own lawyer made, Jones had to admit in court that he is not as cash-strapped as he tried to say he was.

In fact, he admitted that during some peak periods, the Info War store can rake in as much as a whopping $800,000 a day and that he takes in $300 million annually. Now, Jones has also tried to say that he lost lots and lots of money after being de-platformed from major social media platforms back in 2018. But actually, as Vox points out, contrary to Jones's repeated assertions, he actually became more financially profitable after his company was permanently deplatformed. You might recall that Apple was the first to pull Jones' podcast from their platform.

and then other big tech companies like Facebook and Twitter followed suit. And it would not be an episode of this podcast if I didn't get in a little dig at Facebook. After Jones was de-platform from Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened to softened rules to allow his content to continue to be posted on the platform by Jones as followers, according to a report from BuzzFeed. So this is something that I think is really key. Harmful lies, disinformation, and conspiracy theories are, lucrative. Info Wars makes a lot of money from peddling harmful conspiracy theories that ruin people's

lives, people who were already grieving for the most painful loss imaginable, and caused real-world harm in doing so. People like Alex Jones, who traffic in lies, do it in part because it makes them money. They're grifters and scammers, and there is no limit to how low they will stoop, even lies about dead children to make a profit. And even though this $4.1 million judgment really isn't a lot of money, like it kind of sounds like it might be a drop in the bucket for somebody like Alex Jones, I still do hope that it sends a message that doing this, trafficking in harmful lives that hurt people and ruin people's lives for profit comes at a cost. And I want to end with some of the most powerful testimony that I think we saw, which came from Scarlett Lewis, Jessie's mom, who spoke directly to Alex Jones, in the courtroom. Truth is so vital to our world.

Truth is what we base our reality on. We have to agree on that to have a civil society. Sandy Hook is a hard truth, hard truth. Nobody would want to ever believe that 26 kids could be murdered. Nobody would ever want to believe that. I understand people not wanting to believe that, actually. I don't want to believe it. Jesse was real.

I am a real mom. There's nothing out there. Nothing. There's records of Jesse's birth, of me. I mean, I have a history, and there's nothing that you could have found. Because it doesn't exist, that I'm deep state. It's just not true. I know you know that. That's the problem. I know you know that. And you keep saying it. You keep saying it. Why? Why? For money? Because you've made a lot of money while you've said it. And she's right. Alex Jones has made a lot of money lying about her son and harming her family. And that's really the thing here. Listen, I am glad that the jury awarded Scarlet Lewis and Neil Hesland some money for what Alex Jones put them through because it sounds like hell.

And I hope they get even more impunitive damages. Frankly, I hope the families that Alex Jones has hurt take him for everything he's got. But I know that money cannot bring back their son, Jesse. And it can't turn back the clock on the last few years that Alex Jones has spent lying about their son, weaponizing his death, and getting its followers to harass and threaten them. And it can't undo the damage done to all of us. When harmful lies are platformed, it makes us all less safe. We saw this on January 6th.

it can empower and embolden really dangerous people. And we cannot have a healthy digital landscape if these kinds of dangerous lies are also profitable because it will just incentivize trafficking in them. Let's build a world where scammers like Alex Jones can't get rich off of peddling the kinds of lies that tore Scarlet and Neal's life apart. We all deserve better.

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Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tarry Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, write and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from IHartRadio, check out the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band

with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Joey Dardano. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian.

I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you. know. Listen to Help from Hippocrite Wednesdays on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are we all so obsessed with romance? On the Radio 831 podcast, join us, Sanjana Basker, and Tyler McCall, as we unpack all the trending tropes, fuzzy adaptations, book talk drama, and celebrity love stories with hot takes and sharp guests. Each episode digs into what these stories reveal about desire, fantasy, identity, and how we love now.

Listen to the Radio 831 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.