A federal judge ruled this week that Alex Jones' Infowars media business can be auctioned off starting next month to help pay the $1.5 billion settlement owed to the families of Sandy Hook school shooting victims.
The settlement stems from defamation lawsuits filed after Jones claimed the 2012 shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six adults was a hoax. It’s the largest defamation award ever issued in US history.
The Sandy Hook families argued that his repeated false statements caused them severe emotional trauma and harassment, and in 2022, both Jones and his media company filed for bankruptcy.
While the mainstream media celebrates Alex Jones' downfall, some have raised concerns about the First Amendment implications of stripping someone of their own business. Critics also point to the dangerous precedent of bankrupting a person over their political speech, no matter how disliked or controversial it may be.
Over the summer, conservative commentator Steve Bannon was arrested on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee and refusing to provide them with related documents.
The 2022 sentencing memo cited Bannon’s use of inflammatory rhetoric against Democratic officials as part of the justification for his four-month prison sentence in addition to a $200,000 fine.
Bannon had the book thrown at him for contempt of Congress when, just recently, the House of Representatives held Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to provide audio recordings from President Joe Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur.
The Justice Department declined to pursue charges against Garland.
What the media gets wrong
There's an undeniable pattern of state and federal officials aggressively targeting those in Donald Trump’s orbit — and right-leaning people generally.
Similar to Bannon, former White House aide Peter Navarro was jailed for contempt of Congress, while Roger Stone, a long-time Trump ally, was also imprisoned. General Michael Flynn faced indictment but was later pardoned by Trump.
Over 1,100 Trump supporters have been charged for being involved in the January 6 riot — though many of their charges are non-violent — right-wing journalist James O'Keefe’s home was raided by the FBI, libertarian commentator Tim Pool’s home been raided multiple times, and Elon Musk and his Trump-supporting PAC are both under investigation. Meanwhile, Trump himself has faced two impeachments, an FBI raid on his home, and four indictments.
Despite all this, the left is concerned over the possibility that Trump might prosecute political enemies. While left-wingers in government and the media relentlessly prosecute their opponents on the right, they fail to apply the same level of scrutiny to their own side.
