
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.