Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fact-Checking

 Sandy Hook Defamation Trial

Brief

 

According to merriam-webster.com Misinformation refers to incorrect or misleading information. Indubitably, a great deal of paranoid and otherwise irresponsible. It is quite common for news outlets to provide misinformation to the public as well as people in your everyday life due to the lack of factual content. Misinformation can be alarming to the public because if they are continuously seeing the false content over and over and it sets confusion, belief, and finally realization in your mind once the facts are known.

 

Podcasts have become a staple for information and opinions in the YouTube community over the past two years. 

 

It is said on Globalnews.com that these creators and/or groups have been notable for spreading misinformation that can sometimes be biased. 

 

The Scandal

 

The Sandy Hook tragedy is known worldwide and is known as the day in 2012, where everyone started to become more caring and protective for their children. The tragedy was that 20 children and six teachers were wrongfully murdered by a school shooter. cnn.com

 

Since the story was well-known, everyone was giving their condolences to the children, parents of the children, as well as the teachers and their families. Podcaster Alex Jones took to his platform and disregarded the tragedy as a global disaster in the education and safety of the world by saying that he believes that it was a joke or trick.

 

The real question is who would go out of their way to plan a practical joke to endanger the youth and educators. From his statement, I felt like he was insinuating that it was pre-rehearsed to which we all know it was not, but possibly premeditated.

(Clip ends at 1:44). (Clip starts at 0:55 - 1:50)

 

To add, Alex Jones is a conspiracy theorist who believes beyond the belief of other opinions dealing with supernatural or superficial facts that he believes are true to him. Since he is known for being the person that he is, it was believable to many that his statement could potentially be true. That is also known as having influence - changing a person or thing in an indirect but important way.

 

Consequences 

 

After the cruel and unjust claim made by Alex jones, he was summoned by the families to pay 1.44 billion dollars (about $4 per person in the US) for the claims as well as an extras $473 dollars for spreading the alleged claim. 

 

                                                       

His Remarks

Today and all the years after his takedown, he still believes that it was not a real tragedy and that it all did not actually happen, though when he was on trial he said that he knows that it did happen.

This is not the first time that he has gotten in trouble with the law, viewers, and civilians over his lack of empathetic statements, but in fact one out of three that included the Connecticut Defamation Trial and Massacre of Newton. bbc.com

Closing Remarks 

 The career and following that Alex Jones had has tremendously depleted or in this generation has 'canceled' him. I would hope that he has learned his lesson from the amount of death threats, legal issues, and his conscious to stop, but there are people in this world who have no remorse for their actions.