Recently the creator of Pepe the Frog sued Alex Jones for stealing his image. Jones is now the subject of yet another lawsuit, this time for spreading disinformation about the horrifying events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia last August.
A MYSTERIOUS WHITE POWDER
A Virginia man by the name of Brennan Gilmore, age 38, filed the suit against two media outlets and seven individuals including Jones. Gilmore claims that the false story that the defendants told damaged his reputation and led to him receiving threats, including a package containing a mysterious white powder.
Alex Jones and his website Infowars were at the forefront of the conspiracy theory that drove Gilmore to file the suit.
No one will soon forget the video of protestor Heather Hayer being mowed down by a white supremacist named James Fields driving a sports car. It was Gilmore who took that unfortunate video that later went viral.
Jones and his minions all accused GImore of working for the “deep state.” They said he was part of a more massive conspiracy to damage the reputation of President Donald Trump.
DEVASTATING REAL-WORLD CONSEQUENCES
The lawsuit points to the hundreds of thousand times the videos and articles about Gilmore were viewed. The Virginia man is seeking damages totaling more than $75,000.
The defendants listed on the lawsuit include:
- Reporter Lee Stranahan
- Scott Crieghton, operator of the website American Everyman
- Jim Hoft, who runs the website Gateway Pundit
- Free Speech Systems LLC, which is the organization that operates the Infowars site
- Former Florida Congressman Allen West, owner of the website allenwest.com
- Infowars reporters LeeAnn McAdoo
- Derrick Wilburn, the author of an article for allenwest.com that named Gilmore
UNFAZED AND UNAPOLOGETIC
None of those mentioned in the court document seem repentant. Hoft, the one that called GImoore a shill for the “deep state,” defended the article, yet said he does not condone violence.
“A lot of the information is correct as far as I know,” Hoft said.
Stranahan appeared in a video by Infowars with McAdoo. At that time, he pointed to a post in which Gilmore called Heyer a “martyr.” Stranahan said then that Hayer was being “used as a martyr,” to undermine Trump’s presidency.
“I pride myself on being factual,” Stranahan said.
McAdoo deflected, saying that she never mentioned Gilmore by name. She explained that during her interview with Stranahan she merely mentioned Gilmore’s political leanings and called for an investigation.
Creighton defended a blog post he made as well as a video he posted that implied Gilmore had prior knowledge of the attack.
“What I reported was not fake news… it is my opinion,” explained Creighton.
FAKE NEWS
Gilmore, like the rest of us, hope that this lawsuit will make conspiracy theorists like these think twice before spreading propaganda.
“If my case makes these conspiracy theorists think twice about just outright attacking someone without any type of journalistic review, then good,” Gilmore said.
For his part, Alex Jones released an hour-long video in response to the lawsuit. In it, he rejects the accusation that any of the information Infowars reported was knowingly false.
A recent study on Twitter found that fake news is about 70% more likely to be retweeted than actual news.
Feature Image via YouTube Video
