InfoWars

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For the 2004 film, see Info Wars.
InfoWars
Infowars Logo with Natural Earth Map Background.svg
Tomorrow's News Today
The Most Banned Network in the World
If you are receiving this transmission, You are the Resistance
There's a War on for Your Mind!
InfoWars.com homepage.png
Homepage of Infowars.com
Web address www.infowars.com
Type of site
 Politics
News and opinion
Registration None
Available in English
Owner Alex Jones (via Free Speech Systems LLC)
Alexa rank
 2,699 (Global, October 2018)
Current status Active

InfoWars is a conservative and libertarian American news website owned, founded, and published by the controversial radio host Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and is owned by Jones via Free Speech Systems LLC. It is widely described in the leftist mainstream media as being "far-right", "alt-right", and promoting conspiracy theories and fake news.[13] Its headquarters (which they dub as the "Central Texas Command Center") is located at an undisclosed location in Austin, Texas, where its studios are located and where its talk shows and other content for the site are created.[14]

The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making its reach greater than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek.[15][16] InfoWars earns revenue from the sale of products pitched by Jones during the show.[17]

The website is involved in a number of controversies. In February 2018, Jones was accused of discrimination and sexually harassing employees.[18] InfoWars, and in particular Jones, advocate numerous views described by the media as conspiracy theories, particularly around purported domestic false flag operations by the U.S. government (which they allege include the 9/11 attacks and Sandy Hook shootings). InfoWars has issued retractions various times as a result of legal challenges.[19][20] Jones has also had contentious material removed, or been suspended or banned from various social media websites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Apple.[21][22][23][24]

History

Alex Jones with Paul Joseph Watson

InfoWars was created in 1999 by American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who remains its controlling influence.[25][26] InfoWars features The Alex Jones Show on their broadcasts and was established as a public-access television program aired in Austin, Texas in 1999.[25]

During the 2016 presidential election, the website was promoted by bots connected to the Russian government.[27]

In 2016, Paul Joseph Watson was hired as editor-at-large.[28][29] In February 2017, political commentator Dr Jerome Corsi was hired as Washington bureau chief,[30] after InfoWars was granted a White House day pass.[31] The Guardian has accused Corsi, who is Catholic, "of being anti-Islamic, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic and homophobic, and of exploiting racial prejudices in an attempt to 'scare white America'".[32]

In May 2017, Mike Cernovich joined the InfoWars team as a scheduled guest host for The Alex Jones Show,[33] with CNN reporting the "elevation to InfoWars host represents the meteoric rise in his profile".[34]

In June 2017, it was announced Roger Stone, a former campaign advisor for Donald Trump, would be hosting his own InfoWars show "five nights a week", with an extra studio being built to accommodate his show.[11]

In March 2018, some of the biggest brands in the U.S. suspended their ads from InfoWars' YouTube channels, after CNN notified them.[35]

In July 2018, YouTube removed four of InfoWars' uploaded videos that violated its policy against hate speech and suspended posts for 90 days. Facebook also banned Jones after it determined four videos on his pages violated its community standards in July 2018.[21][22] In August 2018, YouTube, Apple, and Facebook removed content from Jones and InfoWars, citing their policies against hate speech and harassment.[23]

Structure

Staff

The following table lists InfoWars main staff members.[36]

Infowars staff
Name Role
Alex Jones Publisher & Director
Paul Joseph Watson Editor & Staff Writer
Steve Watson, Adan Salazar, Kit Daniels, Mikael Thalen, Jamie White Associate Editor & Staff Writer
Anthony Gucciardi Contributing Writer
Rob Dew Nightly News Director
David Knight, Jakari Jackson, Lee Ann McAdoo, Joe Biggs, Millie Weaver, Owen Shroyer Reporter
Jon Bowne, Clifford Cunningham, Dan Lyman Correspondent
Jerome Corsi Author & Correspondent
Jon Rappoport, Shepard Ambellas Contributor

Business aspects

While Jones has stated, "I'm not a business guy, I'm a revolutionary", he spends much of InfoWars air time pitching health-enhancement and survivalist products to loyal viewers. As a private firm, Infowars and its affiliated companies ("a web of limited-liability companies") do not have to report make public financial statements, so that observers can only estimate its revenue and profits.[17]

Prior to 2013, Jones focused on building a "media empire".[37] By 2013, Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon estimated that Jones was earning as much as USD$10 million a year between subscriptions, web and radio advertising, and sales of DVDs, T-shirts, and other merchandise.[38]

That year, Jones changed his business model to incorporate selling proprietary dietary supplements, including one that promises to "supercharge" cognitive functions.[37]

Unlike most talk radio shows, InfoWars itself does not directly generate income. It gets no syndication fees from its syndicater GCN, no cut of the advertising that GCN sells, and it does not sell its three minutes per hour of national advertising time. The show no longer promotes its video service (though it still exists), and has not made any documentary films since 2012.[37] Virtually all money is made by selling Jones' dietary supplements to viewers and listeners.[37]

The diet supplement products sold on Infowars are "largely produced by Dr. Edward F. Group III, a Houston chiropractor and founder of dietary-supplement-maker Global Healing Center".[37]

A lesser source of revenue for InfoWars are its "money bomb" telethons, which resemble "public-radio fund drives", except that InfoWars is a for-profit institution. Charlie Warzel reports that "three former Infowars "employees told BuzzFeed News that a money bomb could easily raise $100,000 in a day".[39]

As of 2014, "operations were bringing in more than $20 million a year in revenue ... according to testimony Mr. Jones gave in a court case". Most of his revenue in 2014 "came from the sale of products like supplements", according to records "viewed by The New York Times".[17] 2014 court proceedings also show that InfoWars was successful enough for Jones and his wife at that time to be planning to "build a swimming pool complex ... featuring a waterfall and dining cabana with a stone fireplace. Mr. Jones bought four Rolex watches in one day in 2014, and spent $40,000 on a saltwater aquarium. Assets of Jones and his wife at the time "included a $70,000 grand piano, $50,000 in firearms and $752,000 in silver, gold and precious metals".[17]

The loss of social media platforms from being banned by Facebook, YouTube, Apple, Spotify and Pinterest may have led to appeals by Jones to viewers: "The enemy wants to cut off our funding to destroy us. If you don't fund us, we'll be shut down."[17]

Controversies

Promotion of conspiracy theories and fake news

InfoWars disseminates various conspiracy theories, such as speaking against the HPV vaccine[40] and claiming that the Las Vegas shooting was part of a conspiracy.[41]

InfoWars advocates New World Order conspiracy theories, 9/11 conspiracy theories, chemtrails, conspiracy theories involving Bill Gates, supposed covert government weather control programs, claims of rampant domestic false flag operations by the US Government (including 9/11) and the unsupported claim that millions voted illegally in the 2016 US presidential election.[42][43] Jones frequently uses InfoWars to assert that new high-profile mass shootings are conspiracies or "false flag" operations, claims which are often then spread.[44][45] This has been characterized as Second Amendment "fan fiction".[46]

Infowars has published and promoted fake news,[47] and Jones has been accused of knowingly misleading people to make money.[48] As part of the FBI's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Infowars was investigated to see if it was complicit in the disseminating of fake news stories put out by Russian bots.[49]

From May 2014 to November 2017, InfoWars republished articles from multiple sources without permission, including over 1,000 from Russian state-sponsored news network RT, as well as a smaller number of stories[quantify] from news outlets such as CNN, the BBC, and The New York Times.[50][51]

Claims of false flag school shootings

InfoWars has regularly accused mass shootings of being false flags and survivors of them as crisis actors by the United States government. InfoWars host Alex Jones has promoted the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting conspiracy theories. Jones was widely criticized for claiming that the Sandy Hook massacre was "completely fake" and "manufactured".[52]

In March 2018, six families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as well as an FBI agent who responded to the attack filed a defamation lawsuit against Jones for his role in spreading conspiracy theories about the shooting.[53][54][55][56]

Jones has also accused David Hogg and other survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting of being crisis actors.[57]

Harassment by InfoWars viewership

InfoWars promoted fabricated Pizzagate claims. The fake claims led to harassment of the owner and employees of Comet Ping Pong, a Washington, D.C. pizzeria targeted by the conspiracy theories, including threatening phone calls, online harassment, and death threats. The owner sent a letter to Jones in February 2017 demanding a retraction or apology. (Such a letter is required before a party may seek punitive damages in an action for libel under Texas law).[58]

After receiving the letter, Jones issued an apology in March 2017. Alex Jones said that "I want our viewers and listeners to know that we regret any negative impact our commentaries may have had on Mr. Alefantis, Comet Ping Pong, or its employees. We apologize to the extent our commentaries could be construed as negative statements about Mr. Alefantis or Comet Ping Pong, and we hope that anyone else involved in commenting on Pizzagate will do the same thing." InfoWars also issued a correction on its website.[59]

InfoWars reporter Owen Shroyer also targeted East Side Pies, a group of pizza restaurants in Austin, Texas, with similar fake "Pizzagate" claims. Following the claims, the pizza business was targeted by phone threats, vandalism, and harassment, which the co-owners called "alarming, disappointing, disconcerting and scary."[60]

Chobani retraction

In 2017, InfoWars (along with similar sites) published a fake story about U.S. yogurt manufacturer Chobani, with headlines including "Idaho yogurt maker caught importing migrant rapists" and "Allegations that Chobani's practice of hiring refugees brought crime and tuberculosis to Twin Falls". Chobani ultimately filed a federal lawsuit against Jones, which led to a settlement on confidential terms in May 2017. Jones offered an apology and retraction, admitting that he had made "certain statements" on InfoWars "that I now understand to be wrong".[19][20]

Sexual harassment and antisemitism claims

In February 2018, Alex Jones was accused by former employees of antisemitism and sexual harassment of women staff members. Jones denied the allegations.[61][62]

Two former employees filed complaints against Jones.[63]

Removals from other websites

On July 27, 2018, Facebook suspended the official page of pundit and political commentator Alex Jones for 30 days. The website claims that Jones participated in hate speech against Robert Mueller.[64] This was swiftly followed by action from other bodies- on August 6, Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify all removed content by Alex Jones and InfoWars from their platforms for violating their policies. YouTube removed channels associated with Infowars, including The Alex Jones Channel, which had gained 2.4 million subscriptions prior to its removal.[65] On Facebook, four pages associated with InfoWars and Alex Jones were removed due to repeated violations of the website's policies. Apple removed all podcasts associated with Jones from its iTunes platform and its podcast app.[23] On August 13, Vimeo removed all of Jones' videos because they "violated our terms of service prohibitions on discriminatory and hateful content".[66]

Jones' accounts have also been removed from Pinterest,[67] MailChimp[68] and LinkedIn.[69] As of early August, Jones still had active accounts on Instagram[70] and Twitter.[71][72] Twitter, however, ultimately decided to permanently deactivate Jones' account as well as the InfoWars account in September 2018.[73]

Jones tweeted a Periscope video calling on others "to get their battle rifles ready against antifa, the mainstream media, and Chicom operatives".[74] In the video he also says, "Now is time to act on the enemy before they do a false flag." Twitter cited this as the reason to suspend his account for a week on August 14.[75] On September 6, Twitter permanently banned InfoWars and Alex Jones for repeated violations of the site's terms and conditions. Twitter cited abusive behavior, namely a video that "shows Jones shouting at and berating CNN journalist Oliver Darcy for some 10 minutes during congressional hearings about social media."[24] On September 7, 2018, the Infowars app was removed from the Apple App Store.[76] On September 20, 2018, PayPal informed InfoWars that they would cease processing payments in 10 days. The reason cited was that Infowars' "promotion of hate and discrimination runs counter to our core value of inclusion."[77]

Hosts

Alex Jones

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Main article: Alex Jones

Alex Jones is the main host, and operator of InfoWars. The show is a platform for other hosts as well.

Owen Shroyer

Owen Shroyer (born 1989) is an American political activist and commentator from St. Louis, Missouri who now lives and works in Austin, Texas. He hosts the afternoon news program War Room with Owen Shroyer which airs after The Alex Jones Show. He is allegedly (by the mainstream media) considered to be part of the US alt-right movement.[78]

Shroyer previously worked as an AM radio host in St. Louis on KXFN and later KFNS.[79][80] He began hosting a podcast and posting YouTube videos of his views.

Shroyer has been quoted as supporting conspiracy theories about the Clinton family.[81]

In July 2016, Shroyer stopped CNN presenter Van Jones in the streets of Cleveland and attempted to engage him in an unscheduled on-camera debate. Van Jones participated willingly, and put forward well-constructed arguments, leading Shroyer to admit his opinion of Van Jones had changed favorably following the encounter.[82][83][84]

On September 2, 2017, while covering a pro-immigrant rally that took place in Austin, Texas, for InfoWars, Shroyer repeatedly put questions to protesters. He started to question a teenager, Olivia Williams, about her views. She, in return, called him a "fucking idiot", leading to international coverage of the incident.[85]

In November 2017, Shroyer was quoted as saying that Trump supporters outnumbered anti-Trump protesters at an antifa rally held in Austin on November 4, 2017.[86] Infowars headlines had previously supported a conspiracy theory that the event would be the beginning of a planned "insurgency" against Trump, although Shroyer had said he did not believe antifa was a real threat.[87]

Harrison Hill Smith

Harrison Hill Smith (born 1989 in Houston, Texas) is the host of The American Journal which airs every Monday-Friday mornings.

Other hosts

Other hosts on the show include Paul Joseph Watson, Kristi Leigh, Mike Adams, Pete Santilli, David Icke, Robert Barnes, Del Bigtree, Jason Bermas, Gerald Celente, Wayne Allyn Root, Kate Dalley, Jay Dyer, Clay Clark, Patrick Hawley, Royce White, Maria Zeee, and Chase Geiser.

Notes

References

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  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Jackie Wattles (May 17, 2017). "InfoWars' Alex Jones apologizes for saying Chobani supports 'migrant rapists'". CNN .
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 David Montero (May 17, 2017). "Alex Jones settles Chobani lawsuit and retracts comments about refugees in Twin Falls, Idaho". Los Angeles Times.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "YouTube removes 'hate speech' videos from InfoWars". BBC News.
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  58. ↑ Article 4. Liability in Tort, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Chapter No. 73. Libel of June 14, 2013
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External links

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