A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down Alex Jones’ Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.
In an “emergency” motion filed Sunday in Houston, trustee Christopher Murray indicated publicly for the first time that he intends to “conduct an orderly wind-down” of the operations of Infowars’ parent company and “liquidate its inventory.” Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the assets in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case, did not give a timetable for the liquidation.
Jones has been saying on his web and radio shows that he expects Infowars to operate for a few more months before it is shut down because of the bankruptcy. But he has vowed to continue his bombastic broadcasts in some other fashion, possibly on social media. He also had talked about someone else buying the company and allowing him to continue his shows as an employee.
Having listened to 800+ episodes, my impression of Alex Jones is that he’s equal parts reactionary right winger and moneymaking huckster. He generally skims headlines and makes up a take that’s compatible with his “the globalists are out to get us” stuff, most of which is based in white grievance identity politics.
Take this for what it’s worth. I’m a socialist. But it’s worth listening to an episode or two of the podcast to get a glimpse of Alex’s typical stuff. Most people who have an impression of Alex as a truth teller haven’t spent a lot of time with his show.