Alex Jones agrees to liquidate his assets to pay Sandy Hook families, in move that would end his ownership of Infowars - eviltoast
  • Nobody@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The liquidation of Jones’ assets does not mean that Infowars will cease to exist. Several outcomes are possible. The court-appointed trustee could sell the business to another owner, for instance.

    Don’t celebrate too soon. Some shadowy investors are going to bail him out.

    • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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      5 months ago

      The families are not super money motivated. They could just accept the company in the same way OJ Simpson lost his book rights.

      Accept the company as payment and put up a youtube video of the set getting burned in the parking lot. After all infowars become a wikipage debunking every single lie told on the program.

      • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        But the brands value is in the personality. Killing info wars only creates an opportunity for him to create Schminfo Schwarz with little hiccup. Buying sets and whatnot with business partners is trivial. People make podcasts in their closets at home.

        • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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          5 months ago

          That is always going to happen but losing the infowars brand is really bad and the cost of reestablishing a recognizable brand from basically scratch is very expensive and difficult. I would argue that losing the brand is worse for him than any other asset he has.

          • Pfeffy@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            The brand means nothing. It literally just means Alex Jones to everyone. If Alex Jones isnt on info wars then infowars dies. Wherever Jones goes he’ll do the same thing and have the same audience.

            • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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              5 months ago

              People keep saying that but every time a chud gets deplatformed their numbers gets decimated. A lot follows you but not everyone and growth takes a massive hit because all the boomers finding the show on Facebook will try to go to infowars because that’s where the 2 year old video is telling you to go.

              Video backlog is fucked, SEO is fucked. They can go ahead and search for Alex Jones but you only get results of him getting fucked but not where to go because the new website doesn’t have good standing yet with Google because nobody is linking to your new page.

              • Pfeffy@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                He hasn’t been deplatformed. He lost a brand name that is synonymous with himself. He can add a 2 to his web addresses and be right back where he is in a few days. Frankly all this attention he’s getting from the media will probably just help him accomplish that. His listeners are total morons, but they are also addicted to his bullshit. Addicts find their shit, Even the dumb ones.

                • Fisk400@feddit.nu
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                  5 months ago

                  Losing your brand and website is being deplattfomed. People act like it’s a binary thing where deplattforming either needs to wipe you off the face of the earth or it was pointless. The disruption will cost him viewers because while he sets up a new base his viewers will get bored and go to watch other things.

                  Not everyone will get bored, but enough people will move on for it to be a real concern for Alex Jones.

                  Ask any creator on the internet how bad a disruption in viewership is.

                  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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                    5 months ago

                    Alex Jones is a hydra and Infowars is but one of his heads.

                    Infowars, itself, means nothing. Killing it will do no good.

                    He is the brand. And what’s worse, his followers live for bad press.

                  • Pfeffy@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    Losing your brand and website is being deplattfomed. People act like it’s a binary thing where deplattforming either needs to wipe you off the face of the earth or it was pointless

                    Sorry but words have meanings and he’s lost no access to any platform as a result of this.

                    The disruption will cost him viewers because while he sets up a new base his viewers will get bored and go to watch other things.

                    I hope if this ever actually happens you’ll come back and rub it in my face. I’m not going to bother taking a note because it isn’t going to happen and you won’t. In reality, every trump voter that didn’t listen to Alex Jones already is going to watch the news and start regardless of whether it’s on Infowars or Infowars. 2.

                    Ask any creator on the internet how bad a disruption in viewership is.

                    That’s your job brother. You go ask some and come back and prove your point with their answers. It’s not my job to try to beat my own point. I’m sure they don’t like it but I also don’t give a s***. Andrew Callaghan seems to have bounced back just fine.

                    And frankly, it’s just silly for you to compare Alex Jones to YouTubers or whatever you are considering content creators to be.

            • Billiam@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              The brand means nothing. It literally just means Alex Jones to everyone. If Alex Jones isnt on info wars then infowars dies

              Yep. Pop-quiz for anyone (not you, Knowledge Fight wonks!):

              Can you name literally any other host who has a show on InfoWars, without looking up their names?

              • Pfeffy@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                I’m a knowledge fight wonk but if I wasn’t I’d say “that guy that failed to marry Christina Ricci”

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        The most devastating insult they could accomplish, if they’re simply handed his assets relatively untouched, is to turn it into a reputable, top-tier news organization. Now that would be delightfully karmic.

    • formergijoe@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      He’s been telling his listeners not to buy from his store, but to buy directly from his dad’s website (who is a sponsor on his show and sells their “health” products though the show).

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        For those who don’t get it: If they buy from the Infowars store, those assets can be seized. If they buy from his dad, the assets are protected because his dad wasn’t the one who got sued. It’s a very blatant asset-hiding scheme.

        Imagine if the owner of a big brand were going bankrupt and had to sell off all of their assets, (including the holdings for the store.) So instead, they start telling people to buy from their dad’s store, which is virtually identical in every way and the only difference is that the money ends up in your dad’s account instead of yours. It’s intentionally poisoning the asset seizure, by refusing to continue operating as a shop prior to your bankruptcy.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      I think it’s more likely that someone else buys it for the audience it already has, not for Alex, and uses that for good or ill. It could end up as more of the same, or it could get much better or worse.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The sandy hook families do have a say in this process (they turned down a “let jones use his ad revenue to pay them back” plan)

    • suction@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Of course, there are many billionaires in the US who would spend what for them is nothing but small change to bail Jones out and setup a new operation for him. Musk, the Kochs, the Mercers, the list goes on.

    • ATDA@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Ok or I could multiply my eggs before they hatch by hoping Soros or some other right wing boogie man buys it haha