___________________________________________________________
(date)
Federal
Communications Commission, Enforcement Bureau
Investigations
& Hearings Division
445
12th Street, SW
Washington,
D.C. 20554
RE:
Violation of FCC Hoax Rule
Radio
Station Call Letters: _____________________
Community
of License: _______________________________________________________________
To
whom it may concern:
Over
time, Alex Jones, on his radio program, has falsely claimed that the Sandy Hook
school shooting was a hoax; that no children were shot; that the grieving
parents were actually paid actors; and that the entire shooting, which took the
lives of 20 children and six adults was staged by gun control advocates to
further their agenda.
As
a result of broadcasting this misinformation on our publicly owned airwaves,
several parents of the slain children have been targeted by Jones’ listeners
with threats to their lives. As a
result, Leonard Pozner, whose six-year old son Noah Pozner was one of the
victims, received threatening voicemails: “You gonna die. Death is coming to
you real soon.” The caller, Florida woman Lucy Richards, was convicted and sentenced
to five months in prison. Pozner and his wife have relocated seven times to
avoid harassment based on Jones’ remarks. Each time they have moved, their new
locations have been published online. “Sometimes I lie awake at night worrying
that despite our efforts at security, a determined conspiracy fanatic might
gain entry to our home,” said Noah’s mother, Veronique De La Rosa in a court
declaration. Added her husband, “Due to Mr. Jones’ broadcast, I have also
suffered severe emotional distress and trauma which I cannot even begin to
adequately describe. No human being should ever be asked to suffer through the
torment Mr. Jones carried out.”
Other
Sandy Hook parents have faced similar threats. There are currently several
court cases against Alex Jones for perpetrating this hoax which has damaged
peoples’ lives. The legal complaints say Jones does not actually believe the
shooting was a hoax, but nevertheless he has repeatedly accused Sandy Hook
families of faking their family members' deaths.
It
is bad enough that Alex Jones is willfully lying about the veracity of one of
the most heinous crimes ever committed in these United States. But Jones’ is
using the nation’s publicly owned radio airwaves to spread these lies and to
encourage his listeners to act, causing direct harm to innocent individuals who
have already suffered more grief than any of us can know.
Radio
station licensees are required as a condition of their licenses to “serve the
public interest.” Clearly, Jones is serving his own interest, and this radio
station is complicit in causing harm to those people who have suffered the most
in the loss of their precious children.
Jones
is in clear violation of the FCC’s rule against airing hoaxes. Section 73.1217
of the Federal Communications Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R. § 73.1217,
prohibits broadcast licensees or permittees from broadcasting false information
concerning a crime or a catastrophe if: (1)
the licensee knows this information is false; (2) it is foreseeable that
broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm; and (3)
broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public
harm.
Did
the licensee of this radio station know that the Sandy Hook school shooting was
real? Clearly it did. Was it foreseeable that broadcasting these lies would
cause substantial public harm? Yes, it
was. Jones broadcast statements have knowingly caused public harm before. Did the broadcast in fact directly cause
public harm? It did. And Jones continues to do so.
The
FCC hoax rule also states the following: “If a station airs a disclaimer before the
broadcast that clearly characterizes the program as fiction and the disclaimer
is presented in a reasonable manner under the circumstances, the program is
presumed not to pose foreseeable public harm.”
As his lawyers once told a judge, Alex Jones is a
“performance artist,” not a news man.
I respectfully ask the FCC and the licensee of this
station to enforce the FCC’s hoax rule which requires this conspiracy program
to be clearly labeled as “fiction” so listeners will know Jones is not dealing
in fact.
What
follows is a partial list of Jones’ incendiary statements, as taken from court
documents which victims of Jones’ abuse have filed. All of
these are believed to have been broadcast on his radio program. Find the
court filings here: https://firstamendmentwatch.org/infowars-alex-jones-face-defamation-suits-sandy-hook-parents/
Many
include clips curated by the watchdog group Media Matters and from actual
broadcasts. Some reference YouTube clips of the broadcasts which are no longer
available online, as YouTube, along with Facebook and other private social
media companies have removed Jones’ content for repeatedly violating their
standards of decency. Here is a
compilation: https://www.facebook.com/Mediamatters/videos/10155483202056167/
Hoaxes
Broadcast on Alex Jones’ Radio Program
May
13, 2014
122.
On May 13, 2014, The Alex Jones Radio Show broadcast an episode advertised on
YouTube under the title “Bombshell: Sandy Hook Massacre Was A DHS Illusion Says
School Safety Expert."24
123.
That day, Jones hosted Wolfgang Halbig.
124.
During this video, Halbig stated: “I think the reason they're not answering
those questions 'cause I think it's going to expose their whole scam.”
23
The Alex Jones Channel, Dr. Steve Pieczenik: Sandy Hook was A Total False
Flag!, YouTube (Mar. 27, 2013),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EfyD7Wu5fQ&t=18s. 24 Alex Jones Channel,
Bombshell: Sandy Hook Massacre Was A DHS Illusion Says School Safety Expert,
125.
Jones asked Halbig, “What are the big smoking guns... what are the big red
flags?”!
126.
Halbig responded, “The red flags is that you're looking at $29 million ... and
there are 39 other community nonprofit organizations within Newtown that
received a lot of funds."
Jones
interjected: “You're saying a motive for the locals to go along with the fraud
127.
is money."
128.
Later, Jones prompted Halbig, “What about the kids going in circles, back and
forth, the same people, into the school for the helicopters; it looked like a
fake drill ... just go through those points.”
129.
Jones summarized, stating, “The cover up is the prima facie proof of the larger
crime, and that we're being lied to."
130.
He continued, “The whole thing, you've got 'em jumping the gun . . . that
Bloomberg was saying get ready the day before, get ready to fundraise on mass
shootings ... had a false start, didn't you, Bloomy."
131.
Jones was asserting that former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg knew
about the shooting beforehand. The clear implication of this statement is that
the shooting was "staged" and a hoax.
132.
Halbig understood Jones. He responded, “Children did not die, teachers did not
die, on December 14, 2012.”
133.
Halbig further stated, “Alex, we've never had a time in our history, where
Sandy Hook, a school massacre, the biggest illusion ever portrayed by Homeland
Security and FEMA."
134.
During that show, Jones stated, in reference to the Sandy Hook shooting,
"I mean it's fake ... it's fake ... you've got parents acting ... it just
is the fakest thing since the three dollar bill.”
135.
A reasonable person would understand these statements to assert that the Sandy
Hook massacre was staged, and that the plaintiff fabricated the death of his
wife.
On
information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's radio affiliates.
The audience for this broadcast has
included hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people
May 27, 2013
116.
On May 27, 2013, Dr. Steve Pieczenik appeared on the Alex Jones Radio Show in
an episode advertised on YouTube under the title "Sandy Hook was A Total
False Flag!"
117.
During that appearance, Pieczenik stated, “Sandy Hook was a total false flag.
There was no individual involved; there was no Asperger's; there was no 24 kids
who were killed."
118.
In the parlance and narratives of mass-shooting conspiracy theorists,
"false flag" is the idea that a shooting or other attack was staged
by the government or other powerful forces.
119.
A reasonable person would understand these statements to assert that the Sandy
Hook massacre was staged, and that the plaintiff fabricated the death of his
wife.
On information and belief, this episode
was also broadcast through Jones's radio affiliates.
December
28, 2014
164.
On December 28, 2014, during The Alex Jones Radio Show, Jones took a call from
Kevin, a listener who called in claiming to live close to Newtown,
Connecticut.27
165.
Kevin said, “I'm calling about Sandy Hook. My take on it is ... The whole thing
is pretty much the next step in reality TV, because with other false flags,
like 9/11 or Oklahoma City, or the Boston bombing, at least something happened.
With Sandy Hook, there's no there there. You've got a bunch of people walking
around a parking lot, pretty much what it comes down to.”
166.
Jones interrupted Kevin. “No, no, I've had the investigators on the state
police have gone public, you name it,” he said. “The whole thing is a giant
hoax. And the problem is, how do you deal with a total hoax? How do you even
convince the public something's a total hoax?”
167.
Kevin responded, “I always tell people the same thing: go out and prove the
official story. And... I know the millisecond this happened, with that now-fake
picture of the kids being led out of the school, that there's nothing that's
going to sell this agenda like dead elementary school kids."
168.
Jones interrupted Kevin again. “The general public doesn't know the school was
actually closed the year before,” he said. “They don't know they've sealed it
all, demolished the building. They don't know that they had the kids going in
circles in and out of the building as a photo-op. Blue screen, green screens,
they got caught using.”
169.
Jones continued, “People just instinctively know that there's a lot of fraud
going on. But it took me about a year with Sandy Hook to come to grips with the
fact that the whole thing was fake. I mean, even I couldn't believe it. I knew
they jumped on it, used the crisis, hyped it up. But then I did deep research
and my gosh, it just pretty much didn't happen.”
170.
A reasonable person would understand these statements to assert that the Sandy
Hook massacre was staged, and that the plaintiff fabricated the death of his
wife.
On
information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's radio
171.
affiliates.
27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGCfi otOCU.
The
audience for this broadcast has included hundreds of thousands, if not
millions, of people.
January
13, 2015
178.
On January 13, 2015, during a broadcast of The Alex Jones Radio Show, Jones
said, "Yeah, so, Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in
my view, manufactured. I couldn't believe it at first. I knew they had actors
there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how
bold they are, that they clearly used actors. I mean they even ended up using
photos of kids killed in mass shootings here in a fake mass shooting in Turkey—
so yeah, or Pakistan. The sky is now the limit. I appreciate your call."
On
information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's radio affiliates.
The audience for this broadcast has
included hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap-DvMOMOY
March 4, 2015
182.
On March 4, 2015, The Alex Jones Radio Show broadcast an episode now advertised
on YouTube under the title “New Bombshell Sandy Hook Information In-Bound.”29
183.
Jones hosted Halbig on that episode.
184.
During the broadcast, Jones asked Halbig to explain why Sandy Hook was
"completely phony."
185.
Halbig stated the school was not in operation at the time of the shooting.
186.
Jones stated that the school was suddenly reopened, received a “falling
report" [sic], and did not look like a real school.
187.
Halbig stated that it was the “most filthiest [sic] most deplorable school” and
"loaded with lead paint... asbestos ... PCP.”
188.
Halbig stated that trauma helicopters were not called and that paramedics were
not allowed to enter the school.
189.
Jones stated, “I'm saying it was a drill, a giant piece of theater, did they
really kill some kids? I don't know.”
190.
Referring to video of parents of children killed in the shooting, Jones stated
that "they ... bring in actors to break down and cry... used the same actors
as different people.”
191.
Both Jones and Halbig stated that Connecticut police ate lunch inside the
school the day of the shooting.
192.
his questions. Halbig encouraged listeners to contact the Newtown school board
and ask them
194.
On information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's
radio affiliates.
The
audience for this broadcast has included hundreds of thousands, if not
millions, of people
May
28, 2015
196.
On May 28, 2015, Infowars Nightly News broadcast an episode now advertised on
YouTube under the title: "Sandy Hook: The Lies Keep Growing."30
197.
David Knight hosted Halbig on Infowars Nightly News.
30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI3KVj2nVRA.
198.
Halbig accused Newtown police chief Mike Kehoe of committing perjury.
199.
Halbig once again appeared, and stated that the school was unsanitary and
unsafe.
200.
Halbig's website was repeatedly advertised and listeners were encouraged to
support him financially.
201.
A reasonable person would understand Halbig's statements to assert that the
Sandy Hook massacre was staged, and that the plaintiff fabricated the death of
his wife.
202.
On information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's
radio affiliates.
The
audience for this broadcast has included hundreds of thousands, if not
millions,
203. of people.
July 7, 2015
213.
On July 7, 2015, The Alex Jones Radio Show broadcast a video now posted on
YouTube with the title “Retired FBI Agent Investigates Sandy Hook: MEGA MASSIVE
COVER UP.933
214.
Jones noted, referring to the May 29, 2015 video, “I knew that we'd sent a
reporter Da tadi there for days, to cover the city council hearings about it,
the fact that they're sealing everything."34
215.
"[T]he more we look at Sandy Hook," he said, “I don't want to believe
it's a false flag. I don't know if kids really got killed, but you've got green
screen with Anderson Cooper ... and then his nose disappears. It's fake! The
whole thing, it's—I don't know what happened.”
216
He continued, "It's kind of, you see a hologram at Disney World in the
haunted house. I don’t know how they do it, it's not real. When you take your
kids to the haunted house and there a ghosts flying around, it's not real, it's
staged ... I don't know what the trick is here, I got a good suspicion. But
when you've got Wolfgang Halbig.... he went and investigated, no paperwork, no
nothing, it's bull.”
217.
Later, Jones stated, “But what about how for a mass shooting in Pakistan, they
got photos of Sandy Hook kids," and referring to an Infowars article,
stated, "it's like the same P.R. company is running this .... and then
they try to hit us with fake copyright deals whenever we show this."
218.
Jones put the article on the screen and read the headline: "Mystery: Sandy
Hook Victim Dies (Again) in Pakistan."
219.
A reasonable person would understand these statements to assert that the Sandy
Hook massacre was staged, and that the plaintiff fabricated the death of his
wife.
220.
On information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's
radio affiliates.
The
audience for this broadcast has included hundreds of thousands, if not
millions,
221. of people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c1179t7
; https://www.mediamatters.org/embed/clips/2016/11/29/51284/gcn-alexjones-20150707-shooting ;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YV1eWq8YSc. ;
https://www.youtube.coin/watch?v=iC0e3qlgyFA.
November
17, 2016
222.
On November 17, 2016, the Alex Jones Show broadcast an episode in which Alex
Jones claimed that he had never claimed that Sandy Hook was a hoax. Almost
immediately thereafter, he rehearsed a number of his common arguments that
Sandy Hook was a hoax.
223.
These included that “Anderson Cooper is using a green screen, his nose
disappears"; "they have kids going in circles back into the
buildings"; "the building was closed years before”; “it was filthy”;
“no emergency helicopters were launched”; and “they're sealing the death
certificates and everything."
224.
Jones continued, “we've sent reporters up there, man, and that place is like
Children of the Corn or something. I mean it is freaking weird."
225.
Jones further referenced "weird videos of reported parents of kids
laughing and then all of a sudden they do the hyperventilating to cry to go on
TV," suggesting that parents of children killed at Sandy Hook were
acting.35
226.
A reasonable person would understand these statements to assert that the Sandy
Hook massacre was staged, and that the plaintiff fabricated the death of his
wife.
227.
On information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's
radio affiliates.
The
audience for this broadcast has included hundreds of thousands, if not
millions,
228. of people.
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2016/ 11/17/trump-ally-alex-jones-doubles-down-sandy-hook-conspiracy-theories/214524
November
18, 2016
229.
On November 18, 2016, Jones broadcast a video now advertised on YouTube under
the title, "Alex Jones Final Statement on Sandy Hook."
230.
During that video, Jones stated, “I want to reach out to my listeners as well
and just clarify where I stand on the reported tragedy at Sandy Hook that took
place at that elementary school."
231.
He continued: “For the last three or four years, it's been mainstream media's
number-one attack against me to say that I said there was never anyone that
actually died there. I've hosted debates against both sides, and I've been
criticized by both sides people that say that no one died there and people who
say that the official story is exactly as we've been told. And I've always said
that I'm not sure about what really happened, that there's a lot of anomalies
and there has been a cover-up of whatever did happen there.”
232.
He stated: “There's a few clips Hillary used in her campaign of me out of
context saying I can see how people that look at all this evidence say no kids
died there and this whole thing is a giant hoax, but at the same time there is
some evidence that people died there. They take that out of context and misrepresent
it. That's why they're the deceptive corporate media. But for those who do have
an attention span for, say, 10 minutes or so, I will present to you the
questions. And I'm going to be quite frank, I don't know what really happened.
I know there are real mass shootings. I know people lose children. I'm a
father. It hurts my heart. So I don't know what the truth is. All I know is the
official story of Sandy Hook has more holes in it than Swiss cheese."
233.
Jones rehearsed several of his most commonly employed arguments that the Sandy
Hook shooting was staged, including that Anderson Cooper was standing in front
of “a blue screen or a green screen,” that video was “looped," and that
“one of the reported fathers of the victims . . . [was] doing classic acting
training."
234.
In closing, Jones said, “This is a tragedy. I wish it never would have
happened. But quite frankly, I wish that the official story was true because
that's a lot less scary than them staging something like this. But when you
think about how they staged (weapons of mass destruction] to kill million
Iraqis, when you think about all the other hoaxes, all the other lies, all the
other rigging, and the way they're freaking out about it and trying to cover up
every level of it, it just makes me ask what really happened there?"
235.
The clear implication of these statements is that the accepted account of Sandy
Hook—that the plaintiff lost his wife in the shooting—is false, and that the
plaintiff has fabricated his wife's death.
236.
On information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's
radio affiliates.
The
audience for this broadcast has included hundreds of thousands, if not
millions,
237. of people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxwnPqwxeag ; https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2016/
11/17/trump-ally-alex-jones-doubles-down-sandy-hook-conspiracy-theories/214524 ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwudDfz1yAk .
March 8, 2017
250.
On the March 8, 2017 edition of The Alex Jones Show, Jones hosted Eddie Bravo.
251.
During the interview, Bravo stated, “Dr. Steve Pieczenik, and you got some heat
for this, this is kind of changing the subject a little bit. Dr. Steve
Pieczenik, on your show, said that no kids died at Sandy Hook, that it was a
homeland security drill that they passed off as “real”
252.
Jones stated, “He says that. And I've been hit really hard with it. I can't
prove it one way or the other. I know Anderson Cooper is standing up there and
turns and his whole nose disappears. I work in TV, I know what a blue screen
is, bro."
253.
A reasonable person would understand Jones and Bravo to have been stating that
the Sandy Hook massacre was faked, and that the plaintiff participated in a
fraud that was based on lying about the death of his wife.
254.
On information and belief, this episode was also broadcast through Jones's
radio affiliates.
The
audience for this broadcast has included hundreds of thousands, if not
millions,
255. of people.
Alex
Jones's June 18, 2017 Counter-Programming
311.
Meanwhile, as the interview played on NBC, Jones himself was broadcasting a
live play-by-play video commentary on Infowars.
312.
The Sandy Hook segment of the NBC interview began with a Megyn Kelly voiceover
describing Jones's statements that Sandy Hook was a hoax. As the voiceover
played, Jones said, “Babies in the incubators.”
313.
As evidenced by statements recounted previously in this complaint, “babies in
the incubators" is a well-established Alex Jones metonym for a staged
event.
314.
This statement is properly interpreted as a reiteration and reaffirmation of
Jones's previous statements that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged and that no
children died there.
315.
Later, as his statement that he “looked at all the angles of Newtown" in
the NBC interview played in the background, Jones said, “I said I thought it
happened before they were picked up. They never showed my final analysis.”
316.
This statement appears to be an admission that Jones never actually believed
that Sandy Hook was a hoax, even as he maintained unequivocally that it was.
317.
On information and belief, these statements were also broadcast on Alex Jones's
radio affiliates.
318. Hundreds of thousands, if not
millions, of people heard these statements.
The
Sandy Hook lies were not the only one perpetrated by Alex Jones over this radio
station. Jones admits to broadcasting false information in seven radio broadcasts about yet another conspiracy which resulted
in violence:
46.
On November 27, 2016, for instance, Jones spoke at length about “Pizzagate,” a
baseless conspiracy theory alleging that Democratic operatives were running a
child-sex ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant. He urged his
followers to “investigate” the matter.
47.
“You have to go investigate it for yourself," he told them. “But I will
warn you, this story that's been the biggest thing on the internet for several
weeks, Pizzagate as it's called, is a rabbit hole that is horrifying to go down
. . . . Something's going on. Something's being covered up. This needs to be
investigated.”
48.
Jones's followers came running to his call, as he knew they would.
49.
The pizzeria received hundreds of threats. Its owner told The New York Times,
“[W]e've come under constant assault. I've done nothing for days but try to
clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized.”
50.
The owner and staff, along with some of their families, were harassed on social
media websites. The owner received death threats. Even musical groups that had
performed at the pizzeria and nearby businesses were harassed.
51.
On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a self-described Alex Jones
follower, drove from Salisbury, North Carolina, to Washington, D.C., and fired
three rounds into the pizzeria with an AR-15-style rifle.
Welch
told police that his objective was to "self-investigate” the Pizzagate
conspiracy theory. In fact, just days before embarking on his violent
“self-investigation,” Welch urged a friend to watch "PIZZAGATE: The Bigger
Picture," an Infowars video.
53.
Shortly thereafter, Jones removed his November 27, 2016 video and scrubbed
references to his advocacy of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
54.
Similarly, many of the persons who have directly harassed or abused Sandy Hook
families have been motivated by Jones's urging that his listeners
“investigate."
Again,
I respectfully ask the FCC and the
licensee of this station to enforce the FCC’s Hoax Rule which requires this
conspiracy program to be clearly labeled as “fiction” so listeners will
know Jones is not dealing in fact.
If the FCC and/or the licensee does not act, as a
member of this community, I will object to the license renewal of this radio
station.
Sincerely,
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