This is the first ever episode of the Isolated Incidents podcast. A monthly dive into the stories that journalists have put out covering the world of far-right and the grifters that inhabit it. When I first came up with the idea it was before the pandemic so I didn’t think to necessarily cover the anti-vax devotees but as the worlds of right-wing grifters, politicians and radio hosts expands we'll cover those too. First a little bit about me. I’m Zach D Roberts an investigative journalist and photographer who has been covering the far right for over a decade. I followed Trump and his MAGA caravan on the 2016 campaign trail which then slid into the far-right rallies like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, my photos helped get some of the violent white supremacists thrown in jail, and since then I’ve been going to MAGA rallies, fascist marches, and white supremacist clusterfucks. Now as the movements have evolved and after January 6th they’ve somewhat gone into hiding its anti-mandate’ anti-vaxx and mask rallies that I cover - which are really just the new MAGA rally… with a lot of new faces. As this is the first episode of Isolated Incidents we’re focusing on the OG conspiracy broadcaster - Alex Jones. Well, actually that would probably be either Art Bell or Bill Cooper or even some John Birch Society connected loon … I’m sure we’ll talk about them in the future. Last month I spoke to journalist Brooke Binkowski who has been tracking Jones for a while now, delving into his coverage of the Sandy Hook mass killing in 2012 for the Texas defamation lawsuit brought by family of the murdered children. His refusal to provide the requested information to the multiple lawsuits against him by the parents of the murdered Sandy Hook children saw default judgments in Texas and Connecticut. He’s currently attempting to raise $2 million to save his disinformation empire, he’s even talking about selling his tank. Right-wing broadcaster Alex Jones is once again, in legal trouble. Last week, the January 6th Commission has subpoenaed him. A letter from the Commission, signed by Congressman Bennie Thompson has called on Jones to provide documents pertaining to his part in the organization of the rally and the subsequent march that he participated in to the Capitol. The Commission cites his “facilitating a donation to provide what he described as “eighty percent” of the funding.” Jones used his megaphone and live broadcast to call on people during the allegedly impromptu Jan 6th march to head in the direction of InfoWars guest, Ali Alexander’s permitted rally location on the East side of the Capitol. The Commission does not seem to be claiming that he was part of a planned attack on the Capitol but was part of the larger move on the day to march to the building. On January 6th, the broadcaster repeatedly told his listeners that Trump personally ordered him to lead such a march. The subpoena sites multiple instances on his broadcasts in the leadup to January 6th that the rally was going to be something bigger than a goodbye to the one-term President. The rallying cry of 1776 Former President Trump tweeted out “Big Protest on January 6th, Be there will be wild!” - in response, the loudest cheerleader for MAGA responded: But finally Trump has done the right thing. .. . He is now calling on We the People to take action and to show our numbers. . . . This is the most important call to action on domestic soil since Paul Revere and his ride in 1776. The time for games is over. The time for action is now. Where were you when history called? Where were you when you and your children's destiny and future was [sic] on the line? I've been on the air 27 years, and I've never reported on anything that comes as close to being this huge. This is seismic. • • • And if you allow this multinational consortium to steal our election, you have committed not just us, but yourselves, to a living hell. . . . Trump is trying to do a lot of good things. And he is our President and he was reelected. Roger Stone, the originator of the phrase “Stop the Steal” and mentor to already subpoenaed Ali Alexander has also himself been today subpoenaed. With the previous subpoena of Ali Alexander and Nathan Martin much of the Stop the Steal leadership has now been called. Stone and Jones have a record of not complying with subpoenas and Alexander has claimed on his private Telegram channel that he will not participate with the Commission. Brooke Binkowski is the editor of TruthofFiction.com a fact checking news site and is the former managing editor of Snopes.com. You can find all the legal documents here: https://infowarslawsuit.com/ I recommend listening to the Knowledge Fight podcast if you want to learn more about the world of Alex Jones but also laugh about it. http://knowledgefight.libsyn.com/
