How is everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
This week, in a Texas courtroom, a jury awarded talk show host/hoaxer/conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay over $45 million to families who lost children in the 2012 Sandy Hook murders.
For almost a decade, Jones, who runs a company called Infowars, has profited off spreading bogus theories that the shooting had been part of a government plot to confiscate Americans’ firearms and that the victims’ families had been complicit in the scheme.
The mother of one of the Sandy Hook victims, Scarlett Lewis, said, “This is an important day for truth, for justice, and I couldn’t be happier.”
I just finished a book on the Sandy Hook murders and the troubling hoaxer culture around the horrific incident. The book is titled, “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth” by Elizabeth Williamson (a New York Times reporter who covered the Texas trial this week). The book is a fascinating – and disturbing – look at internet conspiracist groups, many of whom took Jones’ lead a decade ago and have spent years harassing the parents of children murdered at Sandy Hook in December of 2012.
And while the eight-figure punitive award will likely be overturned on appeal (Texas has a cap law on punitive jury awards) the shocking number sends a vital message, even if largely symbolic – the willful spread of misinformation has its costs. Those who engage in such behavior will pay a steep price.
But unless a prison term is in Jones’ future, don’t expect the verdict to result in an elimination of The Cranks.
Defining the First Amendment and what can and cannot be labeled protected speech – as Jones argued throughout the court hearings – will continue to be a front lines battle in this country. There will never be a shortage of muckrakers to cloud the internet when there is a buck to be made by monetizing untruths.
If anything, Hoax Hustlers will be emboldened by what happened in Texas Friday.
But knowing all of that and the rightful skepticism of anything really changing, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Sandy Hook families for turning an incomprehensible tragedy into an uncommon feat.
Bravo to them for standing up to evil and winning.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
Crime in Major Cities: Fear vs. Reality.
We all might perceive changes happening around us. One of those being crime, as the media wants us to believe the sky is falling every hour of every day. A new analysis by Bloomberg shows that yes, crime is up, but stories about crime are up even more. Reporters are only allowed to write one story per murder, right? As Bloomberg explains in this piece: “Perhaps nowhere has the perception of rampant crime overpowered the reality more than in New York City, where the murder rate has certainly increased in recent years but is nowhere near where it was in the 1980s and 1990s.” More people are being murdered, but it’s not as bad as the peak of murders.
“None of them noticed the fall. One moment, Adam Rawski was with them on the mountain. The next, he was gone.” With a grab-you-by-the-throat lede, writer Kelsey Vlamis of Insider tells a thrilling adventure story about a mountaineer who fell 1,000 feet while summiting North America’s tallest peak, Denali. At every switchback of this winding, whirlwind tale, another surprise awaits you. If a fan of disaster/adventure long form writing as I am, you’ll dig this compelling read.
This is an older article from Chicago Magazine via 2018. Since then, gun violence in Chicago has escalated, mass shootings a regular occurrence. We send trite “thoughts and prayers” messages to the victims and their families but what about medical personnel on the front lines? What can we learn about gunshot wounds from talking to ER doctors in Chicago: “Younger patients are ridiculously resilient. They can be shot 20 times, you give them 50 units of blood, they walk out of the hospital.” Or this quote from the piece: “We don’t take the bullets out. If we find them, great. But they’re like splinters, they work their way out. Nobody gets shot just once. Everybody is shot four or five times.” Terrific interviews in this oral narrative from the magazine.
Vin Scully, Arguably the Best Baseball Broadcaster Ever, Dies at 94.
In 1950, a 22-year-old graduate of Fordham University sat down in the press box in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, NY and called his first professional baseball game. He did the same for a total of 67 seasons spanning seven decades and two coasts. That broadcaster, Vin Scully, died this past week at the age of 94. While known as the lead announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers (and Brooklyn Dodgers before their move to California in 1958) Scully was much more than just a baseball broadcaster. He had a gift of language that transcended the game. The great Joe Posnanski, who publishes the Joe Blogs newsletter, pens a fitting obituary to the one-of-a-kind Scully.
The World’s 10 Best Places to Live.
Whenever I scan over a list-type article, my first thought is, ‘have I seen/listened/read/visited any of these places/things?’ Any first person knowledge/experience can frame the legitimacy of the list. This ranking piece from Conde Nest Traveler ranks the 10 most desirable places to live on the globe. Turns out I’ve visited four of them – Zurich and Geneva, Switzerland; Vancouver and Toronto, Canada (no U.S. cities). The one ranked spot I’d leave for tomorrow if handed ticket? Melbourne, Australia. Enjoy this list, fantasize or book a trip.
Florida remains the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to wacko animal stories. This one originates in a town called Sun City Center (south of Tampa on the gulf side of the state) where residents are up in arms over the infestation of hungry hogs that have turned their otherwise tranquil community into a personal pigpen. Imagine going out for your morning walk and seeing hundred-pound feral hogs feasting on manicured lawns – and when no food is secured, turning their fury on humans. “The moms will charge you, so I didn’t want to be out there,” said one resident. As much as I appreciate the weather and openness of Florida, these stories remind me how I’ll take a pass on permanent residency.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.