Voices to marginalize

I’m a strong supporter of the first amendment and of free speech in general. I think that we should allow, and in most cases, even welcome, voices different from our own, controversial people, and a diversity of speech in a variety of formats. I believe the government has almost no legitimate role in suppressing speech of any sort.

That doesn’t mean though, that any of us are obligated to provide the megaphone, podium, radio or television airwaves, or print space. There are some people whose views are so abhorrent, that we should actively marginalize them.

That doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to speak. I’ll defend always their rights just as much as mine because it is important to allow for unpopular opinions. But, we don’t have to be the ones to promote these people.

So, who are the people who I would exclude? A pretty small number. I like hearing from people with whom I disagree, and this column has given me that opportunity many times. But if I had a paper of my own (a problem you’ll likely never see me burdened with), there are just a handful of categories of people I’d leave out: Those who lie constantly, those who use hatred against any group (based on sex, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) and those who promote violence against anyone, other than in self-defense.

Now, when I speak of promoting hatred and bigotry, I don’t mean just common bias. I’m not referring to people who might disagree on a particular policy or who make a prejudicial statement occasionally or out of ignorance. I mean those who actively promote bigotry and hatred.

So, from my criteria, one person clearly meets them all: Alex Jones.

Jones is a radio host, hate-monger, and conspiracy theorist whose work rarely seems to consider the truth. He peddles in vitriol and cares nothing for facts. He has argued that the US government has faked moon landings, and was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing. Just recently, due to Jones, NASA had to publicly state that they are not, in fact, running a child slave colony on Mars.

More perniciously, Jones alleged that the Sandy Hook school shootings were faked by the government in order to justify gun control legislation. Child actors were hired to portray the dead and no one actually died.

This would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic. Family members of dead children received threats and were called by fans of Jones and told that their children were part of a hoax. Memorial signs were stolen and people who aided the victims were harassed.

Another of Jones’ conspiracy theories was Pizzagate: The claim last year that Democratic operative John Podesta’s stolen emails contained coded messages and that the party, and its nominee, Secretary Clinton, were running a child pornography ring through restaurants. (Apparently, ‘cheese pizza’ is code for ‘child porn’).

With no evidence, Jones peddled this ridiculous charge and restaurant owners were harassed. One man, armed with a rifle, went to a restaurant to check out what was going on and fired multiple shots.

Jones’ hatred, lies, and rampant anger are well documented, but it has rarely cost him. He still has advertisers and recently, former Fox News, and current NBC News host, Megyn Kelly hosted him for an interview.

The interview backfired on NBC however, as Sandy Hook parents organized and advertisers finally balked. Jones himself double-crossed her, leaking audio he secretly recorded with Kelly discussing the negotiations for the interview.

For her part, Kelly gives the age-old explanation that sunshine is a disinfectant and because Jones is influential, interviewing him was a service. We’ve heard this before, perhaps most prominently from Geraldo Rivera, when he hosted Klan members and other bigots for shock value on his shows. The white supremacists loved the attention, and the spotlight, rather than disinfecting, only gave attention and credence to their hate.

One might note that President Trump also meets the criteria I specified. He lies repeatedly — far more than other politicians of either party, and more brazenly, and he peddles in bigotry and promotes violence.

While Trump has done all he can to discredit the major media, calling them fake news even while they provided the megaphone from which he rose to power, his administration has not only provided “alt-right” white nationalists a platform, but has for the first time, given press credentials to Infowars, Alex Jones’ online site.

What was one of Jones’ first actions after getting those credentials? He went on air to attack teenage victims of the Manchester, UK bombing.