AUSTIN, Texas — A former Infowars and Alex Jones employee says he was mocked after he repeatedly warned staff to stop posting lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting. which left 20 children and six adults dead.
In a video deposition played for jurors on Friday during the Alex Jones libel trial, former Infowars employee Rob Jacobson recalled the guilt he felt whenever the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was a part of the show.
Jacobson told a jury that he felt “accomplicated” even though he was not directly involved in the Sandy Hook lies. He said he told writers and outlet staff that they were violating journalistic ethics.
“When [Sandy Hook] would come on screen, I’d make it a point to go to the writers and explain to them as clearly as possible… what that ethic is and why they’re violating it and what the damage could be,” Jacobson said. .
“I must have been in that room four to five times, at least, and only to be received with laughter and jokes,” he added.
Jacobson worked at the outlet for 13 years, from 2004 to 2017, and was personally hired by Alex Jones. Jones did not appear in court Friday morning.
A jury will soon decide how much Jones should pay parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse was killed in the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. For years, Jones said the shooting was fake. This was not the case.
Jacobson’s deposition was first reported in 2019 by HuffPost, but Friday marked the first time the footage was made public.
The former video producer seems nervous at first, fidgeting slightly in the first few minutes. But as he speaks, Jacobson becomes more animated, and sometimes loud, as he describes his frustration and disgust for the place he worked for years.
“I mean, it’s one thing to make a mistake,” he remarked at one point with particular angst. But “it’s another thing to point it out to you not just once, but again and again, and again and again, and not just to hear the damage you’re doing to people outside your area, but actually laugh about it.
Following Jacobson’s deposition, jurors watched a second video deposition featuring Dan Bidondi, a former Infowars correspondent who traveled to Newtown in 2014 to harass officials during a routine Security Council meeting. ‘education.
In the video, Bidondi says he was inspired to work for Alex Jones and Infowars because of his coverage of 9/11, specifically the media’s claims that the US government carried out the terrorist attacks.
Bidondi expanded on the comment by using a racial slur for Muslims and adding that he doesn’t think kerosene can melt steel beams.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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