His new platform - Infowars - allowed him to bypass editors and broadcasters who might compel him to moderate his output. Jones turned the setback into an opportunity.Īfter his firing, Jones set up a home-broadcasting operation where he could record shows for stations around the country. This meant he had to not only plan his broadcasts - but learn how to make them profitable. Jones would later tell the Austin Chronicle that his firing had been "purely political," a move by the higher-ups to get him to stop talking about Waco and other political topics.Įither way, from then on, Jones would be his own boss. "Eventually it just got to a point where Alex was just not listening to us anymore, doing what he wanted to do." "The world had kind of moved on in a way, and Alex was still clamoring on about the Branch Davidians … literally spending his entire show talking about that," Billeck said. Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images "If you watch him or listen to him, you will believe that he is adamant about whatever he is talking about… He just gets so riled up."Īlex Jones confronts Hispanic protesters in Austin, Texas on Septemat the Texas Capitol who were protesting Minutemen plans to patrol the Texas border for illegal aliens. "The one thing you cannot deny about Alex is his passion," Billeck said. And as Jones' audience grew, he was moved earlier and earlier on the lineup. "And I was like, that's beautiful."īilleck brought Jones on to host a late-night show. "The phone went flying and the table went flying and he's screaming at the camera and everything," Billeck recalls. The segment caught the eye of Brian Billeck, the operations director for Austin talk radio station KJFK, who was looking to hire. One night, during his late-night slot, Jones was going on a wild rant, and let loose on a table. Jones got his start from flipping a table on set.Īs a community college student in Austin, he appeared on a public-access cable station. His critics are part of the very mainstream that Infowars was set up to discredit, and he has spent two decades turning career-ending setbacks into profit windfalls. On his way to becoming America's most notorious conspiracy theorist, Jones has faced plenty of setbacks that would derail most broadcasters. While the judgment could cripple his business, Jones went straight to the same playbook that's allowed him to stay in the national conversation for more than two decades: Make outrageous claims, galvanize his loyal audience around a collective sense of martyrdom, and then cash in on their support. Howard Simmons/NY Daily News via Getty Images Robbie Parker was later falsely called a crisis actor, and the Parkers are among those who sued Alex Jones for defamation. Robbie and Alyssa Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, are seen shortly after the 2012 shooting. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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