A Friday wrap of what I’ve read and pondered this week.

A Connecticut jury has awarded almost $1 billion in damages to victims’ families and an FBI agent from Infowars owner/host Alex Jones for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre a hoax.

Defenders of Jones say this is a verdict against free speech.

Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted on Oct. 12:

  • No matter what you think of Alex Jones all he did was speak words.
  • He was not the one who pulled the trigger.
  • Were his words wrong and did he apologize? Yes.
  • That’s what freedom of speech is. Freedom to speak words.
  • Political persecution must end.

A quick Google search turned up this definition from April 4, 2022:

What are the 5 elements of defamation?

  • Publication of information is required. …
  • The person being defamed was identified by the statement. …
  • The remarks had a negative impact on the person’s reputation. …
  • The published information is demonstrably false. …
  • The defendant is at fault.
Publisher or common carrier?

Another interesting legal issue is Section 230, of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Read Dan Kennedy’s analysis here. The issue is whether corporate giants like Facebook or Twitter are liable for content they publish. Section 230 holds them harmless for third-party content. My opinion: That’s still a good idea. Caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware)

Merry Christmas, Gannett

Gannett CEO Mike Reed (who makes $7.7 million) is asking staff to take a 5-day unpaid furlough in December and suspending the company’s 401(k) match among other cuts. Read about it here. Oh yeah, Reed is continuing holiday pay for Christmas.

Angela Lansbury

This classic actor died this week at age 96. Her net worth was $70 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Not bad for a bicycle-riding New England granny who solved crimes between bird watching and baking cookies.

All in

Garrison Keillor wrote about Frank Herbert, born on Oct. 8, 1920. The science fiction writer said: “A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating. You’re there now doing the thing on paper. You’re not killing the goose; you’re just producing an egg.”

Knox TN Today

We hit 1,100 newsletter subscribers this week. Thanks! It’s been a frog-in-the-well struggle because Constant Contact “unsubscribes” people who don’t open the newsletter a certain number of times. (The number is a secret.) If a frog gains 3 feet at night but slips back 2 feet during the day, how long …

Sandra Clark is editor/CEO of Knox TN Today Inc.