Numerous former Infowars employees trashed their old boss and conspiracy theorist host Alex Jones in interviews with BuzzFeed. They accused Jones of misleading his audience about his sources, rooting for former President Barack Obama’s reelection for “business” purposes, and turning his purported news operation into “QVC for conspiracy.”
Jones has woven elaborate conspiracy theories about tragedies such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, 9/11, and the Boston Marathon bombing, among many others. He has recently pushed false claims such as the pizzagate conspiracy theory and threatened to “beat” “cocksucker” Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) “goddamn ass.” Jones has gained prominence in recent months with the election of President Donald Trump, who has appeared on his show, picks up Jones’ conspiracy theories, and reportedly communicates with him.
BuzzFeed reporter Charlie Warzel did an extensive profile of the radio host, writing, “Jones is eminently and unquestionably himself at all times. Jones has been this way since he was brawling among parked cars. It’s made him a fortune, but now that his moment is finally here, it could be his undoing.”
Warzel found that Jones’ Infowars staff “fell largely into two camps: those who bought fully into Jones and the information-war narrative, and those who were less sure.” He interviewed numerous former employees who trashed their former boss. One former employee said of Jones’ “sources”:
“Sometimes he'll say he has sources and he's been told a piece of news has been confirmed but we wouldn’t have that information,” a former Infowars employee said. “Later we’d find out it was because a week earlier we had a caller on air who theorized about something and Alex repeated it as fact.”
Others accused Jones of secretly rooting for Obama’s reelection because he was “nervous over the prospect of losing the polarizing president that had helped usher in ratings gold.”
Jones was also criticized for hawking an array of dubious health products geared toward his conspiracy theory-friendly audience. One former employee told Warzel:
For some employees, the shift from what they saw as crusader journalism to content marketing for colloidal silver was jarring. “It became a moral issue for me,” one said. “It’s why I don’t work there anymore.”
Jones later responded to the BuzzFeed article during his show and claimed the piece is “the biggest load of crap the world has ever seen.”
Media Matters recently noted that Kurt Nimmo, who spent years working for Jones, has been trashing him as a “snake oil salesman” who sold out to support Trump.
Read BuzzFeed’s Jones profile here.