Sandy Hook took place as 'alternative facts' muscled out objective truth
On Dec. 14, 2012, I covered the murder of 20 school children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Even then, it struck me — and no doubt a lot of other people — as a watershed event.
If the country could tolerate a mentally ill man gunning down first graders as they crouched in a school bathroom — without doing anything to address gun violence — nothing would ever change. Even in a country inured to mass shootings, what could be worse?
For the families. Almost immediately, conspiracy theorists would insist that the killings hadn't really happened. That they were in fact a "false flag" operation designed to push a gun-control agenda. The afternoon the news broke, Alex Jones, the bombastic host of the radio show and the website , said "My gut is, with the timing and everything that happened, this is staged." For years afterward, a ragtag collection of conspiracists used Facebook groups and YouTube videos to promote their theories, and Jones — who made money pushing water purifiers and diet supplements on his radio show and website — gave them a forum. His audience mushroomed. "Your reputation's amazing," former President Trump told Jones in a 2015 interview.
