Alex Jones: (Some) Peoples’ Hero

By on June 4, 2012 in News 14

Photo: Duchamps comb (CC)

Alex Jones is profiled by Ryan Devereaux in the Guardian as part of that paper’s coverage of Bilderberg 2012:

As the demonstrations targeting the Bilderberg conference of international leaders in Chantilly, Virginia, drew to a close on Sunday, dozens of protesters gathered around one man, hoping for a picture or an autograph.

“Alex, what’s next?” one protester repeatedly yelled.

“God bless you, Alex,” said a number of others, as they stood outside a service entrance to a heavily guarded Marriott.

The object of their adoration was Alex Jones, an Austin, Texas-based radio host and counter-culture icon. A stout man with close-cropped hair, Jones was dressed in denim, his temples soaked with sweat…

“The best bullhorner there is,” one protester said of Jones’s oratory skills. When Jones began describing how he likes to use multiple megaphones end to end, a demonstrator called him “the people’s L-Rad”, a reference to a sonic weapon police departments sometimes use against protesters.

Without Jones’s radio show and website it is difficult to estimate how many demonstrators would have turned out to protest against the off-the-record Bilderberg meeting over the past three days…

[continues in the Guardian]

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  • charlieprimero

     ”Even if you don’t like his style, what he’s done for the freedom movement in America is immense,” Kopel said.

    That about sums it up.  Jone’s fear-based media is not healthy for long-term consumption, but he deserves credit for educating more common folk to the nastiness and unsustainability of American fascism than any other media personality.

    • http://internetkhole.blogspot.com/ Pb

      I’ll pass, thanks.  Give me Chris Hedges, Glenn Greenwald, and Amy Goodman, please.

      • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

        From what I know of him Hedges is fine, Greenwald is pretty cool, but I think that Amy Goodman may personally be responsible for why the Far Right thinks that the Far Left hates America.

        I mean, I generally support what she’s trying to do, but I’d rather grind my teeth and listen to Jones constantly interrupt and derail his own guests than hear Goodman’s  nigh hysterical mewling about how every problem in the world is caused by, or could have been prevented by, the United States.

        • http://internetkhole.blogspot.com/ Pb

          OK, fair enough.  Let me also add Tom Engelhardt and Juan Cole to that list, then.

  • Emc_0002

    An annoying but necessary character

  • zombieslapper

    I used to listen to Jones regularly even though I come from a more progressive mindset. He always had some news nugget nobody else was talking about or would surface in the MSM months later. But I grew tired of his rather right-wing, religious rantings. And when a guest said the Latinos were going to eventually put white people on reservations I kinda had to tune out after that. But he did inspire a lot of people and I think put a lot of great info out there that others have taken & run with. So yeah, he deserves some credit.

  • Ronniedobbs

    I liked Bill Hick’s earlier stuff
     

    • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

      I know what you mean…

  • mole_face

    I’ve never figured out what the fuck’s up with Alex’s face. He’s looked around 43 since his 20s and his hair resembles a bad wig. Plus his skin tone has that weird smooth glossy look of someone who’s had face work done.

    • RedHerring

       Too much absorption of every bullshit conspiracy theory there is … yes, it will literally fuck up your health.

  • Fo

    He’s great in Linklater movies.

  • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

    There are a lot of things I’d like to see Jones do differently, but if I could pick only one it would be his “interview style”.

    But since his web presence is almost infinitely greater than mine and I don’t even have a hope of having a radio show (unless I decide to pony up for some low wattage FM), let alone a radio network, I’ll keep the critiques down to just the one and focus on what he seems to do right. Cause whatever he’s doing he’s doing it bigger and better than anything I’m doing.

    Despite his apparently strong Christian belief system he does a pretty good job of keeping his show “secular”. I really appreciate that.

    He also appears to be generally fearless.
    I absolutely admire that.

    I’ve lived long enough to see that the “news reports” that we’re generally given barely scratch the surface of the real story, so I admire that Jones isn’t afraid to run with a “fringe” story and then even do a little speculation or embellishment about what’s “really” going on.  On a philosophical level he’s generally right, though the specifics of the story sometimes fall a little short. I can forgive that.

    There’s just no one else with the size of audience he has who reports on the things he’s interested in covering, which are occasionally things I’m interested in hearing.

    Have to give him lots of credit for that.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OR2MXODG7TK6VIYDBPNG2IH6PQ Taylor

    As punishment for your indiscretion, you are hereby sentenced to a week of solitary confinement with loud-mouth, in-your-face, bull-horner Alex Jones as your cell mate.  

  • smooth_operator

    Overall, Jones is too over-the-top for me (although I understand how this approach is necessary to appeal to Americans with 3-second attention spans) but I find his websites a good resource for news aggregation and other relevant material. It’s also important to speak truth to power, no matter what package it comes in.