# Alex Jones lawyer says his radio persona is "Playing a character.. He's a performance artist". **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632 "2017-04-17T15:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/1 "2017-04-17T15:30:09Z")
[So Alex Jones is in the middle of custody battle](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/alex-jones-is-playing-a-character-according-to-his-lawyer.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark)and his ex points at this ranting and says effectively > [@](#): > > “He’s not a stable person,” Kelly said. “He says he wants to break Alec Baldwin’s neck. He wants J-Lo to get raped.” She said she’s concerned that by threatening Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in a recent rant, her ex committed a felony. “He broadcasts from home. The children are there, watching him broadcast,” she said. In response… > [@](#): > > “He’s playing a character,” attorney Randall Wilhite argued at a pretrial hearing, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “He is a performance artist. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/2 "2017-04-17T16:15:25Z")
“Interesting” how the judge doesn’t want the custody case to be about InfoWars. So the jury shouldn’t hear about Jones’ virulent antivax views, his stated conviction that modern cancer care is ineffective/evil and his pushing of supplements to fix a “fungal epidemic”? Sounds like his kids’ health could be placed in serious jeopardy. > **[I watched Alex Jones give his viewers health advice. Here’s what I learned.](https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/6/15160486/alex-jones-vaccines-autism-gates-fungus-health-conspiracy-theories)** > > There's a "fungus epidemic." And Infowars’ Jones has just the supplements to stop it. Unless it’s all an act, of course. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/3 "2017-04-17T16:38:09Z")
Too bad his listeners don’t believe it. Not to hijack, but what is with all these republican leaders not being able to hold a marriage together? ---
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/4 "2017-04-17T17:36:11Z")
Alex Jones is a fool who has never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like. But like many radio presenters, he probably does have on-air persona distinct from his everyday persona. I’m not surprised that in a vicious custody battle,his ex-wife tries to conflate Alex Jones the Dad with the on-air hothead while Jones denies they are the one and the same. Also, Alex Jones has been peddling his paranoid ramblings since he was in his early to mid twenties. This is not a new development and his ex-wife was presumably fine with his views (and probably shared them to some extent) for whatever reason until she decided that she wants custody. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/5 "2017-04-17T17:38:30Z")
That’s the sucky and paper-thin deception used by everyone back to at least Rush Limbaugh. When he’s correct or unarguable about something, he’s a Journalist, by God. When caught out on blathering bullshit or patently erroneous claims, he’s “just an entertainer, doncha get it, you liberal weenie?” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/6 "2017-04-17T18:05:42Z")
I’ll buy it, _if_ Mr. Jones goes on the air and says that he doesn’t really believe the crap he spews out, and that he is just playing a character. ---
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/7 "2017-04-17T18:21:02Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > That’s the sucky and paper-thin deception used by everyone back to at least Rush Limbaugh. When he’s correct or unarguable about something, he’s a Journalist, by God. When caught out on blathering bullshit or patently erroneous claims, he’s “just an entertainer, doncha get it, you liberal weenie?” That’s not what is happening. The “factual” claims he makes aren’t in question here. The statements provided are opinions, not factual claims, such as wanting to break Alec Baldwin’s neck or rape Jennifer Lopez. Loathsome and despicable, but still opinions. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/8 "2017-04-17T18:28:45Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’ll buy it, _if_ Mr. Jones goes on the air and says that he doesn’t really believe the crap he spews out, and that he is just playing a character. How about a disclaimer before and after every commercial break, like the ones they have for Infomercials on late night TV? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/9 "2017-04-17T18:33:30Z")
This is really interesting stuff to me - I imagine the vast majority of these guys (Jones, O’Reilly, etc) really do believe very different things in their heart of hearts, but if anybody ever suspected as much they’d lose everything. The only person I can think of who made a career out of an obviously fake personality is Stephen Colbert, and he had a career before The Colbert Report. He also did a fair bit of stuff outside the show that wasn’t in his television persona. John Stewart pretty obviously played “himself” on The Daily Show, but he also insisted on a regular basis that he was an uninformed idiot who should be ignored in favor of “real” journalists. So where, legally, should the default view of a radio/television personality land? Should it be taken for granted that anybody on the air is playing a role? Or is the burden of proof on the “actor” to make sure the audience is aware? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/10 "2017-04-17T18:40:41Z")
Whether or not he means what he says, I have to believe it speaks to someone’s mental stability what sort of person they would willingly _pretend_ to be. This isn’t like an actor who takes on a role everyone knows is fabricated. It’s a person whose livelihood depends on upholding a vile persona and in so doing encourages other people to develop similarly vile attitudes. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/11 "2017-04-17T22:04:08Z")
So, in gay porn there are “straight” performers who are “gay-for-pay”. They only engage in gay sex for the camera, otherwise they are not interested (so the story goes). Ok, but at the end of the day, they still did what they did. I apply the same reasoning to Alex Jones. Maybe he’s only doing it for the money, but he’s still doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/12 "2017-04-17T23:20:25Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Too bad his listeners don’t believe it. > > Not to hijack, but what is with all these republican leaders not being able to hold a marriage together? My time listening to him even occasionally was in the past. I don’t know if on his show he has changed to be specifically republican but he never was before. He was always anti-government and about the conspiracy. He was as anti-Bush as he was anti-Obama. You can’t be a republican when you think 911 was a republican conspiracy. He was more about the shadow government out to silence him than any conservative ideology. People lumped him in with conservatives because he got more famous when Obama was in office. If you heard him during the Bush administration you wouldnt think “republican” or “conservative” you would just think “anti-government nutjob.” Of course he may have changed his tune in the last year if he thinks that’s where the money is. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/13 "2017-04-18T23:41:21Z")
[Jones calls his own lawyer a liar in new video](http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/watch-alex-jones-swears-hes-not-a-performance-artist-in-off-the-rails-rant-on-his-way-to-divorce-court/), says he’s not a “performance artist”. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/14 "2017-04-19T00:40:27Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > So, in gay porn there are “straight” performers who are “gay-for-pay”. They only engage in gay sex for the camera, otherwise they are not interested (so the story goes). > > Ok, but at the end of the day, they still did what they did. > > I apply the same reasoning to Alex Jones. Maybe he’s only doing it for the money, but he’s still doing it. Yeah, those porn stars definitely fall on a different point of the “hetero” spectrum than I do. I could not _will_ my dick to get hard, no matter how much money I was offered. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/15 "2017-04-19T07:20:28Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Yeah, those porn stars definitely fall on a different point of the “hetero” spectrum than I do. I could not _will_ my dick to get hard, no matter how much money I was offered. I believe porn today involves frequent chemical incentive to become and stay hard. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/16 "2017-04-19T07:41:01Z")
> [@WilyQuixote](#): > > That’s not what is happening. The “factual” claims he makes aren’t in question here. The statements provided are opinions, not factual claims, such as wanting to break Alec Baldwin’s neck or rape Jennifer Lopez. Loathsome and despicable, but still opinions. Saying “I wan’t to break Alec Baldwin’s neck” is not an opinion. It is a statement about the speaker’s desire. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/17 "2017-04-19T07:50:38Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > That’s the sucky and paper-thin deception used by everyone back to at least Rush Limbaugh. When he’s correct or unarguable about something, he’s a Journalist, by God. When caught out on blathering bullshit or patently erroneous claims, he’s “just an entertainer, doncha get it, you liberal weenie?” To be fair John Stewart similarly always said his show was just comedy, when anything got sticky. And I’m sufficiently capable of objective thought to consider that to have been disingenuous weaselling, even while being a fan. > [@WilyQuixote](#): > > That’s not what is happening. The “factual” claims he makes aren’t in question here. The statements provided are opinions, not factual claims, such as wanting to break Alec Baldwin’s neck or rape Jennifer Lopez. Loathsome and despicable, but still opinions. Complete hogwash. What \*\*Isamu \*\*said. They may well be lies but they are statements of (purported) fact. Not opinions. > [@Smapti](#): > > [Jones calls his own lawyer a liar in new video](http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/watch-alex-jones-swears-hes-not-a-performance-artist-in-off-the-rails-rant-on-his-way-to-divorce-court/), says he’s not a “performance artist”. Ah, yes well Jones said that in his video, but was that a video of him as himself, or a video of him being a performance artist? His performance artist self of course had to deny what his lawyer said. His non-performance artist self nonetheless presumably gave his lawyer instructions to go ahead with the “performance artist” strategy in court. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/18 "2017-04-19T10:05:31Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [Jones calls his own lawyer a liar in new video](http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/watch-alex-jones-swears-hes-not-a-performance-artist-in-off-the-rails-rant-on-his-way-to-divorce-court/), says he’s not a “performance artist”. Don’t worry Jones. I believe you are the thing that you say you are. Most people aren’t proud of it though like you seem to be. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/19 "2017-04-19T14:26:14Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > My time listening to him even occasionally was in the past. I don’t know if on his show he has changed to be specifically republican but he never was before. He was always anti-government and about the conspiracy. He was as anti-Bush as he was anti-Obama. You can’t be a republican when you think 911 was a republican conspiracy. He was more about the shadow government out to silence him than any conservative ideology. People lumped him in with conservatives because he got more famous when Obama was in office. If you heard him during the Bush administration you wouldnt think “republican” or “conservative” you would just think “anti-government nutjob.” Of course he may have changed his tune in the last year if he thinks that’s where the money is. Not sure if he’s “pro-republican” now but he appears to be “[pro-Trump](http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/politics/donald-trump-praises-9-11-truther-alex-jones/)” and Trump is pro-Jones. ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632/20 "2017-04-19T16:20:31Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Too bad his listeners don’t believe it. > > Not to hijack, but what is with all these republican leaders not being able to hold a marriage together? Cite that Jones is a republican leader. He ran for state rep in Texas as a republican and withdrew because he didn’t have a chance. He tried to get Ted Cruz removed from his senate seat and failed. Every republican I know thinks the guy is a loon, if they even know who he is. Slee [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-jones-lawyer-says-his-radio-persona-is-playing-a-character-hes-a-performance-artist/784632.md?page=2)