Ted Anderson started a radio network out of a Minneapolis suburb in order to rustle up some business for his gold and silver dealership. Alex Jones was signed soon after.
Today's misinformation economy was shaped by them together.
The two built a lucrative operation out of a tangled system of niche advertisers and fund-raising drives. Mr. Jones became a conspiracy theorist while Mr. Anderson's company flourished. Their moneymaking plan was copied by many other people.
Mr. Jones moved away from Genesis as he gained a large following online. They were accused of fueling a fake narrative about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in lawsuits.
Mr. Jones was found to be responsible for those cases. Genesis was dropped as a defendants last month. The main target would have been Mr. Jones and his media organization if Genesis had been involved in the trial.
The move freed Genesis, which says on its website that it has established itself as the largest independently owned and operated talk radio network in the country. The economics that help to drive misleading and false claims across the media landscape are revealed in the cases that are headed to juries to determine damages.
It is blamed on credulous audiences and a widening partisan divide for the proliferation of false information. It's not just for the boldface names like Mr. Jones that misinformation can be very profitable.
"Misinformation exists for ideological reasons, but there is always a link to very commercial interests, and they always find each other," said Hilde Van den Bulck, who has studied Mr. Jones. There are networks of people who help each other out.
Mr. Jones and Mr. Anderson didn't reply to questions about the article.
He has said that Genesis originated in the late 1990s as a marketing ploy. He told the media watchdog that Genesis Communications Network needed sponsors.
Alex Jones has a doom-and-gloom view.
The host said that Genesis began syndicating Mr. Jones around the time he was fired. It was kind of a marriage made in hell.
Mr. Jones broadcasted dire claims about the demise of the dollar before introducing Mr. Anderson. Mr. Jones would interrupt the pitches with rants, like when he cut off Mr. Anderson more than 20 times in 30 seconds.
Genesis has also included a gay comedian, a former lawyer for the A.C.L.U., and a home improvement expert.
The network developed a reputation for certain types of programming, promoting its "conspiracy" content on its website and telling the Minn Post that its advertisers "specialize in preparedness and survival."
The shows were led by firearms enthusiasts. There was a Christian rocker who opposed gay rights and a politician who believed in conspiracy theories. Lessons on how to store food, learn the importance of precious metals, and survive a gunfight were promoted in one program. After his misogynistic on-air remarks resurfaced, a Republican politician in Minnesota had a deal with Genesis and a campaign office at his address.
About a decade ago, Mr. Jones and Genesis began to distance themselves from one another. According to a review by Dan Friesen, one of the hosts of the Knowledge Fight, about 30 stations have Mr. Jones on their schedule. He was put to late night and early morning. Mr. Jones was replaced by conservative hosts.
The relationship between Mr. Jones and Mr. Anderson deteriorated after the Minnesota Commerce Department closed Midas. The agency ordered the company to pay back money that it had misappropriated.
The same supplements that are in Genesis' online shop can be found on the Midas website. The founder of the supplement company is the host of a syndicated show.
Mr. Jones has his own business selling supplements, masks, and bumper stickers proclaiming Covid-19 to be a hoax. According to one of his lawyers, the conspiracy theorist made over 50 million dollars last year.
Mr. Jones and his former benefactor were hurt by the inability to have a connection between gold sales on the radio affiliates. Ted took a back seat at that point because Alex had more of a need to fund things in a different way.
The families of several Sandy Hook victims filed a lawsuit against Mr. Jones and Genesis. Genesis helped Mr. Jones reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people with his lies.
The lawyers wrote that Mr. Jones, Genesis and other defendants were involved in a conspiracy because they made money.
After the lawsuits were filed, both Genesis and Mr. Jones were denied coverage for their liability claims. Genesis said on its website that its freedom to speak is in the balance after being dropped as a defendants.
The lawsuits are used as a cudgel against those who spread false and misleading information. Fox News paid millions of dollars to the parents of a murdered Democratic aide, who was wrongly linked to an email leak ahead of the presidential election, in 2020.
Fox News and other conservative outlets were sued by Smartmatic and other election technology companies, who are seeking billions of dollars in damages, after they were wrongly accused of voting fraud. Several outlets tried to clarify or debunk conspiracy theories about the voting systems companies when they were threatening legal action.
"For the first time in a long time, it seems to be a very tangible route to actually holding people accountable for the harm they're causing and the ways in which they're profiting off that harm."
Genesis told the court that it was accused of being a distributor of radio programs, not the author, not the publisher, and not the broadcaster. The company doesn't have a brain, doesn't have memory, and can't form intent.
Lawyers for the families said that the network should be treated the same way as a newspaper or publisher of a book, with a high degree of awareness of the hoax narrative that Genesis broadcasted to vast audiences.
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