Former Alex Jones employee says: 'It was nonsense, it was lies'

[AStern]

Alex Jones, founder of the media company Infowars, had made a fortune promoting conspiracy theories online. He's insisted that the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job and claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, staged by the government to justify seizing the firearms of American citizens.

Josh Owens spent four years in his 20s as a video editor and field producer for Jones and his media company. "In Jones' world, it was all about making things look cinematic," Owens says. "We would go out there, we would shoot videos and almost like Vice News — like, we were in the weeds, we were showing what was really going on. ... But it was nonsense, it was lies."

At one point, Owens was dispatched to El Paso, Texas, because a conservative website had alleged that ISIS had established a training base just across the border in Juarez, Mexico. Finding no evidence of ISIS, Owens says the Infowars team dressed a reporter up to look like an ISIS operative and filmed him crossing "the border" while holding a prop of a severed head. Except it wasn't actually the border.

"We just happened to find a little stream that looked like it could be the Rio Grande," Owens says. "We said we were on the border. The reporter I was with simulated the beheading, walked across, and that's what we posted."

Owens says the video of the fake ISIS agent garnered a million views overnight. Infowars did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/31/nx-s1-5763689/alex-jones-infowars-josh-owens-the-madness-of-believing

[harumph]

1. Note to Josh: this isn't surprising for anyone who isn't an idiot.

[stopdiggin]

3. also note to Josh ... You (intentionally) lied to people (on repeat)

in the millions, in earning your own scurvy paycheck. That makes you (along with your boss) pretty much a scumbag too. Hope you have a good life - but I sure wouldn't want anyone I cared about spending any time in your company. That moral compass there is already a thoroughly tattered wreck.

[Hstch05]

27. The Knowledge Fight Podcast

does deep dives on Alex Jones. Not just the current mess, but how he started, and deep historical dives into his worst moments. Their coverage of Sandy Hook is exceptional. It is well worth a listen.

[Marie Marie]

29. Yeah, love the way those guys expose and mock this oversized nitwit.

[stopdiggin]

2. Say it isn't soooo ! (content creaters actually 'creating', 'fictionalizing' - content ?) - - - - - - - - -(nt)-

[berksdem]

4. Wow,...

this is shocking!

[cbabe]

5. Josh Owens' book

Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com › w › the-madness-of-believing-josh-owens › 1147952894

The Madness of Believing: A Memoir from Inside Alex Jones's Conspiracy ...
An unvarnished and immersive dive into the world of conspiracy theories, propaganda, and disinformation from a former Infowars insider caught in the orbit of

(How naive country kid got sucked in and chewed up. Calls infowars a cult.)

[hatrack]

10. So, Alex Jones isn't paying him directly anymore, but he's found a way for Alex Jones to pay him indirectly . . .

Got it.

[cbabe]

11. As Owens said in the interview, he was warned by Alex Jones his name was forever

tarnished by working for infowars. Why Owens was afraid to leave the cult. Who would hire him in the future? Jones choose his victims carefully. Jones is like a mini t, corrupting everyone he touches.

[Initech]

6. I blame Alex Jones for the mess the United States is in.

He turned politics into a game of chicken. And not to mention what he did to Sandy Hook is absolutely unforgivable. Why that piece of shit continues to walk free is a mystery.

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Agreed. Limbaugh and Faux are the other two, one of which still feeds the orange beast. At least El Rushbo passed on....

And of course all the spawn following the same models laid out by the afore-mentioned.

[yellow dahlia]

32. Exactly.

[Shambala]

7. Eff that guy big time!

Four years knowingly peddling lies and conspiracies and ruining people’s lives. Eff him

[Just Jerome]

8. Can't seem to find my pearls......

[mwmisses4289]

9. OMG, I'm shocked! 😱😭 I'm shocked, I tells ya!

Not!!

I used to find it strange that so many conservative sites would post stories that were outright lies and/or easily debunked, but not anymore. I have finally concluded that most conservatives are just seriously mentally ill, and should be on meds and in therapy.

[tonekat]

12. I listened to the interview on NPR

With Josh Owens. Can't say I have any respect for him.

[niyad]

13. Hey, josh, WTF are you ACTIVELY doing to correct some of the harm

that you, and everyone at that cesspit of propaganda, lies, and deceit has done? Nobody in the cult is going to read your book, and nobody outside the cult needs to, since we alredy know this.

HOW WILL YOU MAKE AMENDS???

[wally baby]

34. gotta say

I kind of want to read the book to see how he got sucked in.

[niyad]

35. I would be interested to hear your thoughts when you do.

[MLWR]

14. These days you wouldn't need such an elaborate hoax; you now have AI to promote your lies.

[Martin68]

15. Any sane person who listened to any part of his program would have come to the same conclusion.

[lame54]

17. Gotta sell those fake supplements

[Beartracks]

18. "There was no evidence... but we 'just knew' it was true... so we staged it."

That's the whole rightwing conservative Republican ethos right there.

=============

[rampartd]

31. "they are eating the dogs"

vance explained, at the time, that they these things so that the press will run with the story. here is the quote.....

“The American media totally ignored this stuff until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes," Sen. Vance said. "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do." j d vance

[Beartracks]

19. "There was no evidence... but we 'just knew' it was true... so we staged it."

That's the whole rightwing conservative Republican ethos right there.

=============

[alfredo]

37. When I fact checked some rightwing story sent to me by an old army buddy, he'd replied,

“Well it should be true.”

I would show documented evidence and it would piss him off. He was comfortable with the lies, and I was dismantling the world he constructed.

I guess they see truth having a liberal bias, and want nothing to do with it.

[AverageOldGuy]

20. Sure thing, Josh

You didn’t give a damn when you were getting paid to generate lies.

Your mea culpa is too late . . . when the trials of the Nazis start in 2029, there’s a spot for you on the gallows.

[Politicub]

21. Grifters all the way down

Everyone who worked for that odious organization is complicit in spreading hate and lies. Hope it was worth it.

[wolfie001]

22. All the people sucked into that nonsense are horrible human beings

Also, tRUMP voters. The absolute worst of us Americans.

[ShazzieB]

23. For those haven't read the whole article...

This is the last paragraph:

I don't want to be a person that just moves on from it and doesn't take accountability, because then I don't feel like you can grow. And I would love to grow. I would love to continue growing. I would be a better person. I just felt like I needed to clear things up for myself. Why was I there? Why did I do these things? Why did I stick around for so long? I don't have all the answers now, but I think exploring it and asking those questions and taking accountability was just sort of part of the process.

Okay, so taking accountability is a good thing, on the face of it. And I get how a young, naive kid could get sucked into something like this and have a hard time leaving. The whole thing does sound very cultlike. But where's the remorse for the terrible things he did while working for Jones? I'm just not getting it here. This is all about him, about his need to explain his actions to himself. He seems to realize what he did was bad and wrong, sort of. But I'm not sure he realizes just HOW DEEPLY bad and wrong his support of Jones' evil doings was. His attitude, as based on this article and nothing else, doesn't come off well at all. I hope there's more genuine remorse, contrition, even shame in the book itself, but I sure can't tell from this article.

The audio of the interview just went up at NPR. I'm going to give it a listen and see how this guy sounds, and what got left out of the article.

[D00ver66]

24. Only the lame

Brained people would believe anything infowars or for that matter Fox/ Trump media says. It just shows they cater to the uber stupid to help the uber wealthy.

[Delmette2.0]

25. So can the remaining copies

Of the program and videos be scrubbed from the internet? At least flagged as Verified Fake.

[Buddyzbuddy]

26. Now, imagine if they had AI back then.

It's going to get so much worse, in my opinion.

It's becoming harder and harder to discern reality from AI.

[Initech]

28. And AI seems to favor MAGA Christian megachurch bullshit.

Yeah let's deregulate AI, what could possibly go wrong?

[mucifer]

30. Another member of the "buy my book" club.

[Aussie105]

33. It's called 'reverse engineering'.

You start with the desired psychological and emotional response you want to elicit from an audience, then spin reality into a story that aims to do just that.
Complete with actors.

But that isn't how you normally do news.
(Despite this being quite common in the media. Alex Jones didn't invent this type of thing.)

[Bluepinky]

36. Distortion and deception, a dismal way to make a living.

No positive accomplishments to look back on in their old age, only misery, anger and hate.

It’s good this employee turned around in the end, but why in hell spend your time sowing anger and hate?