No matter what your opinions are of Alex Jones, yesterday's jury verdict in Connecticut to pay $965 million in damages to Sandy Hook families and an FBI agent for calling the mass shooting a "hoax" a decade ago, should shock you in terms of the status of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States that protects freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.

I have been a journalist in the Alternative Media for over a decade, and have faced numerous threats and accusations of defamation and other charges over the content of the articles we publish at Health Impact News, especially in our Medical Kidnapping category. It has forced me to retain some of the top 1st Amendment attorneys in the nation, so this is a topic I have quite a bit of experience in.

While the First Amendment protects freedom of speech for the Press, one cannot print (or broadcast) lies that cause harm to the entity being criticized.

Prior to this jury's verdict yesterday, the largest defamation case in U.S. history was a case in 1997 where a federal jury in Houston awarded $222.7 million to a local bond brokerage firm in a libel suit over a 1993 article in The Wall Street Journal. (Source.)