"What would convince you that the Sandy Hook
Shooting really happened?"
"Nothing.
I know in my heart and soul that it's a lie."
"The conspiracy world has evolved in the last
ten years.
They have intruded into my life."
"I was stunned and I was pissed - the cruel
stuff that they said about Alison."
"Dear God, if I am wrong, I've hurt many,
many innocent people."
"At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly
into his passion, he took bread, giving thanks,
broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying,
'take this, all of you, and eat of it.
For this is my body, which will be given up
for you.'
In a similar way when supper was ended he
took the chalice, and once more giving thanks
he gave it to his disciples saying 'take this
all of you and drink from it, for this is
the chalice of my blood, the blood of the
new and eternal covenant, which will be poured
out for you and for many, for the forgiveness
of sins.
Do this in memory of me."
"It’s tough, you know.
I have...sorry.
You know you have so many memories that come
back to you, of just the things that took
place during those days.
I remember one state police officer standing
at attention at this child’s casket the
whole mass.
I remember came over there in the middle of
the night one time and he was sitting here
reading to them, you know.
And I looked at him and he said, 'I know,
but this is what I'd be doing if I were home
and I’m sure this is what his dad would
be doing if he were home.'"
It’s been five years since the massacre
at Sandy Hook Elementary School left 26 people
dead.
Funerals for eight of the twenty children
were held here at St. Rose of Lima Church.
The community is still healing, but that healing
process has been disturbed as victims and
community leaders are targeted online.
"I remember my older brother calling me and
saying 'don’t go on YouTube.'
He said 'there are some incredible things
being said about you by these hoaxers or whatever
group you want to call them.
I mean, you know, you’re in so much pain.
You’re trying to focus so much on bringing
healing and strength and hope and you have
someone that just wants to deny this ever
happened, someone that wants to deny, that
we made this up, that we fabricated these
horrible tragedies.
You know, these caskets were right there in
front that alter with the body in it.
They weren’t actors.
I don’t understand it.
We have had issues with one particular individual,
you know, I’ve had to encounter the police.
You, know, he arrived one time with cameras."
Are you able to identify what his name is?
"Wolfgang Halbig."
Wolfgang Halbig has appeared as an expert
on the Sandy Hook shooting several times on
Alex Jones’ web-based show InfoWars.
"And Wolfgang has been back up there.
He’s doing a serious investigation.
He’s been getting stonewalled but has learned
a lot."
"These were events that were specially shot,
filmed, choreographed for CNN to have fun
with it."
It’s not just some nuisance online, it affects
real people here.
"Absolutely.
He’s very invasive.
And he may enjoy that, that kind of power
he has.
I think all of the additional security that’s
gone into so many institutions are for him
as well."
"He went to school.
I dropped him off.
And no one knew that that was going to be
the last day of his life."
Leonard Pozner is the father of Noah Pozner.
The 6-year-old was the youngest child killed
in the Sandy Hook shooting.
He asked that we not reveal his face because
photos of him and his son have been misused
before.
He also asked that we keep his location secret.
He’s had to move six times after being harassed
by hoaxers.
"This was in Miami."
Oh, the Holocaust Museum?
"Yeah.
At the time he was being playful but now it’s
like he’s part of that sculpture.
So this was a place that hoaxers initially
started to post hateful comments - on these
photos.
On photos of Noah?
When did you first see or hear conspiracy
theories about your tragedy?
"I saw them right away.
I saw them in January of 2013 and which was
just like three weeks after the event.
I released his birth certificate.
I released his death certificate.
I released his medical examiners report.
I released his school records.
So I was sort of showing the world - here’s
Noah.
This is how he was born and this is how he
died."
The documents convinced some, but other so-called
"truthers" remained relentless.
In 2014 after a school shooting in Pakistan,
mourners were photographed holding images
of school shooting victims, including Noah.
Conspiracy theory host Alex Jones presented
it to his audience of millions.
"The BBC articles and others that show Mr.
Pozner’s son that they’re saying was a
child killed a few months ago in Pakistan.
Do I know the whole story?
No I don’t know the whole story.
But am I being lied to?
Absolutely I’m being lied to."
"That was all they needed.
And from there Noah became a much larger focus.
They find anything that’s out of place and
the existence of something that’s out of
place immediately says that it’s a hoax
or a false flag or however they define it."
Pozner launched the HONR network, an organization
of volunteers that fight hoaxers and trolls
online, flagging abusive content and copyrighted
photos of his son.
"These have all been taken down.
These are all gone."
And you've flagged them one by one?
"These are all one by one yeah.
So it takes a lot of time and dedication to
do that."
How many have you been able to take down?
"Thousands."
He’s received death threats online and on
the phone:
“Did you hide your imaginary son in the
attic?
Are you still f****** him.
You f****** Jew bastard.
Jew bastard.
Look behind you.
Death is coming to you real soon.”
That voice was identified as 57-year-old Lucy
Richards.
She pleaded guilty to sending the threats
and was sentenced to five months in prison.
She told investigators she became angry after
browsing websites that promote Sandy Hook
conspiracies.
"That’s the type of people that are now
communicating together.
They’re collaborating.
They’re using the web to do it.
I describe it as the largest network of village
idiots in the world.
And so, as with any cult, you need a dynamic
leader and there are several of them, from
the top, from Alex Jones all the way down
to people like Wolfgang Halbig in Florida."
Pozner filed a lawsuit against Halbig for
harassment and publishing private information
online.
This has been playing out in court for a couple
of years now, and we’re about to head a
hearing and hear a number of motions in this
case.
We weren’t allowed to film because a photographer
from a website called We Are Change arrived
before us.
The judge in this case only allowed one camera.
So this site, that often spreads conspiracy
theories raising questions on tragedies from
9/11 to the Orlando shooting, had exclusive
filming access.
This is their video.
The attorney representing Pozner tried to
block them from filming because they’ve
posted videos on their YouTube channel before,
inciting a response from their followers,
many of whom believe the shooting was staged.
Also at the hearing: Tony Mead, the man who
runs this "Sandy Hook Hoax" Facebook page,
a hub for Sandy Hook truthers.
Mead is a huge supporter of Halbig and attends
his court hearings.
We spoke to him a day earlier at a beach near
his home.
Why do you think all these people would be
lying and conspiring together?
For what purpose?
"Because society does not evolve through coincidence
and happenstance.
Society is engineered.
Okay?
There are people thinking about how the world
should evolve."
Here’s how We Are Change covered the hearing.
They interviewed Mead as a Sandy Hook expert.
"So we all left there pretty much high fives,
smiles, and happy.
And Liz interviewed me yesterday.
She is, you know, basically a mainstream media
propagandist who most likely is going to make
us appear like some kind of crazy conspiracy
nut jobs, which we are, but we’re also just
trying to seek the truth."
We caught up with Halbig’s attorney, Caleb
Payne, and asked about his client denying
the Sandy Hook shooting ever happened - a
question they didn’t want to address in
the hearing.
But you think that’s irrelevant to this
case.
Is that correct?
"I don’t have a comment on that."
You don’t have a comment on whether your
client thinks the Sandy Hook shooting happened
or not?
"I have to keep my client's rights..."
Do you think that matters in this case, whether
or not he believed it happened?
"I have no comment on that question.
Payne told us he’s taking the case pro-bono.
"Let’s go to my house.
You got my address?"
I do.
So conspiracy theorists, they've always existed.
But they’ve always kind of been on the fringe
of society.
But now, as we’ve seen play out in the 2016
election, conspiracy theorists play a role
in the national conversation, so we’ve reached
a point where they can no longer be ignored.
"A lot of people do not think it was an authentic
certificate."
"How can you say that if-?"
"You won't report it Wolf, but many people
do not think it was authentic.
His mother was not in the hospital."
"This case shows how fake news can lead to
a dangerous situation.
He allegedly pointed a gun in the direction
of employee and fired the weapon inside the
restaurant.
The origin of this crazy story was a posting
on Wikileaks."
"This is so deep.
It's a deep state.
They want retribution.
This is now about an unelected part of your
government looking to overturn the results
of a duly elected president."
"The political witch hunt, it needs to be
stopped."
"I want more people getting it like Sean Hannity.
I want to see everybody get it."
"Your reputation's amazing.
I will not let you down.
You will be very very impressed I hope."
A couple months after that interview, The
Newtown Board of Education wrote a letter
to President Trump.
It says “Jones repeatedly tells his listeners
and viewers that he has your ears and your
respect.”
It asks Trump to intervene to stop Jones and
similar hoaxers.
The Board never got a response.
Hi.
"Come on in."
Okay, so just first off, broadly, when did
you become interested in the Sandy Hook case?
"Probably about ten days or three weeks after
I saw breaking news.
Because what I do as a national school safety
consultant, you couldn't get me away from
that television screen."
And so you’ve sent a number of freedom of
information act requests to the town of Newtown.
How many did you send?
"I would probably...they will tell you that
I have frustrated them.
I think that’s a good word to use.
And the reason that I send duplicate requests
is because they never answer the first request."
He says he sent at least 30 requests to the
town of Newtown.
How much money has been donated to you?
"I would probably say, I've got probably 88
thousand."
88 thousand dollars?
"Yep."
He’s previously said he’s received more
than a hundred thousand dollars in donations.
If Sandy Hook was a hoax, why would all these
people be involved in it?
"We’re not prepared to answer a question
like that."
"See, again it's...see I've...who said it's
a hoax?"
You’ve said it in the past, online.
"Are you ready for this?
I’m repeating what other people said."
These repetitions - that the Sandy Hook shooting
was a hoax, that the children never died,
that the government hired so-called crisis
actors that faked the tragedy in a plot to
grab people's’ guns - have been circulated
countless times on Facebook, on Twitter, on
YouTube, and on blogs.
Some profit by accepting donations on their
sites through Paypal.
And others on YouTube amass a huge following
and cash in through advertisements on their
videos.
49 people died here at Pulse nightclub in
Orlando, and almost right after it happened
there were people, hoaxers, online that said
it never happened, that none of these people
died.
Orlando, Las Vegas, and most recently Sutherland
Springs.
Separate mass shootings, but the conspiracy
theories that circulate online immediately
after a high profile tragedy have a similar
narrative: that it was staged by the government
in an elaborate plot take away people's guns.
It’s a storyline Andy Parker is familiar
with.
"You’re victimized by the loss of your daughter
and then on the underbelly and the flipside
or on the other end of it is you’re victimized
by people that think that you’re a crisis
actor and that the whole thing was made up."
Parker’s daughter was shot on live television
while she was reporting on a story one morning
in August, 2015.
"The lives and promising careers of reporter
Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward,
27, cut short."
"My heart was broken irreparably.
I mean, I’ll never be the same again.
I live with this heartbreak and heartache
and my soul was just crushed.
It was ripped out of me.
I never watched the video of Alison being
killed.
Fortunately, we weren’t up.
We didn’t see it and never will.
It’s still out there like a booby trap."
"I had a YouTube channel myself - a YouTube
page.
It’s basically just Alison’s dance recitals
and kayaking videos and just family kind of
stuff.
I had some old commercials because I was a
professional actor, you know, way back when.
I had these commercials that were on videotape
and I thought this is a good place to archive
them.
So I uploaded the stuff.
I went to my page and I saw thousands of comments
and thumbs down.
And I was stunned and I was pissed that somebody
could be so low and vile and do that kind
of thing."
Parker reached out to Pozner, the father of
Noah who was killed during the Sandy Hook
shooting, and is actively fighting hoaxers.
Parker gave him permission to act on his behalf
to flag videos of Alison.
"They are trying to be cooperative but they’re
just not.
I mean, you talk to Lenny who's trying to
pull these things down one by one, and they’ve
been successful in eliminating some of the
hoaxer stuff but it’s not because Google’s
been proactive.
And I would have had to do it myself.
And that's asking...you know can you imagine
someone telling you 'well, if you want this
done, you have to review the video and then
flag it.'
I mean, I can’t do that."
Parker has been fighting to get the attention
of policymakers in Washington, DC, in hopes
that something can be done to reign in the
conspiracies and false information online.
"Some of them aren’t even aware.
They had no idea.
And what I tell them is I’m victimized once
losing the most precious thing that I’ve
ever had.
And then on top of that, then I’m going
to get harassment and there’s a company
that allows that to happen.
You don’t want to impede the first amendment.
That having been said, there needs to be some
kind of policing and if Google and Facebook
or Twitter, if they’re not going to self-police
or self-regulate, then I think the next step
is we’ve got to see some legislation in
there that will hold them accountable."
Part of the problem - tech companies are having
a sort of identity crisis.
And they’re facing intense scrutiny on Capitol
Hill.
"Twitter accounts created as part of the Russian
propaganda campaign helped the Russians form
an entire army of automated Twitter bots and
trolls that overwhelmingly supported one U.S.
candidate."
"Let me ask Google this, to be fair.
Are you a media company or a neutral technology
platform?"
"We are a technology platform, primarily."
"That’s what I thought you’d say.
You don’t think you’re the largest newspaper
in 92 countries?"
"We are not a newspaper.
We are a platform for sharing of information."
"We don’t write any news articles, so certainly
we’re different than a media company, but
that doesn’t mean we don’t have responsibility.
Where we’re trying to go after is the false
news, the fake, the hoax."
So far, that social media crackdown on disinformation
and made-up news has largely ignored truther
accounts, which still post prominently on
Facebook, YouTube and other sites.
We reached out to these tech companies to
ask why that is.
A Facebook spokesman told us they’ve taken
steps to disrupt financial incentives for
hoaxers and collaborate with third-party fact
checkers to vet news articles.
But he also said this page, Sandy Hook Hoax,
listed as an education website, and others
like it, don’t violate company policy.
One question now is how far Congress can — or
should — go to regulate social platforms
without crossing free speech concerns.
On Capitol Hill, Parker met with Senator Tim
Kaine’s office to discuss the issue.
He shows us a letter the senator wrote to
the CEO of Google, asking the company to address
hoaxer videos rampant on the platform related
to high-profile tragedies like his.
'Having a dedicated office to work with the
bereaved to remove this footage or demonetize
it, rather than only being able to communicate
through customer service, could ease the burden
on these families.'
Well that’s nice.
"It is."
A couple weeks after the hearing, Pozner dropped
the case against Halbig.
Two years and over twenty thousand dollars
later, he says he doesn’t think he can get
a fair trial in Lake County.
The Sandy Hook hoaxers now feel emboldened.
“I do believe Leonard Pozner, he is that
domino that’s going to make the whole thing
just fall apart."
For Pozner, the death of his son on December
14, 2012, is an irrefutable fact he has to
live with.
And now with the chaos of the Internet, dealing
with hoaxers that accuse him of faking it:
also part of his reality.
"I see this as the very, very early age of
the internet, and I see the problem as continuously
getting worse, as it has been.
So when we started working on this, this was
completely out in left field.
Now it’s shifted into more of the mainstream
because the group of victims is growing."
This vigil is held by the Newtown Action Alliance
and it marks the 5 year anniversary since
the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Since then, there have been so many other
mass shootings, that this event is meant to
honor all victims of gun violence.
"Allison Parker, August 26th, 2015."
"Matthew Shlonsky, 2015."
"The students and staff of Sandy Hook School.
December 14th, 2012."
"We shall overcome.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome someday."
Do you think that Las Vegas - the Las Vegas
shooting was real?
"I don't.
I think everyone is wondering what happened
in Las Vegas, at this point.
Why is there so much cover up?"
And what about the Boston Marathon bombing?
"The Boston Marathon bombing has been exposed
100% by alternative media."
And what about the Pulse nightclub shooting?
"Again.
Exposed 100%."
"We shall overcome someday."
