'Crisis Actors'

The claim that mass tragedies are staged with actors — the cruelest artifact in the archive, tested in court and priced at over a billion dollars in defamation verdicts against its chief broadcaster.

'Crisis actors': the claim that mass-casualty events are staged with performers — applied within hours to Sandy Hook, Parkland, and others. Documented: the term's modern career begins with a 2012 blog post; Alex Jones' Sandy Hook broadcasts produced defamation judgments totaling over $1.4 billion (2022), with parents testifying to years of harassment; no staged event has ever been demonstrated. Filed as the genre's moral floor: the documented cost of the theory is borne entirely by the bereaved.