Jonathan Elinoff: Under Fire

In the stream of interesting interviews, this month we’re talking about a prince of the pre-social media age of the internet. In the past, Jonathan has been the man behind the screen at the New World Order Report and he is the familiar voice and producer of the popular 9/11 conspiracy film, Core of Corruption. He was also a foundational part of We Are Change Colorado and other activist activities in the Colorado area. In 2011, Jonathan was the journalist behind the take-down of former Arapahoe County, Colorado Sheriff Pat Sullivan who was arrested for meth possession and offering to trade drugs for sex with a young man. Sheriff Sullivan had made a name for himself nationally as a crusader against the drug and its effect on young people. The story was so bizarre that it made international headlines and Jonathan talked about the story on national press and TV outlets. It has been a few years since he retired from the world of conspiracy, people are still waiting with baited breath for the 2nd Core of Corruption film and Pat Sullivan has served his time, gotten off probation and is now a free man. So the question is this, what is next for Jonathan Elinoff? That was the first thing I asked the second I had him on the phone for this interview. He is starting to write again, mostly screenplays in progress and getting back into producing documentaries done with conspiracy and human behavior. Those waiting for the 2nd Core of Corruption film will have to keep waiting for the next film in the series. The master of conspiracy has moved on even though he says there is a 50/50 chance if it ever gets a release but the indication is towards “no release.” We’ll have to make due with the first part only. His focus is now on his life after conspiracy. Any artist worth his salt has to process pain through art. Jon is no different because that is what he intends to do.

His focus now is everyday people, just like you and me and our inability to believe that everyday people can commit extraordinary crimes. He says that, “the bar for reliability for people is very low. People are taking advantage of others the criminals are smarter people who can no longer be oblivious to what people can actually do.”

Cognitive dissonance has been a big topic this election year and Jonathan is mindful of it and it’s effects on people as many states begin to go to the polls and begin the lengthy process to select our next president. The ability for people to take in information and act on it seems to be at an all time low in his mind. Even how criminality is rewarded seems to be at odds with all reason. “It’s embarrassing. about how criminals don’t get caught and most truth filters don’t get it right. People just don’t believe it can happen.”

He raises a central question in our conversation,

“Have we evolved past the stage that the big guy with the stick rules the cave?”

He is surprisingly self-confident these days and he is freshly single and ready to mingle and ready to break out into the world. As he talked about more personal issues that aren’t important here, I had the image of a man standing in the rain outside his lover’s apartment. He’s just not the same person anymore. He’s really raw. What struck me the most was the trauma with which he spoke he was full of bravado at one point and even sounded emotionally to the point of tears in other parts. The Sullivan case the aftermath and everything related to the core of corruption films has broken him But he is still here, still a fighter and it will be interesting what actually does come next. But right now, he has to get through the next few months.

Jonathan brilliantly broke the story after months of intense and clandestine investigation that was dangerous and affects his life to this day and the child rape charges never came up due to a lack of evidence. When he told me about what it took to get Sullivan and even how he ended up in that situation, it seemed like either several accidents or he was used as a convenience for a force that was influencing him. I’m very skeptical; it’s my job as the news guy. I’m the first to try to find a rational explanation for things and solutions to problems. Situations are often exactly as they seem. But this gave me pause, everything he told me was so real it seemed like I had to believe him. Was it real or just mere force of personality? The days, weeks and months after the Sullivan investigation have not been easy. The life of someone breaking a major news story often finds themselves in limbo with lots of fame and attention but little opportunity for paying employment. Jonathan has been spending his time doing odd projects ranging from video work to something more traditional like solar panel sales. In that time he has taken to a study of people. In his mind our one identifying weakness: the fact that we are easily duped and we don’t realize how corrupt people really are now. Society isn’t always our friend.

His next project? A Sicario-esque film about the best of us and the worst of us. Well, maybe…

The reality is that we all have invested much of ourselves into society and we depend on it’s structures and it’s order to give a framework for our lives. Jonathan sees that framework now, more than ever before and the way humans act has come to disgust him at a primal level. I was really surprised at this response. I hadn’t talked to him in over a year at this point and so I had missed most of this philosophical change. I was still trying to catch up with his line of thinking at this point.

“We can’t deny that we’re a species that honestly just aren’t that great the only time we have stability is when we recognize the internal struggle.”

Jonathan is looking for us to become a more conscious civilization but that requires active involvement and even quips, “The average person is so detached from their existence that people just don’t get it and I can’t decide if it’s a genetic or social flaw.” He thinks that society needs to advance in a real way. A quick look around shows that to be undeniable. With Donald Trump’s entrance into the race and his ascension in the Republican party, it shows that there are millions of ignorant people who are willing to vote their ignorance into office. Whether it’s a genetic or social flaw I still can’t decide in these days after our talk. I think it might be a combination of both.

Is it supernatural or crazy that we can we become a conscious civilization? It might be. In a world of Donald Trump, partisan politics, mass shootings and more, it seems like the likelihood of our civilization transcending our current state and moving towards a place where we can take on the complexities of space travel and work together as a whole without the predatory nature of love and war as a constant tug and pull seems less possible by the day. He even joked that he suspected there were concerned alien species who were worried about humanity. “I’m a concerned species about us! What are we going to do about automatons and sociopaths?” Certainly, there are no easy fixes to the complexities of humanity. I find it really interesting that this is the progression in his thinking and that he has decided to apply his prodigious faculties to this problem.

The interview took an interesting direction as we started to talk about society and order and things were changing. I was interested to find out that he agreed with many of the trends I saw. The chaos of our society is being brought to order. Creating order is only rational we’re headed towards more order. I asked him about the “new world order” and when it finally shows up. His statement was simple: “isn’t coming; it’s here.” There is a change in response to crisis but I think many would argue that change isn’t coming fast enough. Jonathan admits that there are people who want control and it’s not made-up conspiracy culture, the threat is real but what can we do about it? Jonathan wants to get into art and comedy as his solution to the onslaught as he moves to LA in the near future. When one of the princes of conspiracy gives up on conspiracy culture and “fighting” these interests, where does that leave everyone else? Flat-earth subreddits? The Berenstain/stein conspiracy?

We hung up at 4 am, having talked for 6 hours, only 2 of which was the real interview of thoughts that I have tried to recount here. We’ll be keeping an eye on Jonathan as he moves forward to what the future might hold.