Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Satire Publication The Onion Buys Alex Jones' Infowars at Auction With Sandy Hook Families' Backing
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 1 week ago on
November 14, 2024

Satirical news outlet The Onion acquires Alex Jones' Infowars in bankruptcy auction, backed by Sandy Hook families seeking justice. (AP File)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.

“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement Thursday provided by his lawyers.

The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive for an undisclosed sales price. The purchase gives a satirical outlet — which carries the banner of “America’s Finest News Source” on its masthead — control over a brand that has long peddled misinformation and conspiracy.

The Onion’s History of Satirizing Jones

The Onion was founded in the 1980s and for decades has skewered politics and pop culture, including making Jones a frequent target of mocking articles. Mass shootings in America, such as the Sandy Hook attack, are often followed by The Onion publishing slightly updated versions of one of its most well-known recurring pieces of satire: “‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”

“No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds,” The Onion said in a satirical post confirming the sale. “And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.”

Jones’ Defiant Response

The Infowars website was down Thursday morning. On his live broadcast, Jones was angry and defiant, vowing to challenge the sale and auction process in court and saying he would use a new studio that was already set up. He later announced his show was being shut down, but he resumed a short time later at a new location and using a different social media account.

“The journey has just begun. Thank you,” Jones said as he signed off.

The Onion, based in Chicago, consulted on the bidding with some of the Sandy Hook families that sued Jones for defamation and emotional distress in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas, lawyers for the families said.

“Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families.

The Onion’s Plans for Infowars

Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, told The Associated Press in a video interview that it plans to relaunch the Infowars website in January with satire aimed at conspiracy theorists and right-wing personalities, as well as educational information about gun violence prevention from Everytown for Gun Safety. Collins joked that The Onion’s bid was $1 trillion but would not disclose the actual amount.

“We thought it would be a very funny joke if we bought this thing, probably one of the better jokes we’ve ever told,” Collins said. “The (Sandy Hook) families decided they would effectively join our bid, back our bid, to try to get us over the finish line. Because by the end of the day, it was us or Alex Jones, who could either continue this website unabated, basically unpunished, for what he’s done to these families over the years, or we could make a dumb, stupid website, and we decided to do the second thing.”

The publication bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers. Recent headlines have included, “Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings,” “Oklahoma Law Requires Ten Commandments To Be Displayed In Every Womb” and “Man Forgetting Difference Between Meteoroid, Meteorite Struggles To Describe What Just Killed His Dog.”

Sandy Hook families sued Jones and his company for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.

Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.

Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones had expressed interest in buying Infowars.

Jones had told listeners that if his supporters won the bidding, he could stay on the Infowars platforms. The bankruptcy trustee named First United American Companies, a company affiliated with one of Jones’ product-selling sites, as the “backup bid,” in case The Onion purchase falls through.

First United American Companies asked the bankruptcy court in Houston in a filing on Thursday to hold a status conference immediately on “the apparent defects in the sale process, including changing the procedures, lack of transparency, and inaccurate disclosures to interested bidders,” saying “the value of the assets is in the process of being destroyed at this very minute.”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Nations at UN Climate Talks Agree on $300B a Year for Poor Countries in a Compromise Deal

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s Pick for Labor Secretary

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Scott Turner, Trump’s Pick for Housing Secretary

DON'T MISS

Trump Taps Investor Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary

DON'T MISS

NATO Head and Trump Meet in Florida for Talks on Global Security

DON'T MISS

Why Cranberry Sauce Is America’s Least Favorite Thanksgiving Dish – and 5 Creative Ways to Use It

DON'T MISS

‘Get Somebody Else to Do It’: Trump Resistance Encounters Fatigue

DON'T MISS

Anti-Vax Activists Dominate RFK Jr.’s HHS Transition Team

DON'T MISS

Wing ‘Wizard’ Harry Potter to Play for Australia’s Rugby Team. Let the Puns Begin.

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening to Kill Middle School Girls, Staff

UP NEXT

What to Know About Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s Pick for Labor Secretary

UP NEXT

What to Know About Scott Turner, Trump’s Pick for Housing Secretary

UP NEXT

Trump Taps Investor Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary

UP NEXT

NATO Head and Trump Meet in Florida for Talks on Global Security

UP NEXT

Why Cranberry Sauce Is America’s Least Favorite Thanksgiving Dish – and 5 Creative Ways to Use It

UP NEXT

‘Get Somebody Else to Do It’: Trump Resistance Encounters Fatigue

UP NEXT

Anti-Vax Activists Dominate RFK Jr.’s HHS Transition Team

UP NEXT

Wing ‘Wizard’ Harry Potter to Play for Australia’s Rugby Team. Let the Puns Begin.

UP NEXT

Tulare County Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening to Kill Middle School Girls, Staff

UP NEXT

Two Fresno, Clovis Trustee Races Remain Tight. Bond Measures Passing with Growing Margins

Trump Taps Investor Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary

17 hours ago

NATO Head and Trump Meet in Florida for Talks on Global Security

17 hours ago

Why Cranberry Sauce Is America’s Least Favorite Thanksgiving Dish – and 5 Creative Ways to Use It

21 hours ago

‘Get Somebody Else to Do It’: Trump Resistance Encounters Fatigue

21 hours ago

Anti-Vax Activists Dominate RFK Jr.’s HHS Transition Team

21 hours ago

Wing ‘Wizard’ Harry Potter to Play for Australia’s Rugby Team. Let the Puns Begin.

21 hours ago

Tulare County Man Arrested After Allegedly Threatening to Kill Middle School Girls, Staff

1 day ago

Two Fresno, Clovis Trustee Races Remain Tight. Bond Measures Passing with Growing Margins

1 day ago

Richardson Close to Cementing Northeast Fresno Council Race

1 day ago

Visalia Motorcyclist Killed in Collision on Walnut Avenue

1 day ago

Nations at UN Climate Talks Agree on $300B a Year for Poor Countries in a Compromise Deal

BAKU, Azerbaijan — United Nations climate talks adopted a deal to inject at least $300 billion annually in humanity’s fight against cl...

9 hours ago

9 hours ago

Nations at UN Climate Talks Agree on $300B a Year for Poor Countries in a Compromise Deal

12 hours ago

What to Know About Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s Pick for Labor Secretary

16 hours ago

What to Know About Scott Turner, Trump’s Pick for Housing Secretary

17 hours ago

Trump Taps Investor Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary

17 hours ago

NATO Head and Trump Meet in Florida for Talks on Global Security

21 hours ago

Why Cranberry Sauce Is America’s Least Favorite Thanksgiving Dish – and 5 Creative Ways to Use It

21 hours ago

‘Get Somebody Else to Do It’: Trump Resistance Encounters Fatigue

21 hours ago

Anti-Vax Activists Dominate RFK Jr.’s HHS Transition Team

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend