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Satire publication The Onion buys Alex Jones’ Infowars at auction with Sandy Hook families’ backing

Nov 14, 2024, 10:50 AM

the onion infowars...

InfoWars founder Alex Jones speaks to the media outside Waterbury Superior Court during his trial on September 21, 2022 in Waterbury, Connecticut. (Photo: Joe Buglewicz, Getty Images)

(Photo: Joe Buglewicz, Getty Images)

The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for  Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes  for calling the massacre a hoax.

The purchase turns over Jones’ company, which for decades has peddled in conspiracy and misinformation, to a humor website that plans to relaunch the Infowars platform in January as a parody. Within hours of the sale’s announcement Thursday, Infowars’ website was down and Jones was broadcasting from what he said was a new studio location.

“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 provided by his lawyers.

More on Alex Jones: Alex Jones lawyer takes the Fifth during Sandy Hook hearing

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 satirical outlet — which carries the banner of “America’s Finest News Source” on its masthead — 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 the U.S., 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 its satirical post on 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.”

On his live broadcast,  was angry and defiant, vowing to challenge the sale and auction process in court. He later announced his show was being shut down. Jones, who had told listeners for days that he had a new studio already set up nearby, then resumed his broadcast on a different social media account.

“This is a total attack on free speech, the deep state is completely out of control,” Jones told his listeners, referencing conspiracy theories. “This the tyranny of the New World Order, desperate to silence the American people.”

He claimed the takeover by The Onion was premature because the bankruptcy judge had not yet signed off on the winning bid.

A Jones-affiliated company named by the bankruptcy trustee as the backup bid requested an immediate status conference, citing “the apparent defects in the sale process, including changing the procedures, lack of transparency, and inaccurate disclosures to interested bidders.” A hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Houston.

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.

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Satire publication The Onion buys Alex Jones’ Infowars at auction with Sandy Hook families’ backing