The Onion buys InfoWars | Assets

The onionthe satirical news site whose headlines include “The CIA realizes it has been using black highlighters all these years” and “Kitten thinks about nothing but murder all day,” has bought the website for conspiracy theory and more founded by Alex Jones. And in a twist that sounds ripped from the site’s own headlines, the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting helped broker the deal.

A statement from the attorney for eight families affected by the tragedy said those parents had “agreed to forgo part of their recovery to increase the overall value of The onion‘s bid,” which allowed the bid to succeed. The purchase price for InfoWars was not disclosed.

The onion plans to relaunch InfoWars in January as a parody of Jones and other online personalities who spread misinformation. Beyond InfoWars website, The onion now controls his production studio and supplement business that helped make Jones millions.

In a satirical post written by its fictitious owner, The onion wrote of the purchase, saying “No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds. And yet, in a stroke of luck, 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 for a steep bargain: less than a trillion dollars.”

The actual CEO of The onions parent company told New York Times. “We thought it would be a funny joke. This is going to be our answer to this world without railings, where there are no gatekeepers and everything is a little crazy.”

Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to ending gun violence, will advertise on a relaunched version of the site.

Jones was forced to sell his website after parents of Sandy Hook victims sued him after he spread the claim that the shooting never happened. They were awarded $1.4 billion in damages by 2022.

Families had been concerned that employees or fans of Jones would buy InfoWars and keeping Jones on the air as host, with regular broadcasts.