The Onion buys right-wing conspiracy theory site Infowars with plans to make it ‘very funny, very stupid’ | Media

Satirical news outlet The Onion has bought Infowars, the right-wing media platform run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a court-ordered auction.

The news was confirmed on Thursday morning in a video by Jones himselfand head of Løget’s parent company.

“I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and people met with the US bankruptcy trustee this morning and they said they’re shutting us down without a court order this morning,” Jones said in a video shared on X. “The Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us.”

The Onion plans to rebuild the website and feature well-known Internet humor writers and content creators.

CEO Ben Collins confirmed this in a post on Bluesky on Thursday, writing: “The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. We plan to make it a very fun, very silly website. We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off.”

“I can’t wait to show you what we’ve been up to,” Collins added.

In another post on Blue skyCollins said that “part of the reason we bought InfoWars is because the people at Bluesky told us it would be fun to buy InfoWars” and added that “those people were right”, this “is the most fun , that ever happened”.

The purchase includes the acquisition of Jones’ company’s intellectual property, such as its website, customer lists, inventory and certain social media accounts, and the manufacturing equipment, according to CNN. The size of the bid has not been disclosed.

Immediately after the news was announced, Jones began streaming lives at X and crippled the sales of his website. Among other things, Jones told viewers that it is “a distinct honor to be here in spite of the tyrants”. He emphasized that no one told him he could not go live.

Jones also began ranting about the incoming Donald Trump administration, telling viewers things like, “This is the fight. If you think the deep state has given up, think again…America is awake now.”

The sale follows a judge’s order earlier this year that Jones liquidate his personal assets to help him pay the $1.4 billion he was ordered to pay the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first graders and six students. educators after they sued him for defamation after he falsely claimed the shooting was a hoax and that they were actors staging the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns.

Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy in 2022.

To make the offer work, a lawyer representing the families said CNN that the families “agreed to forego part of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, enabling its success”.

“After surviving unimaginable losses with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’ hollow offer of allegedly more money if they would only let him stay on the air because it would have put other families at risk,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families.

In a post on social media earlier this week, Mattei added that “the dissolution of Infowars this week is only the beginning of Alex Jones’ lesson in accountability” and that the families “will go after his future income and any new Infowars owner who acts as a tool for Jones’ continued control of the business”.