The Onion Buys Infowars Out of Bankruptcy To Turn It Into Parody of Itself

Karma's a bitch. JL

Benjamin Mullin reports in the New York Times:

The Onion, a satirical publication that skewers newsmakers and current events, won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Infowars, a website by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The bid was sanctioned by the families of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Mr. Jones. The Onion plans to reintroduce Infowars in January as a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” who traffic in misinformation and health supplements. The families were supportive of The Onion’s bid because it would put an end to Mr. Jones’s control over the site, which has been a front of misinformation for years and were also supportive of using humor as a tool for raising awareness about gun violence in America.

The Onion, a satirical publication that skewers newsmakers and current events, said on Thursday that it had won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Infowars, a website founded and operated by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The Onion said that the bid was sanctioned by the families of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Mr. Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit dedicated to ending gun violence that was founded in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, will advertise on a relaunched version of the site under The Onion.

The publication plans to reintroduce Infowars in January as a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” like Mr. Jones who traffic in misinformation and health supplements, Ben Collins, the chief executive of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said in an interview. Family members of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, which claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six educators, sued Mr. Jones in Connecticut Superior Court in 2018 after he spread the baseless claim that the rampage was a fabricated pretext for confiscating Americans’ firearms.

The Onion declined to disclose the price it paid for Infowars and its assets, including its production studio and diet supplement business. Mr. Jones could not immediately be reached for comment, but he said on the social media platform X this week that he planned to continue producing his online program, “The Alex Jones Show,” until he was forced to stop.

In September, a Houston judge ruled that Infowars and other assets owned by Free Speech Systems could be auctioned off in bankruptcy to compensate Mr. Jones’s creditors, which include the families of the Sandy Hook victims. Mr. Jones declared bankruptcy in 2022 as the Sandy Hook case made its way to court.

Mr. Collins said that he was informed late Wednesday by the trustee in charge of the bankruptcy auction that The Onion’s bid had prevailed. In a video posted online Thursday, Mr. Jones said that his lawyers had been told by the trustee about the sale to The Onion.

“We thought this would be a hilarious joke,” Mr. Collins said. “This is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane. Mr. Collins declined to disclose the value of the advertising deal with Everytown but said that it was a multiyear agreement that would include banner advertisements and sponsored articles on the site, which will be redesigned to fit its new editorial direction.

While the alliance between Everytown and The Onion may seem like an odd fit, the two organizations share an interest in curbing gun violence, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. Mr. Feinblatt said that mission was underscored with depressing regularity in the aftermath of mass shootings, when The Onion goes viral with its oft-shared headline: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”

“This was an opportunity for us to give The Onion the facts, the storytelling, the data and the research that’s at our fingertips,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “And for them to give us the creativity of how to turn all of that information into new messaging to a new audience.”

Mr. Collins said that the relaunched Infowars might publish its own satirical stories that underscored the epidemic of gun violence in America in addition to sponsored content from Everytown.

Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, said in a statement that taking possession of Infowars amounted to accountability for “Alex Jones and his corrupt business. “By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the team at The Onion have done a public service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’s ability to do more harm,” Mr. Mattei said.

Mr. Collins said The Onion began contemplating a bid for Infowars this summer, when he read online that it was going to be auctioned off. The publication’s leadership team saw an opportunity to play a very funny, very public joke on Mr. Jones if things broke their way.

In early fall, Mr. Collins reached out to the lawyers for the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, whom he knew from his days as a reporter covering misinformation at NBC News. The families expressed support for The Onion’s bid, Mr. Collins said.

The plan is to relaunch it next year with an approach reminiscent of Clickhole, The Onion’s sister site that poked fun at “listicles” from BuzzFeed and other purveyors of viral content.

Mr. Collins declined to provide financial details for The Onion, which is privately held, but he said that the company’s relaunched print edition had garnered “an arena” full of subscribers, helping finance the company’s bid for Infowars. Global Tetrahedron is backed by Jeff Lawson, a co-founder of the tech company Twilio. Mr. Collins said that the families of the victims were supportive of The Onion’s bid because it would put an end to Mr. Jones’s control over the site, which has been a front of misinformation for years. He said they were also supportive of using humor as a tool for raising awareness about gun violence in America.

“They’re all human beings with senses of humor who want fun things to happen and want good things to take place in their lives,” Mr. Collins said. “They want to be part of something good and positive too.”