In a move that could understandably be mistaken as one of the site’s famous headlines, the satirical “news” outlet The Onion has purchased the assets of InfoWars, a far right media company that was once owned by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Jones had to put up the site up for sale, including all of its assets — including its properties, studio, social media accounts, more — after losing lawsuits to families of victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Jones frequently repeated the baseless conspiracy theory on his program that the shooting was a false flag government operation meant to influence public opinion on gun policy, and that the parents were “crisis actors” participating in the plot.
Jones, an overzealous defender of Second Amendment gun rights, owes nearly $1.5 billion in payments to those families for his repeated defamatory comments against them, which led to harassment and even violent threats toward them from viewers of his InfoWars program. During the Texas- and Connecticut-based lawsuits he faced for peddling his wild conspiracy theories, Jones admitted that his claims were completely fabricated.
Jones announced the sale on social media Thursday morning, deriding it by claiming that “the Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper” purchased InfoWars. The Onion is not affiliated with any political party — indeed, it ridicules both Democrats and Republicans — and the inclusion of “Democrats” in his complaining perpetuates a false notion that the lawsuit was a political conspiracy against him.
Although details of the sale of InfoWars and the assets associated with it were not immediately disclosed, it will likely not meet the total that Jones owes to the families. Still, the dissolution of the platform Jones had for years utilized to spread false conspiracy theories was seen as a victory by the families. Indeed, to help The Onion win the auction of InfoWars, the families agreed to forgo some of the payments that were owed to them.
“From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families. “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.”
“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 was among the 20 grade school students and six staff members who were killed at Sandy Hook, said in a statement.
In a satirical post on its own website, The Onion published an op-ed from “Bryce P. Tetraeder,” the fake CEO of Global Tetrahedron LLC, the parent company of the publication.
“Through it all, InfoWars has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society — values that resonate deeply with all of us at Global Tetrahedron,” the op-ed states, further describing Jones as “the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name).”
The satirical piece also alluded to the products that were sold on InfoWars by Jones — mostly questionable health care products and vitamins — and said they would be placed “into a large vat and boil[ed]…down into a single candy bar–sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal.”
Real-life Onion CEO Ben Collins indicated that the InfoWars site would be changed significantly into a humor news website.
“The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. We’re planning on making a very stupid website,” Collins said, noting that former staffers from The Onion and Clickhole (another satire publication) would be part of the new operation. “I can’t wait to show you what we cooked up.”
The Onion also announced that Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun violence prevention organization, will be the exclusive launch advertiser on the new site.
“Everytown will continue to raise awareness on InfoWars’ channels about gun violence prevention and present actual solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis, including bipartisan, common-sense measures and public safety initiatives,” the organization said in a statement.
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