The Onion Wins Auction to Take Over InfoWars
For once, the “funniest possible outcome” is not an exaggeration. The Onion, the satirical news website that started as a newspaper in the 1980s, says it won a bankruptcy auction to acquire InfoWars, the fringe right-wing website founded in 1999 and run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
InfoWars went offline shortly after the auction concluded on Thursday, though Jones has made it clear he isn’t going anywhere. He says he will continue to broadcast live on X, and Jones and is also promoting a new website where he plans to restart his eponymous show.
“At any time they could literally just shut us off, any minute, poof,” Jones said in a livestream on X. “There’s a backup studio in the Alex Jones network, we think ahead. This will have a giant Streisand Effect, they think we’re defeated, we’re not defeated.” Jones started his career streaming from his home, and it seems likely that he will now return to those roots. The studio where InfoWars operates, including all the equipment, was included in the auction.
For years, Jones spread false allegations that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting never actually happened, and that the parents of the victims were crisis actors hired with the intent of repealing Second Amendment rights. The claims led to significant harassment being directed at the families over the years. After suing Jones for defamation in Connecticut and Texas, guilty rulings ultimately saddled Jones with over $1.4 billion dollars in damages. Jones’ media empire was subsequently forced into liquidation. He has since acknowledged that the shooting was not a false flag operation.
