The Onion, a satirical news website, appeared to have won a bankruptcy auction to buy Alex Jones’ Infowars, potentially seizing control of the media platform that Jones used to peddle a menagerie of conspiracy theories, including falsehoods about victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
Jones announced the news Thursday morning in a frantic video posted on X, saying that he “just got word” that Infowars would be shuttered following the sale. The Onion subsequently published a statement from its parent company’s fictitious CEO, “Bryce Tetraeder,” calling Infowars “an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses.”
“We thought it would be a very funny joke if we bought this thing, probably one of the better jokes we’ve ever told,” Ben Collins, the real CEO of The Onion’s parent company (and former NBC News reporter), told The Associated Press.
The Onion intends to relaunch Infowars as a website that will parody figures like Jones, The New York Times reported. The Onion declined to reveal how much it paid for Infowars to the Times.
The Onion’s purchase of Infowars was supported by families of the Sandy Hook victims, whom Jones owes nearly $1.5 billion in defamation judgments after tormenting them for years. Jones initially filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid paying the families, but he later agreed to liquidate his assets to help pay the sum. In September, a bankruptcy judge ruled that Infowars and its intellectual property would go up for auction, with proceeds going to the families.
Christopher Mattei, an attorney for a group of the victims’ families in Connecticut, said in a statement about The Onion’s winning bid on Thursday:
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. By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the team at The Onion have done a public service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’ ability to do more harm.
Although the sale was initially announced on Thursday morning, First United American Companies (FUAC), a backup bidder associated with one of Jones’ online supplement stores, was granted a court-ordered meeting later that day to address what the group called “apparent defects in the sale process.”
FUAC’s lawyers said the company was in the dark about the winning bid, which included a “credit bid” from the Sandy Hook families. The judge said late Thursday that there would be another hearing next week to review the process.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for MSNBC Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
