Source: CNN
Satirical news site The Onion won the auction to acquire conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars, which was sold off as part of a defamation settlement after he falsely called the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax.
The Onion’s bid was backed by the families of eight victims of the school shooting and one first responder. It also will have an exclusive advertising deal with the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. CNN was first to report the humor web site had entered the bidding.
But a federal judge in Texas ordered a hearing into how the Onion – known for bite – won the bidding, after Jones and his lawyers raised questions about how the auction was conducted.
Jones was previously ordered to pay $1.5 billion to families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. But he’s dragged his feet on paying back any of that judgment, even as court records show he continued spending tens of thousand of dollars a month.
Everything from the platform’s studio equipment, online dietary supplement store, a Terradyne armored truck, its social media accounts and even a Winnebago motorhome was up for sale to the highest bidder. The amount of the bid was not announced.
Jones had used Infowars to spread some of the most disturbing and disgusting lies and conspiracy theories into the public discourse. And he enriched himself with millions of dollars in the process, profiting off a commerce engine he built off of the fear that he peddled on his platform.
“The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site’s users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash,” said The Onion CEO Ben Collins. “Or Bitcoin. We will also accept Bitcoin.”
The idea first came up in June when the possibility of an auction was announced by the court, Collins said in an interview. A few months later, as the bid became more serious, the company reached out to the families of the victims to get their blessing.
The new iteration will be satirical spotlight on the media ecosystem that allows figures like Jones to flourish, according to Collins.
“We’re going to shine a light on the economy around this that has completely engulfed our current media, which is people getting you really upset and then driving you to a page to buy a panacea,” he said.
In order to make the bid work, the families “agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion’s bid, enabling its success,” the families said in a statement. Though Collins declined to detail the bid amount, he said it was the highest and that the funding came from The Onion itself.
“After surviving unimaginable loss with courage and integrity, they rejected Jones’ hollow offers for allegedly more money if they would only let him stay on the air because doing so would have put other families in harm’s way,” said Chris Mattei, attorney for the families and partner at Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder.
Jones falsely said again and again after the 2012 mass shooting, in which 26 people were killed, that the incident was staged, and that the families and first responders were “crisis actors.” The plaintiffs throughout the trial described in poignant terms how the lies had prompted unrelenting harassment against them and compounded the emotional agony of losing their loved ones.
Twenty children, ages six and seven, were murdered in the shooting, along with six adults.
In a video posted to X on Thursday Alex Jones decried the sale, calling it unconstitutional and encouraged fans to follow him on new social media handles.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to be here until they come in there and turn the lights off. I’m going to say, ‘Where’s your court order?’” he said.
Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting said, in part, “The world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability — the dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for.”
Everything at Infowars, from the microphones to the email lists, was up for auction to help pay off his settlement debts to the Sandy Hook families after being found guilty of defamation for calling the 2012 massacre a hoax.
Jones’ allies had also placed bids, with one source telling CNN that one of those bids was in the “seven figures” range. Jones had said on his show that “good guys” had been trying to bid on Infowars to keep him in place, but that even if they fail, he’ll keep broadcasting on new platforms and new social media accounts.
The Onion plans to have the web site transition to its new content by January 2025, according to a joint release with Everytown for Gun Safety.
Oliver Darcy and CNN’s Liam Reilly contributed reporting.
This story has been updated with additional developments and context.