Satirical website The Onion announced Thursday that it had acquired Alex Jones’ site, Infowars, at a bankruptcy auction, with assistance from a group of Sandy Hook parents. One Sandy Hook parent, Robbie Parker, had this to say of the acquisition: “The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for.”
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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.
As RedState reported back in October of 2022, Jones was ordered to pay $965 million in compensatory damages for defaming the Sandy Hook families. Soon after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones began attacking the families of the young victims and insisting the incident was a hoax; he later admitted in court that the tragedy was “100% real.”
The amount awarded to the families was later raised to nearly $1.5 billion, which forced Jones into bankruptcy. As recently as just a few days ago, Jones said he was hopeful that some “good guys” were going to buy Infowars and all of its assets.
A defiant Jones released a video to X/Twitter on Thursday morning, presumably filmed from the offices of Infowars, saying his news operation was being shut down immediately “without a court order” and that “the Connecticut Democrats at The Onion bought us.” He vowed to stay on site until “they turn the lights out” and promised that “injunctions” would be forthcoming.
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🚨#BREAKING: Alex Jones has just confirmed that his network INFOWARS has just been acquired by the Onion, backed by the families of the Sandy Hook shooting pic.twitter.com/jFbsW2EBZV
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) November 14, 2024
While terms of the deal were not made public, it is being reported that the Sandy Hook families “increased the size of The Onion’s bid by agreeing to forgo a portion of the money Jones owes them.”
Chris Mattei, an attorney representing the families, put out a statement saying: “From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business. 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 deal allows The Onion to acquire all of Infowars’ assets, including the website and associated “product inventory, customers lists, social media accounts, and intellectual property.” And the new owners have some big plans for the revamped site, and mockery of Alex Jones seems to be an editorial priority.
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The Onion plans to relaunch Infowars in January as a parody of itself, he said, mocking “weird internet personalities” like Mr. Jones who traffic in misinformation and health supplements.
“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.”
One thing’s for sure: You can bet this won’t be the last you hear from Alex Jones.
