Alex Jones’ media empire Infowars has been bought by satirical news organization The Onion, the company announced Thursday.
A private auction for Infowars took place Wednesday morning as part of a personal bankruptcy plan to pay the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, after Jones falsely claimed for years that the shooting that killed 20 children and six adults had never happened. those whose loved ones were murdered were actors.
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company Global Tetrahedron, said on social media that Infowars was purchased with the blessing of the Sandy Hook families affected by Jones’ disinformation campaign. The new Infowars, he said, will be relaunched by The Onion staff and ultimately resemble a parody of itself — including ads from Everytown for Gun Safety, an anti-gun violence nonprofit launched after the Sandy Hook shooting.
“We plan on making this a very funny, very stupid website,” Collins wrote on social media app Bluesky. “We engaged the services of several Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to make this happen. I can’t wait to show you what we’ve prepared.”
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Jones lost two lawsuits in 2022 after several Sandy Hook families sued him for defamation and won nearly $1.5 billion in damages against him.
Because the auction was private, the names of the bidders were not disclosed. This also means that there was no chance of a competitive bidding process.
Christopher Murray, a federal court-appointed trustee, will distribute the money from the auction sale to the estate’s creditors, including the Sandy Hook families defamed by Jones.
In addition to the Infowars name and website, bidders had the option to purchase a Winnebago camper and an armored truck. Items not sold in Wednesday’s auction will be listed in a second auction December will take place.