In what could easily pass for an Onion headline itself, the parody news site has purchased the rights to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ alt right news outlet InfoWars. And The Onion plans to turn the site into a parody of itself.
On Thursday, The Onion won the bidding for InfoWars at a bankruptcy auction. In its own parody news announcement, The Onion offered a satirical take on the legacy of InfoWars.
“Founded in 1999 on the heels of the Satanic ‘panic’ and growing steadily ever since, InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses,” The Onion wrote. “With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal.”
Among the many heinous conspiracy theories the site popularized, InfoWars played a major role in spreading the lie that the Sandy Hook shooting — in which 20 first graders and six adults were murdered — was a hoax. This led to the harassment and stalking of the parents of the victims, whom Jones claimed were paid actors. As a result, those parents filed and won a $1.5 billion defamation lawsuit.
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Jones has since filed for bankruptcy and liquidated his assets in order to pay off these damages. Those assets include InfoWars, along with the entirety of Jones’ media ecosystem, which have now been sold off in a bankruptcy auction.
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Jones — whose delirious rants rival those of Donald Trump — is now in full meltdown mode over The Onion’s acquisition, begging viewers to purchase subscriptions and supplements. “This is a total attack on free speech, the deep state is completely out of control,” Jones said during a live broadcast. “This is the tyranny of the New World Order, desperate to silence the American people.”
Ben Collins, The Onion’s CEO, told the Associated Press that InfoWars will now publish satirical content on conspiracy theories along with education on gun violence prevention in partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety.
“We thought it would be a very funny joke if we bought this thing, probably one of the better jokes we’ve ever told,” Collins said. “The [Sandy Hook] families decided they would effectively join our bid, back our bid, to try to get us over the finish line.
“Because by the end of the day, it was us or Alex Jones, who could either continue this website unabated, basically unpunished, for what he’s done to these families over the years, or we could make a dumb, stupid website, and we decided to do the second thing.”
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