Week-long Alex Jones freak out culminates in claim 'Satanists' are taking over Infowars

As the satirical news outlet the Onion launches another bid to take over the far-right platform Infowars from conspiracy pundit Alex Jones, he and his allies are not taking the news well. To the contrary, they’re freaking out and accusing the Onion of being “Satanic.”

The story dates back to 2022, when Jones lost a defamation suit and was ordered to pay over $1 billion in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 20 children and 6 teachers were murdered. The radio host had asserted that relatives of victims were “crisis actors” participating in a hoax, eliciting threats of rape and death against them from his followers. After the judgment, Jones declared bankruptcy, and the Onion attempted to buy Infowars in a liquidation auction. This initial purchase was blocked by a judge who found issues with the process.

Now the Onion is attempting to assume control of the platform again, this time proposing a temporary lease that would allow it to publish its own content under the Infowars channel and social media accounts. According to Onion CEO Ben Collins, the deal could be in place by the end of April, after which Infowars would be relaunched as a parody of itself, now helmed by comedian Tim Heidecker, best known as co-founder of the Cartoon Network series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!.

"This is about accountability, and what comes next,” said Collins. “We’re taking something that caused real harm and turning it into something much funnier, and ideally, more useful.”

This news prompted a full-blown freakout from Jones.

“Just because you’re wearing my shirt doesn’t mean you’re me, let’s be 100 percent clear about that,” ranted a shirtless Jones on Monday. Then on Wednesday, he posted a mashup of clips from Heidecker’s previous show — a famously surreal series that verges on nonsense — claiming that it was proof that his replacement is “publicly into” pedophilia. The following day, he posted a video of Heidecker joking, “I love wearing the man’s skin,” which Jones suggested was a literal assertion. Finally on Friday, Jones claimed that Heidecker had produced a “torture and murder program” filled with “Satanic” messaging.

Jones — who was fined roughly $1.4 billion for defaming the families of murdered children — offered a theory on the Infowars-Onion situation: “The whole thing’s about defaming me.”