How Sandy Hook families got the last laugh in legal battle with Alex Jones

14 November 2024

Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' media assets were officially sold to satirical news site The Onion on Thursday. And apparently their acquisition was greenlit by the families of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims Jones defamed.

According to the Washington Post, The Onion officially took ownership of Jones' Infowars website, along with its related social media accounts, production studio, email list, archive and intellectual property. Sandy Hook families were apparently so in favor of The Onion securing the winning bid that they accepted a lower buyout amount to ensure that the humor publication would win ownership of Jones' media empire. The Onion's winning bid came despite Jones' followers hoping for a bailout from far-right activist Roger Stone and/or tech billionaire Elon Musk.

"We were told this outcome would be nearly impossible, but we are no strangers to impossible fights. 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," stated Sandy Hook parent Robbie Parker, whose six year-old daughter Emilie was among the 20 people killed in the 2012 massacre.

The Post further reported that the nonprofit group Everytown for Gun Safety, which was formed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, will serve as the "exclusive advertiser" for the Onion in its takeover of Infowars. Currently, the Infowars website is a blank white screen with the text: "Site unavailable till further notice."

It's unclear how much The Onion paid to acquire Jones' media company in the bankruptcy lawsuit that kicked off after Sandy Hook families won a $1.5 billion judgment, but Onion CEO Ben Collins said his company's acquisition of Jones' Infowars assets included the conspiracy theorist's massive stockpile of supplements. Collins told the Post the supplements were "another joke that we have to figure out."

In a satirical post as the fictional CEO of The Onion's make-believe parent company, the publication said it would continue Infowars' "storied tradition of scaring the site's users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash." The statement also promised to "immediately" halt the sale of Jones' supplements.

"We plan to collect the entire stock of the Infowars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar-sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal," the post read.

In a post to the social media platform Bluesky, Collins said the original idea to buy Infowars came from a user on the platform who suggested The Onion bid on Jones' assets because it would be funny. Collins also promised to turn Infowars into "a very funny, very stupid website."

"[P]eople on Bluesky told us it would be funny to buy InfoWars. And those people were right," Collins wrote. "This is the funniest thing that has ever happened."

Click here to read the Post's report in full (subscription required).

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