SATIRICAL news site The Onion has purchased far-right outlet Infowars after it was forced into bankruptcy as a result of Alex Jones’s legal cases.
The publication, best known for its comedic take on current news events, won the rights to acquire Infowars at a bankruptcy auction.
Infowars fell into bankruptcy after Jones was sued by the families of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He had falsely claimed the victims of the 2011 tragedy were still alive.
READ MORE: Judge rules Alex Jones’ assets to be sold to help pay Sandy Hook debt
The families won a $1.4 billion defamation case against Jones and his company Free Speech Systems.
It is unknown how much The Onion paid for the acquisition at the auction, but they have said the bid to buy the property of Free Speech Systems including the intellectual property, website, customer lists, inventory, certain social media accounts and the production equipment used to platform Jones was approved by the families of the victims.
The Onion released a statement from Bryce P Tetraeder, the fake CEO of "Global Tetrahedron", saying that they will put: “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.”
READ MORE: Alex Jones concedes Sandy Hook attack was ‘100% real’
The Connecticut families have also gave up a portion of their settlement to assist in sponsoring the bid made by The Onion, helping to ensure the bid was successful.
Ben Collins, actual CEO of The Onion, said: "Hi everyone. The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website. We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off. I can't wait to show you what we have cooked up."
The Onion plans to relaunch Infowars in January 2025 as a parody of itself that mocks “weird internet personalities” like Jones.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel