The Onion plans to lease Alex Jones’s Infowars after judge blocks purchase | US news
Satirical site The Onion plans to turn right-wing commentator Alex Jones’ misinformation site Infowars into a parody of itself under a lease deal tentatively approved by a Texas court.
Under a proposed deal with court administrators, Infowars would be leased by Global Tetrahedron, a Chicago-based company that owns the Onion, for $81,000 a month for six months, with an option to renew for another six months.
The amount that could be collected under the settlement only scratches the surface of a $1.4 billion major defamation verdict against Jones, who claimed the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed more than 20 children was a political hoax designed to advance gun control efforts. Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, declared bankruptcy in 2022.
“With the help of the Sandy Hook families, The Onion has reached a long-awaited agreement to acquire InfoWars,” said Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion. He said in a social media post on Monday: He added that comedian Tim Heidecker will take over as creative director of Infowars.
Collins to get the ball rolling sent a link According to fake Global Tetrahedron owner Bryce P Tetraeder, “With this new InfoWars, we will democratize psychological torture, embracing the cruel and sadistic ideas of everyone, even the stupidest among us.”
But the agreement must be signed by Maya Guerra Gamble, the Texas judge who is presiding over one of the lawsuits against Jones. Gamble initially blocked the sale of Infowars to the Onion, saying he was not convinced its offer was worth more than that from bidders associated with Jones.
The proposed deal is the Onion’s second attempt to acquire Infowars. This initiative came to prominence when official interpretations of historical events were challenged by a wide audience eager to accept them as shadowy government conspiracies.
But if Jones’s trade is partly in tailoring news information to an audience where nothing is as it seems, the Onion has an alternative direction: turning news information into Gen-Z entertainment. Both approaches rely on selling branded products to increase revenue.
According to the New York Times, Gamble will likely decide on a deal within the next two weeks. However, Jones can appeal any decision. Meanwhile, Jones continues to run Infowars and host his weekday program, The Alex Jones Show.
Heidecker told the outlet on Monday that he plans to parody Jones’ “entire modus operandi.”
He said: “I thought it would just be a good joke if we could take this pretty toxic, negative, destructive power of Infowars and rebrand it as this beautiful place for our creativity.”
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said the goal was to prevent Jones from causing harm and that the Onion settlement promises to “significantly reduce Jones’ ability to do so.”
