In a move that could understandably be mistaken as one of the site’s famous headlines, the satirical “news” outlet The Onion has purchased the assets of InfoWars, a far right media company that was once owned by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Jones had to put up the site up for sale, including all of its assets — including its properties, studio, social media accounts, more — after losing lawsuits to families of victims of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Jones frequently repeated the baseless conspiracy theory on his program that the shooting was a false flag government operation meant to influence public opinion on gun policy, and that the parents were “crisis actors” participating in the plot.
Jones, an overzealous defender of Second Amendment gun rights, owes nearly $1.5 billion in payments to those families for his repeated defamatory comments against them, which led to harassment and even violent threats toward them from viewers of his InfoWars program. During the Texas- and Connecticut-based lawsuits he faced for peddling his wild conspiracy theories, Jones admitted that his claims were completely fabricated.
Jones announced the sale on social media Thursday morning, deriding it by claiming that “the Connecticut Democrats with The Onion newspaper” purchased InfoWars. The Onion is not affiliated with any political party — indeed, it ridicules both Democrats and Republicans — and the inclusion of “Democrats” in his complaining perpetuates a false notion that the lawsuit was a political conspiracy against him.
Although details of the sale of InfoWars and the assets associated with it were not immediately disclosed, it will likely not meet the total that Jones owes to the families. Still, the dissolution of the platform Jones had for years utilized to spread........