In November, satirical newspaper The Onion won a bankruptcy auction and acquired Infowars, a website dedicated to promoting anti-government conspiracy theories. But on Wednesday, a federal bankruptcy judge rejected the deal on the grounds that the auction was not conducted in a sufficiently transparent manner and did not yield the expected returns.
At issue in the case is the future control of Infowars, which was started by far-right commentator Alex Jones. The site publishes misinformation and conspiracy theories on a wide range of subjects, including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. I’ve been spreading it. Depending on next steps, The Onion could successfully complete the acquisition, Jones could find a way to effectively maintain control of the site, or a receiver could oversee the case. It is also possible that a person decides on a completely different option.
To make the bid, The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, worked with the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, a frequent target of Infowars conspiracy theories. According to a November press release, the purpose of the acquisition was to “end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation aimed at selling supplements and permanently replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor.” It is said that
Onion CEO Ben Collins said in a statement early Wednesday morning that the company will continue to pursue the Infowars acquisition and that it is “a positive outcome for the horrors endured by the Sandy Hook family.” We will continue to look for such solutions.”
How Infowars got here and what’s next
Infowars was founded in 1999 and established itself as a vehicle for disseminating fringe right-wing ideas on numerous tragedies. The magazine claims that September 11 was an “insider attack,” that the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, was part of a government mind control campaign, and that the 1995 shooting in Oklahoma City It features claims that the government was involved in the bombings.
Jones is widely credited with normalizing the prevalence of conspiracy theories in the right-wing media ecosystem, largely due to the reach of his website and later his radio broadcasts and web shows. .
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, Jones suggested that the attack was a “hoax,” that the children who died were still alive and that their parents were actors who were paid to take part in the preparations. . “Why would the government do this to get guns?” He reiterated that the shootings were a step-by-step effort to advance gun control policies.
Mr. Jones’ lies fueled widespread harassment and abuse of the families of the children and adults killed at Sandy Hook, leading to a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Jones. In 2022, the court ruled that Jones must pay a total of $1.5 billion in damages to these families for the lies and the harm they caused.
That same year, Jones filed for bankruptcy protection for both his personal assets and his company, Free Speech Systems, which includes Infowars. In June, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ordered Jones to liquidate his personal assets to begin paying the Sandy Hook family. In September, Mr. Lopez approved the Infowars auction.
The auction took place in November, and the only bidders were The Onion and First United American, a web vendor that sells nutritional supplements under Mr. Jones’ name. Onion’s bid was $1.75 million in cash, including additional assets, and First United American’s bid was $3.5 million in cash. Christopher Murray, the trustee overseeing the auction, concluded that the additional assets meant The Onion’s bid was worth more, at about $7 million. These assets also included pledges from Sandy Hook families who agreed to give up their share of the proceeds that would have been earned at the auction.
Mr. Lopez rejected the deal, concluding that the auction could not generate as much money as the beneficiaries could because it was not conducted in a public proceeding in which the parties could compete with each other. “From the moment we decided to finalize the bid, it seemed almost doomed,” Lopez said. “No one knows what other people are bidding on.”
Therefore, he instructed Murray to consider alternatives. It is not yet clear what form this will take, but no new auctions will be held.
The outcome of the sale could allow The Onion to completely remake Infowars into a new medium (which Collins described in November as a “cosmic joke”) and halt efforts to spread false propaganda; Or whether groups associated with Jones can be suspended. They may seek to maintain existing operations. Another possibility is that the Sandy Hook family is getting Infowars as part of a settlement they have not yet received, the Associated Press reported. Collins said that if The Onion were to acquire the site, it would revamp its content and bring in gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety as its sole advertiser.
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