The Onion has purchased InfoWars, Alex Jone’s web site, out of chapter.
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The Onion, the satirical information firm that repeatedly spoofed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has received the chapter public sale for management over his media empire — most notably InfoWars, the far-right, conspiracy-minded web site that served as Jones’ main on-line platform.
Jones introduced the sale on X Thursday morning.
“I simply acquired phrase quarter-hour in the past that my legal professionals and people met with the U.S. trustee over our chapter this morning and so they mentioned they’re shutting us down even with out a courtroom order this morning,” Jones mentioned.
“The Connecticut democrats with The Onion newspaper purchased us,” he added.
The Onion plans to shutter Jones’ InfoWars and rebuild the web site that includes well-known web humor writers and content material creators, in response to an individual with data of the sale.
Jones, one of many most-high profile and financially profitable different media personalities, constructed a small empire off a radio show-turned-internet video operation centered across the Infowars model that targeted on false and sometimes weird claims about grand conspiracies and authorities wrongdoing.
Particulars of Wednesday’s public sale, together with how a lot was supplied for Free Speech Methods, the guardian firm of Infowars, and associated property, weren’t instantly recognized. Funds generated from the sale are supposed to fulfill Jones’ property collectors, comprised largely of victims’ households of the 2012 Sandy Hook taking pictures to whom he should pay damages in defamation verdicts.
Sandy Hook households filed lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas claiming Jones defamed them on his present and inflicted emotional misery by repeatedly suggesting the taking pictures, through which a gunman killed 20 first-grade youngsters and 6 adults, was a hoax.
Juries awarded the households practically $1.5 billion in whole of their lawsuits, however they’ve been unable to gather something from Jones, who claimed he cannot afford that huge a sum. He filed for chapter in late 2022, and a decide in June allowed him to liquidate his private property to assist repay the verdicts.
The sale had the backing of a number of of the Connecticut households of Sandy Hook taking pictures who have been a part of the lawsuit.
“Our purchasers knew that true accountability meant an finish to Infowars and an finish to Jones’ potential to unfold lies, ache and worry at scale,” Chris Mattei, legal professional for the Connecticut households mentioned in an announcement. “By divesting Jones of Infowars’ property, the households and the staff at The Onion have performed a public service and can meaningfully hinder Jones’ potential to do extra hurt.”
The anti-violence group Everytown for Gun Security mentioned it will likely be the unique advertiser in The Onion’s new enterprise as a part of a multiyear settlement.
John Feinblatt, the group’s president, mentioned in an announcement that he hopes to “attain new audiences prepared to carry the gun trade accountable for contributing to our nation’s gun violence epidemic.”
