The satirical news website The Onion has emerged as the winner of a blind auction for the trademark and website of Infowars, the conspiracy-laced publishing platform operated by radio personality Alex Jones.
The acquisition was confirmed in a column published on The Onion’s website and written by Bryce P. Tetraeder, the fictitious CEO of the outlet’s parent company Global Tetrahedron.
Tetraeder did not say how much the company paid for the Infowars website, trademark and related assets, but did say that the final purchase was sanctioned by a group of families whose children were killed during a shooting spree at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. The families sued Jones for defamation and harassment tied to comments he made about the incident on his radio program, and the auction was intended to settle certain debts Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, owed after two blockbuster civil judgements were entered against him.
“InfoWars has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society—values that resonate deeply with all of us at Global Tetrahedron,” Tetraeder wrote in true satirical fashion. “No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Global Tetrahedron’s actual CEO, Ben Collins, said he was told late Wednesday that The Onion had emerged as the winner.
“We thought it would be a hilarious joke — this is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane,” Collins said.
As part of The Onion, Infowars will relaunch as a satire of itself and supported by real advertising. One of its first advertisers will be the non-profit Everytown for Gun Safety, the anti-gun violence group formed as a result of the Sandy Hook massacre.
The acquisition of Infowars by The Onion effectively dashes any hope that Jones will be able to resurrect his show under its old format — one where he complained that mass shootings were supposed “false flag” operations and that fluoridated drinking water was to blame for gay frogs.
Jones had urged his listeners and viewers to band together and acquire Infowars in order to protect the brand, and a mystery bidder emerged earlier this week who suggested their offer would have done just that, but it did not come to pass.
