Arts & Entertainment
The Onion’s Executive Editor on Infowars Plans and Holding People Accountable Through Comedy
Chicago-based satirical news site The Onion is looking to take over Infowars, the far-right platform created by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The potential deal is nearly two years in the making but on Wednesday night faced another legal setback.
About 18 months ago, The Onion won a court-mandated auction for Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC, after Jones was found liable for defamation for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting that took the lives of 26 people a hoax.
His fanbase followed suit and began to harass the victims’ families as a result of the baseless claims. Through a series of litigation, Jones was eventually ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages to the families, which pushed him to file for bankruptcy.
He has yet to pay the families.
The Onion’s new agreement to acquire Infowars comes with the support of Sandy Hook families. The comedy site will initially pay a monthly licensing fee of $81,000 per month to the court-appointed receiver overseeing Infowars for six months with the option to extend.
A portion of the revenue generated from the website will go toward the families.
CEO Ben Collins said the company also signed a deal to buy the full assets once the current judicial stay expires, including domain names and associated intellectual property rights.
On Wednesday night after an interview with Jordan LaFlure, executive editor of The Onion, on “Chicago Tonight,” a Texas appeals court temporarily paused The Onion’s attempt to take over Infowars, halting the planned transfer of the far-right platform’s intellectual property and delaying what was supposed to be a handover of assets.
The same court also paused a broader appeal tied to defamation judgements against Alex Jones related to his Sandy Hook claims.
In a Bluesky post Collins panned the decision, writing: “This newly insane, unprecedented legal stalling does nothing but delay our deal with the receiver to take control of Infowars. We now expect new traps in Alex Jones’ amoral war to deny paying the Sandy Hook families, but we’re freshly surprised by the U.S. legal system’s appetite to put up with it.”
For LaFlure, the potential takeover is about more than just satire.
“First and foremost this is accountability,” said LaFlure. “We want to replace something that’s put out a lot of negative — I’m going to go ahead and call it evil — into the world. … I think we can replace it with something better and more beneficial to the wider world.”
Jones and his followers have framed his slew of defamation cases and social media bans as free speech infringements. In a similar vein, he sees The Onion takeover as the publication’s attempt to silence him and “steal his identity.”
“I think that people have a misunderstanding of what the First Amendment offers us as a population,” LaFlure said. “It is intended to ensure Congress makes no law abridging our speech. Defaming others, causing willfully the emotional distress of people is not a privilege afforded to us, and I’m happy to play a role in diminishing that voice.”
Jones filed an emergency motion to block the deal, saying in court documents that The Onion plans to destroy the value of Free Speech Systems and mislead his audience. The motion reads: “The licensee’s intentions are clear and, remarkably, reflect its stated desire - destroy the value of the FSS assets.”
The immediate plan for Infowars under The Onion is to parody the right-wing extremism that existed in its original state before commenting more broadly on the “modern media ecosystem” like influencer and content creation culture — a sharp contrast to the legacy media voice The Onion mimics.
“Comedy gives you a unique avenue into all manner of news stories,” LaFlure said. “It’s a way to break down a complex issue and get to the core of the matter. … Comedy may be the best tool to hold people accountable.”
Note: This story was updated after the latest court ruling on April 29, which came after the interview was conducted.
