Judge Blocks The Onion’s Acquisition of Alex Jones’s Infowars

A US bankruptcy judge has rejected the proposed sale of the Infowars website, owned by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, to the parody news platform The Onion. Following a two-day hearing, Judge Christopher Lopez determined that the auction conducted for Infowars failed to yield the optimal bids. Nevertheless, he dismissed Jones’ allegations that the auction process was compromised by “collusion.” The Onion stated that its bid was supported by the families of victims from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. These families had previously secured a $1.5bn (£1.18bn) defamation lawsuit victory against Jones for disseminating false rumors concerning the massacre. Judge Lopez indicated that the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction committed “a good-faith error.” He explained that instead of promptly requesting final offers, the trustee should have fostered additional bidding competition between The Onion and an entity linked to Jones’ supplement-selling enterprises. Judge Lopez remarked, “This should have been opened back up, and it should have been opened back up for everybody.” Jones expressed satisfaction with the judge’s decision on Infowars, characterizing the auction process as “ridiculous” and “fraudulent.” Ben Collins, chief executive of Global Tetrahedron, The Onion’s parent company, conveyed on social media, “We are deeply disappointed in today’s decision.” He further stated that the company intends to persist in its attempts to acquire Infowars. Jones began as a peripheral broadcaster in Austin, Texas, during the 1990s, subsequently cultivating an audience of millions through a combination of opinion, speculation, and outright fabrication. The majority of the company’s revenue is generated via an online store that sells vitamins and other merchandise. The financial challenges faced by both the company and Jones originate from broadcasts made following the December 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The attack resulted in the deaths of twenty young children and six school staff members. Subsequent to the killings, Jones and his broadcast guests repeatedly questioned the reality of the massacre, promoting conspiracy theories suggesting the murders were fabricated or executed by government operatives. Jones once referred to the attack as “a giant hoax,” and in 2015, he stated: “Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured… I knew they had actors there clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids, and it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors.” Individuals who subscribed to the conspiracy theories propagated by Jones subjected the families of the Sandy Hook victims to harassment. This included instances of sending them images of their deceased children or gravestones and publishing their personal details online. Some traveled to Newtown to “investigate,” and multiple arrests have been made in relation to the harassment of the victims. Jones subsequently admitted that the killings were genuine, maintaining that his previous statements were protected under US free speech provisions. However, the victims’ relatives secured defamation judgments against Jones and his company due to his false statements. He filed for bankruptcy in 2022 as the Sandy Hook case proceeded to court. In June 2024, a judge mandated the liquidation of Jones’s personal assets, which, according to a court filing, encompassed a multimillion-dollar ranch, additional properties, vehicles, boats, and firearms, amounting to approximately $8.6m.