No Kidding: The Onion Just Bought Alex Jones' Infowars at Auction
"Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction," Alex Jones' Connecticut trial attorney, Norm Pattis of Pattis & Paz, said. "I'll look forward to seeing where Mr. Jones surfaces next."
November 14, 2024 at 03:51 PM
3 minute read
BankruptcyThe Onion, a satirical news outlet has purchased Infowars, Alex Jones' far-right media operation.
A federal bankruptcy judge in Texas approved the auction to help pay a $1.4 billion judgement to one first responder and the relatives of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting.
Sandy Hook plaintiffs sued Jones for defamation after he and his media platform Infowars falsely claimed for years that the Dec. 14, 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax.
Twenty students and six adults were killed.
In 2022, a Waterbury, Connecticut jury returned a verdict of $965 million in compensatory damages. After a judge ordered attorney fees, court costs and punitive damages , Jones' total liability reached $1.4 billion.
Meanwhile, in the Southern District of Texas U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Judge Christopher Lopez ordered the sale of the intellectual property of Infowars, social media accounts, copyrights, trademarks and websites, to take place on Nov. 13.
The succesfull bid by Global Tetrahedron LLC, the owner of The Onion, was announced Thursday.
The sale price was not disclosed, but Connecticut plaintiffs agreed to accept a lower recovery to raise the value of the company's bid, according to their trial attorneys at Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. That amount was not immediately disclosed.
“From day one, these families have fought against all odds to bring true accountability to Alex Jones and his corrupt business," Chris Mattei, partner at Koskoff said in a press release. "Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale."
The plaintiffs also rejected more money offered by Jones, which Mattei said was an attempt to keep Infowars "on the air," but "doing so would have put other families in harm’s way."
"They are heroes, and it has been an honor and privilege to be their advocate throughout this fight," Mattei claimed. "By divesting Jones of Infowars’ assets, the families and the team at The Onion have done a public service and will meaningfully hinder Jones’ ability to do more harm.”
The judge, Lopez, has not signed off on the sale, and a company related to one of Jones' product websites First United American Companies LLC was listed as a backup bidder in the notice filed in federal court.
In a satirical statement attributed to the fictitious CEO of Global Tetrahedron, Bryce Tetraeder, the company explained why it decided to buy Infowars.
"Through it all, 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 said.
The company did not share what comes next for Infowars, but it did say in its satirical statement it would end the sale of Jones' line of vitamins and supplements, such as his "Super Male Vitality Drops."
"Utilitarian logic dictates that if we can extend even one CEO's life by 10 minutes, diluting these miracle elixirs for public consumption is an unethical waste," Tetraeder said. "Instead, we plan to collect the entire stock of the InfoWars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar–sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal."
Norm Pattis of Pattis & Paz represented Jones during the Connecticut defamation trial.
In response to the sale, Pattis said: "Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. I'll look forward to seeing where Mr. Jones surfaces next."
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