The Onion Submits Plan To Take Over Alex Jones’ Infowars In Texas Court

Satirical outlet The Onion has launched a new bid to take over Alex Jones’ Infowars and turn it into a parody platform, with the plan submitted Monday to a state judge in Texas.

“The Onion launches new bid to take over Alex Jones’ Infowars and turn it into a parody platform The Onion launches new bid to take over Alex Jones’ Infowars and turn it into a parody platform The satirical news outlet The Onion is back with a new plan to take over the Infowars platforms of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as his company faces liquidation over more than $1 billion in defamation judgments owed to relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting”

AP News

Under the proposal, The Onion would be granted an exclusive, temporary license to the intellectual property of Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, allowing it to put its own content on the Infowars website and social media accounts.

AP News

AP reports that The Onion’s chief executive Ben Collins said the deal could be in place around April 30 if approved by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin.

The licensing deal would run for six months, with the right to renew for another six, according to AP, and CNN adds that the agreement would initially involve a monthly licensing fee paid to the court-appointed receiver overseeing InfoWars.

The Onion’s plan is tied to the ongoing liquidation process for Free Speech Systems, which is being handled by a court-appointed receiver as the company faces liquidation over more than $1 billion in defamation judgments owed to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.

In the same reporting, AP says the receiver is supporting the plan and that The Onion would pay $81,000 a month to cover rent for the building housing Infowars’ studios, along with utilities and other costs.

Collins told AP, “We’ll build this into a bigger comedy network,” and he said the Sandy Hook families would receive profits from the new operations.

The Onion’s proposal is framed as a licensing arrangement that would allow it to publish parody content on Infowars’ platforms, while Jones would lose access to the studio and equipment under the plan described by the Austin American-Statesman.

The local report says The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron LLC, proposed paying $81,000 a month to license Infowars.com and its associated intellectual property from Gregory Milligan, the court-appointed manager of the site, and that the agreement would be for an initial six months with an option to renew for another six.

Austin American-Statesman

It also notes that the new plan is worth roughly $486,000 for its initial six-month term, and that Jones, as of Monday, was still broadcasting his show on the site.

BBC similarly describes the licensing arrangement as one that would allow The Onion to publish its own parody content on Infowars’ platforms to mock conspiracy theories, and it says the deal would run for six months initially with an option to renew for another six.

NPR adds that if approved by a Texas judge, the deal would take away Jones’ Infowars microphone and allow The Onion to resume its plans to turn the website into a parody of itself.

In the Guardian’s account, the deal would lease Infowars by Global Tetrahedron, described as a Chicago-based company that owns the Onion, for $81,000 a month for six months with an option to renew for another six.

Across the coverage, the approval step remains central: Politico says the deal still must be approved by a judge to take effect, and AP reports that the hearing is set for April 30 in Travis County, Texas.

Alex Jones said he would fight the licensing proposal in court while continuing to broadcast his show, according to AP and CNN.

“The Onion launches new effort to turn Infowars into parody website US satirical publication The Onion has proposed a new plan to take over Infowars, the media company run by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones”

BBC

On his show Monday, AP reports that Jones vowed to fight the licensing proposal in court but acknowledged he and his crew could be kicked out of the building at the end of the month.

AP also quotes Jones saying, “I’m going to continue the exact same show,” and he added, “It’ll just be called the ‘Alex Jones Show.’”

BBC similarly reports that Jones was quoted by AP news agency saying he would fight the latest proposal from The Onion and would continue to broadcast “the exact same show.”

NPR reports that Jones accused The Onion of trying to “steal and misrepresent” his identity and profit from it, and it quotes him saying, “They want the name and the logo to literally try to misrepresent and say they're me and it's all hidden behind satire.”

CNN adds that Jones said on his show Monday that he will keep “the exact same show” on a new site and will “continue to fight” what he has called “incredible corruption” in the legal case against him.

The Onion’s CEO Ben Collins, meanwhile, told CNN, “We’ve wanted this the whole time. We have not backed down at any moment,” and he said the company has signed a deal to purchase the full assets once the current judicial stay expires.

The Onion’s bid sits inside a long-running legal saga tied to defamation judgments stemming from Sandy Hook, with multiple outlets describing the scale of the awards and the timeline of court actions.

AP says the satirical outlet’s plan comes as Alex Jones’ company faces liquidation over more than $1 billion in defamation judgments owed to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, and it recounts that a jury and judge awarded the families and an FBI agent more than $1.4 billion in damages.

CNN

BBC similarly describes defamation judgments won by relatives of the victims over Jones’ false statements and notes that Jones declared bankruptcy in 2022, with a judge ordering liquidation of his personal assets in June 2024.

CNN adds that Jones was found liable for defamation in 2022 after repeatedly claiming on-air that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, in which six adults and 20 children were killed, was a “hoax,” and it says he has yet to pay a single cent of the more than $1 billion in damages he owes the families.

NPR reports that the families are still waiting to collect on the nearly $1.3 billion judgment they won against Jones and that Jones’ followers harassed and threatened the families for years.

The Austin American-Statesman provides additional detail on the earlier auction process, saying The Onion’s initial plan to acquire Infowars was blocked by a federal judge and that a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez later blocked the auction due to lack of transparency, directing the families to seek liquidation in Travis County.

Politico adds that The Onion’s earlier bid involved an auction where it offered $1.75 million for Infowars’ assets, and that Jones argued the bidding process was tainted by illegal collusion.

The Onion’s plan is presented by multiple outlets as a way to reduce Jones’ ability to operate while also directing profits to Sandy Hook families, and the reactions from attorneys and creative figures are sharply stated.

“Alex Jones’ Infowars, a decades-long source of conspiracy theories, has been acquired by The Onion”

Houston Public Media

NPR quotes Chris Mattei, one of the attorneys for the families, saying the families “took on Alex Jones to stop him from inflicting the same harm on others” by using “his corrupt business platform to torment and harass them for profit,” and it adds that “When Infowars finally goes dark, the machinery of lies that Jones built will become a force for social good.”

Houston Public Media

CNN similarly quotes Mattei describing the goal as preventing Jones from doing harm and saying, “When InfoWars finally goes dark, the machinery of lies that Jones built will become a force for social good, thanks to the families’ courage and The Onion’s vision, persistence and stewardship.”

The Guardian reports that Tim Heidecker told it he plans to parody Jones’s “whole modus operandi,” and it quotes him saying, “I just thought it would be just a beautiful joke if we could take this pretty toxic, negative, destructive force of Infowars and rebrand it as this beautiful place for our creativity.”

AP says Collins described the concept as creating “a bunch of characters and worlds” around people who stare into their camera and push conspiracy theories or “health hacks that will actually get you poisoned.”

Several outlets also emphasize that the deal’s timing depends on court approval, with AP tying the possible start date to April 30 and CNN stating that a hearing on the licensing agreement is set for April 30 in Travis County, Texas.

Politico adds that the unorthodox deal is a “Hail Mary bid” after a judge blocked the initial plan in 2024, and it says Jones could appeal any ruling.