Throughout its already long history, The Onion has gained a reputation for its satirical articles and ability to meet current events with a good dose of bitter humor. Sort of like ‘El Mundo Today’ but in English and based in Illinois.

As things in life (and the media industry) go, the company that runs The Onion has pulled off the ultimate “trolling” without having to press a button or type a line: it bought InfoWars, a platform known for spreading conspiracy theories by controversial alex jones. And he did it with the help of families affected by the InfoWars hoaxes.

Now what do you plan to do with it? “Turn this into a very fun and very silly website,” says Ben Collins, an executive at The Onion.

The story certainly deserves the best satire.

dating back to 2012

To understand this, you need to go back a few years to the shooting. Sandy Hook Elementary SchoolIt occurred in Newton, Connecticut, in December 2012. The story is well known. A 20-year-old young man shot and killed 26 people at school. 20 of the victims were children aged seven years old. The rest were adults who were part of the center staff.

The incident was traumatic. Rivers of ink and hours of coverage have been dedicated to him, including ones starring Alex Jones. But his approach differed from that of much of the media: Jones, who began his career in Austin in the 1990s and became a widely followed figure, devoted himself to promoting the theory that the Sandy massacre had occurred. Hook was a fraud set up to confiscate Americans’ guns.

It wasn’t the first time he had spread similar theories. Throughout his career, Jones has devoted himself to giving wings to other conspiracy theories about the Oklahoma City shooting, the September 11 attacks, or the 1969 moon landing.

He went so far as to declare in 2015 that “Sandy Hook is completely fake as far as the actors are concerned.” He even spoke of a “giant hoax.” The problem was that there were those who assumed their theory was correct and devoted themselves to harassing the victims of the shooting. The situation reached such extremes that a few years ago the families of the massacre decided to seek justice. they condemned For insulting Alex Jones.

Time passed and the big blow came for Jones in 2022.

A Connecticut jury concluded that the victims’ families should be awarded $965 million in damages. Soon the figure was expanded by another 473 million damage. But these were not the only news about the case in 2022. In a twist on the script, that summer, while the jury was hearing testimony from family members, Alex Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems, which served as the parent company of InfoWars, declared bankruptcy.

What was the result? Information Wars ended in auction.

The Onion won the same award, thanks in part to the support of the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims; Thus, they saw that the speaker Alex Jones used for his theories was subjected to epic trolling.

It is unknown how much The Onion had to pay. Yes, the auction, ordered by a Texas judge, also attracted the attention of Jones’ allies, with at least one of his bids reaching “seven figures,” according to data obtained by CNN. The same network ensures that for The Onion’s bid to be successful, the families of Sandy Hook victims “agreed to give up some” of their corresponding money, allowing the value of their bid to increase.

“After surviving an unimaginable loss With courage and honesty, they rejected Jones’ empty offers of supposedly more money to allow him to continue on the air because doing so would have endangered other families,” victims’ attorney Chris Mattei told the network.

Acquiring InfoWars would bring something else: the company’s intellectual property, its website, its client list, its social media accounts, its production team… Washington Post The operation, he assures, comes with another innovation: a multi-year agreement with the organization Everytown for Gun Safety as exclusive advertiser during the launch of the website.

This is an interesting move, with a certain irony, because Everytown for Gun Safety advocates precisely for gun control.

The question remains how The Onion, once one of Jones’ best speakers, will make it happen. For now, those responsible have published a post true to their ironic style highlighting InfoWars’ history: “With a cunning mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutritional tricks, they are trying to make life scarier and longer for everyone.”

“We plan to turn this into a very funny and very silly website. We have enlisted the services of some members of The Onion and the Clickhole Hall of Fame,” continues Ben Collins, director of the satire firm.

News of the auction appears to have less pleased Alex Jones, who had previously warned about its situation: “I don’t know what’s going to happen but I will stay here until they come and turn off the lights. I asked them, ‘Where is the court decision?’ “I will say.”

Pictures | Gage Skidmore (Flickr) and Sean P. Anderson (Flickr)

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