Nieman Foundation at Harvard
Maybe it’s not such an odd pairing?
After all, The Onion and Infowars both publish a lot of fake information. Both are known for their coverage of national tragedies. They both reach audiences who want to have a laugh at a world being presented to them through a very particular lens. Both have been the subject of a remarkable amount of academic research into their unique roles in the modern information ecosystem. (Though usually with different tones; compare “Silver Bullets and Seed Banks: A Material Analysis of Conspiracist Millennialism” and “Peeling The Onion: Satire and the Complexity of Audience Response.”)1 And each has shown interest in the role of lizards in governance.
Either way, the satire site The Onion is now the owner of Infowars, arguably the 21st century’s premiere distributors of misinformation and conspiratorial thinking (“thinking”). Infowars was sold at court-ordered auction after a jury ordered its owner, Alex Jones, to pay more than $1 billion in damages for just one of his many lies — claiming the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax.
In a sense, it’s a union of two generational exemplars of “fake news,” that uniquely unhelpful term. Before 2016, “fake news” was a term most associated with The Onion, Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” and a few other entities that used the trappings of news product (a print newspaper, a nightly newscast) to house satire, comedy, and commentary. Donald Trump changed all that — first, by using “fake news” to describe journalism he didn’t like, and then by prompting academics to use the term for misinformation and conspiracy publishers like, well, Infowars. Now, both types will share an HR department.
The price has not been disclosed. The Infowars assets include its domain name, archives, and production equipment — even lists of customers who’ve bought Jones’ body-transforming line of ersatz supplements. Oh, and Alex Jones’ desk. Maybe this is our dumb century?
Hilariously, the deal seems to have had roots on Bluesky, where in June a user named @ceej.online noted the upcoming sale of Infowars assets and suggested Onion CEO Ben Collins had “the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever.”
Ben Collins has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever
— ceej (@ceej.online) June 6, 2024 at 11:07 PM
— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) June 6, 2024 at 11:34 PM
Also, part of the reason we did bought InfoWars is because people on Bluesky told us it would be funny to buy InfoWars. And those people were right. This is the funniest thing that has ever happened.
— Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 9:35 AM
I take it all back posting can change the world
The Onion’s imaginary owner2 Bryce P. Tetraeder — CEO of fictional conglomerate Global Tetrahedron LLC — explains the reasoning behind the acquisition in a piece:
Today we celebrate a new addition to the Global Tetrahedron LLC family of brands. And let me say, I really do see it as a family. Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market. And just like family members, our brands regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice…Founded in 1999 on the heels of the Satanic “panic” and growing steadily ever since, InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses. With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal. They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can’t even put a man on the Moon.
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.
So what’s the plan? The Onion plans to relaunch Infowars early next year as a parody of itself. (It might take a while just to clear up the site’s anti-SEO.) If Clickhole was The Onion’s take on BuzzFeed, Infowars 2.0 will be its take on Infowars 1.0. “This is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane,” Collins told the Times. The Bloomberg-backed gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety has struck a “multiyear agreement” to advertise on the new site, though no word on the size of the commitment.
The money questions are interesting, but The Onion’s actual owner since April, Twilio cofounder Jeff Lawson, made enough money in tech to be able to snap up this sort of distressed asset. Lawson and Collins are clearly in investment mode, reviving The Onion’s beloved ONN video efforts and restarting its print publication. (Something must be working: The Onion somehow now has 4.3 trillion daily readers, according to one source.)
Among the many ironies: The Onion’s staff is unionized, not least because of its questionable management under G/O Media. So while it’s too soon to know how bargaining units will shake out, Infowars staffers will likely soon be represented by Writers Guild of America East.
Alex Jones himself has confirmed the news — calling The Onion “Connecticut Democrats” and declining to break kayfabe (“a total attack on free speech, the deep state is completely out of control”):
#BREAKING: Alex Jones has just confirmed that his network INFOWARS has just been acquired by the Onion, backed by the families of the Sandy Hook shooting pic.twitter.com/jFbsW2EBZV
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) November 14, 2024
Jones has started a new outlet, the Alex Jones Network; it currently has 111,000 followers on Twitter. Most importantly, his online store is already stocked with his usual array of fauxmaceuticals. For the low low price of $524.97, you can buy a 90-day supply of the Trump Won Ultimate Victory Bundle — perfect for those who want to insure their Hydraforce Electrolyte Mix goes well with their Ultimate Seamoss Capsules With Bladderwrack & Burdock Root. As of Thursday morning, infowars.com urls returned a “Site unavailable till further notice” message.)
Meanwhile, if Twitter is any guide, pre–acquisition Infowars fans are about as excited about the move as Alex Jones himself. Indeed, for the old site’s biggest supporters, the lines between satire and reality have long been blurry. Both The Onion and Infowars have always been willing to say some bonkers things — but only The Onion was willing to acknowledge it with a wink.
I think the best part may be that you can’t tell if The Onion has taken over yet.
— brando (@brando37.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 9:58 AM
