Judge rejects satirical media outlet The Onion's acquisition of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' website Infowars
In November 2024, it was announced that the American satirical news outlet
Judge rejects bankruptcy sale of Alex Jones' Infowars to The Onion - CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-rejects-bankruptcy-sale-alex-jones-infowars-to-the-onion/
Jones was sued by the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 for claiming that the incident was a hoax. As a result of this case, Jones was ordered by the court to pay a large amount of damages and eventually filed for bankruptcy.
The court ordered Jones to sell his personal assets in June 2024 to recover damages for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. As a result, InfoWars, which Jones used to spread conspiracy theories, will be sold.
The satirical media outlet The Onion ended up acquiring InfoWars through this audition. You can find out how The Onion ended up acquiring InfoWars by reading the following article.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' website 'Infowars' is up for auction and the satirical media outlet 'The Onion' wins the bid, and the site will be shut down and rebuilt - GIGAZINE
However, on the evening of Tuesday, December 10, 2024 local time, US Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Lopez rejected the sale of InfoWars to The Onion. At the end of a two-day long hearing in a Texas courtroom, Judge Lopez said the auction process was flawed and resulted in the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting 'losing a lot of money (because the profits from the sale of InfoWars were used to pay compensation to the families).'
The Onion reportedly offered $1.75 million in cash and other benefits for InfoWars' assets in the auction, while First United American Companies, which runs Jones' former website selling dietary supplements, offered $3.5 million.
'We have to do everything in our power to serve the families of the victims,' Judge Lopez said. He noted that he did not want to hold another auction, but would leave next steps to the trustee who oversaw the auction.
However, Trustee Christopher Murray said during the hearing, 'There were only two bidders, and one of them was better than the other, so we won the bid,' claiming that The Onion's bid was legitimate. He also said that The Onion's winning bid was 'much better.' Murray also said that First United American Companies' bid had been revised once, which was not accepted by the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Although The Onion's offer was lower than that of First United American Companies, many of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting signed a pledge to give up $750,000 (approximately 114 million yen) of the proceeds from the auction and give them to other creditors. Therefore, the creditors who will receive compensation will be able to receive a larger amount of compensation than they would have received in the First United American Companies bid. According to The Onion, the company's bid was valued at $7 million (approximately 1.064 billion yen). This figure is calculated based on the amount paid to the creditors who will receive compensation.
Jones, who did not attend the hearing, said he had no confidence the judge would find fraud and that 'what they've done and what they've allegedly done is mind-boggling.' In response, The Onion and trustee Murray accused Jones of 'sorrying.'
Jones said he was preparing to sell InfoWars by setting up a separate website and social accounts, and that if the winner of the auction was friendly with him, he could continue to use InfoWars as is. However, The Onion planned to kick Jones out and restructure InfoWars into a website that would feature famous internet humorists and content creators.
Belle Collins, CEO of The Onion, said about InfoWars after the acquisition, 'We're going to make InfoWars a really funny, really silly website. To make this happen, we've hired some Hall of Famers from The Onion and Clickhole . I can't wait for you to see what we've built.' He posted on Bluesky.
Hi everyone.
— Tim Onion ( @bencollins.bsky.social ) November 14, 2024 23:09
The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars.
We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website.
We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off.
I can't wait to show you what we have cooked up.
[image or embed]
Related Posts:
in Web Service, , Posted by logu_ii