You Won’t Believe Who’s Trying to Stop The Onion Buying Infowars
InfoWars may have been bought and sold out from under Alex Jones, but that doesn’t mean the conspiracy theorist is giving up the fight.A company affiliated with Jones—First United American Companies, which sells dietary supplements—lost its bid for the far-right network last week, underbidding The Onion, which went on to claim InfoWars as its own. But the saga hasn’t ended there: In an attempt to recoup the lost bid, FUAC accused the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction of colluding with the satirical news site, as well as families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, to pass over the group’s $3.5 million bid.But those allegations didn’t fly with the trustee, who on Monday argued in a legal notice that the group’s emergency motion was nothing more than a “disappointed bidder’s improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.“Having failed in its prior efforts to bully the Trustee and his advisors into accepting its inferior bid, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to mislead the Court and disqualify its only competition in the auction,” Christopher R. Murray, the bankruptcy trustee, wrote in the filing.The Onion reportedly bid $1.75 million for the site, in addition to incentives promised by the Sandy Hook families, who won a $1.5 billion lawsuit against Jones. (The families have since agreed to settle with Jones for a minimum sum of $85 million.) The families “agreed to forgo up to 100% of their share of the Infowars sale proceeds and give it to other Jones creditors,” reported ABC News. Jones repeatedly claimed that the 2012 shooting that left 20 first graders and six teachers dead was a front to lure voters toward gun control policies. In the run-up to the auction, Jones had appeared to be under the impression that “good guys” on the right would buy his fringe network, though he did not reveal who they were. Several groups expressed interest in InfoWars assets, including a coalition of liberal and anti-disinformation watchdog groups, according to The Daily Beast, as well as some of Jones’s own supporters, such as Donald Trump ally Roger Stone. The sale, however, has effectively crushed what was arguably Jones’s most successful endeavor while marking the beginning of his descent into irrelevancy.“We’re obviously disappointed he’s lashing out by creating conspiracies, but we’re also not surprised,” Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said in a statement Monday.
InfoWars may have been bought and sold out from under Alex Jones, but that doesn’t mean the conspiracy theorist is giving up the fight.
A company affiliated with Jones—First United American Companies, which sells dietary supplements—lost its bid for the far-right network last week, underbidding The Onion, which went on to claim InfoWars as its own. But the saga hasn’t ended there: In an attempt to recoup the lost bid, FUAC accused the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the auction of colluding with the satirical news site, as well as families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre, to pass over the group’s $3.5 million bid.
But those allegations didn’t fly with the trustee, who on Monday argued in a legal notice that the group’s emergency motion was nothing more than a “disappointed bidder’s improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.
“Having failed in its prior efforts to bully the Trustee and his advisors into accepting its inferior bid, FUAC now alleges, without evidence, collusion and bad faith in an attempt to mislead the Court and disqualify its only competition in the auction,” Christopher R. Murray, the bankruptcy trustee, wrote in the filing.
The Onion reportedly bid $1.75 million for the site, in addition to incentives promised by the Sandy Hook families, who won a $1.5 billion lawsuit against Jones. (The families have since agreed to settle with Jones for a minimum sum of $85 million.) The families “agreed to forgo up to 100% of their share of the Infowars sale proceeds and give it to other Jones creditors,” reported ABC News.
Jones repeatedly claimed that the 2012 shooting that left 20 first graders and six teachers dead was a front to lure voters toward gun control policies.
In the run-up to the auction, Jones had appeared to be under the impression that “good guys” on the right would buy his fringe network, though he did not reveal who they were. Several groups expressed interest in InfoWars assets, including a coalition of liberal and anti-disinformation watchdog groups, according to The Daily Beast, as well as some of Jones’s own supporters, such as Donald Trump ally Roger Stone. The sale, however, has effectively crushed what was arguably Jones’s most successful endeavor while marking the beginning of his descent into irrelevancy.
“We’re obviously disappointed he’s lashing out by creating conspiracies, but we’re also not surprised,” Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, said in a statement Monday.
