The satirical news outlet has reached an agreement to acquire Alex Jones’ conspiracy platform
After more than 18 months of legal battles, courtroom setbacks and unwavering persistence, satirical news outlet The Onion says it has finally reached an agreement to take over Alex Jones’ Infowars — a development that could mark the beginning of the end for one of the internet’s most notorious conspiracy platforms and bring long-overdue financial relief to the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims.
The deal, which still requires court approval, would transform Infowars from a vehicle for dangerous misinformation into a digital comedy network — one designed to parody the very figures and media culture that Jones helped spawn over the course of his decades-long career spreading falsehoods.
A legal saga more than 8 years in the making
The road to this moment has been anything but straightforward. Jones was found liable for defamation in 2022 after repeatedly claiming on his show that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre — in which 20 children and six adults were killed — was a staged hoax. Courts ordered him to pay more than $1 billion in damages to the victims’ families. To date, he has not paid a single cent.
As a result of that nonpayment, Jones’ assets were placed up for sale. The Onion won a court-mandated auction for Infowars’ parent company in 2024, backed by the Sandy Hook families, but a federal bankruptcy judge halted the sale over concerns about the auction process. The judge later directed the families to pursue what they were owed in state court. In August 2025, a state court ruled that Infowars’ parent company would be transferred to a court-appointed receiver tasked with selling assets and directing proceeds toward Jones’ outstanding debts.
Under the newly announced agreement, The Onion will initially pay a monthly licensing fee to that court-appointed receiver. The company has also signed a deal to purchase Infowars’ full assets outright once the current judicial stay expires. A hearing on the licensing agreement is scheduled for April 30 in Travis County, Texas.
What the new Infowars will look like
The reimagined platform will operate as a digital outlet and comedy network, with Tim Heidecker of cult comedy series “Tim & Eric” stepping in as creative director. His role will include parodying Jones himself — a fitting piece of casting given Heidecker’s long history of satirizing media personalities and fringe culture.
The Onion CEO Ben Collins said the new platform will center on amplifying emerging independent comedians who have not yet found their footing in a comedy industry that can be notoriously difficult to break into. Much of the early content, he indicated, will take aim at social media influencers and media figures who have built audiences around wellness grift, performative outrage and dubious supplement sales — the same ecosystem Jones helped normalize.
Sandy Hook families at the center of it all
For the families who have spent years fighting Jones in court, the agreement represents something far more significant than a media transaction. Chris Mattei, an attorney representing the Sandy Hook families, framed the potential takeover as the culmination of a years-long effort not just to hold Jones accountable but to ensure that the infrastructure he built could no longer be used to harm others.
Collins was equally direct about what this moment means, noting that eight years and three days had passed since the families first filed suit — and that they have received nothing in the time since. The Onion’s licensing arrangement is designed to generate immediate revenue through merchandise sales, with a longer-term financial benefit expected once the full asset purchase is complete.
Jones, for his part, announced on his show Monday that he intends to continue broadcasting on a new site and has no plans to stop fighting the legal proceedings against him.
Source: CNN / Hadas Gold