Nearly a year and a half after its previous attempt to take over the right-wing conspiracy-centric brand Infowars was rejected by a bankruptcy judge, The Onion is moving forward with a new effort to take over the company and secure justice for the families of Sandy Hook victims.
The Onion and its parent company Global Tetrahedron on Monday announced a licensing deal for the company’s brand names and intellectual property, including its website.
“Finally. It took 17 months and hundreds of hours in courtrooms, but America’s best news source has entered into an agreement to operate America’s source of disinformation for sovereign citizens who reject the idea of child support,” The Onion wrote in an announcement about the deal.
“This is the culmination of a two-year effort to bring some justice to the families of Sandy Hook,” Onion CEO Ben Collins wrote on LinkedIn. “After a mountain of threats and bullshit, InfoWars will be ours.”
The new arrangement will still need a judge’s approval.
Infowars was founded by right-wing media personality Alex Jones, who ran it for more than 25 years until it went bankrupt.
The bankruptcy proceedings were the result of a defamation lawsuit filed against Jones by the families of Sandy Hook victims. The latter had claimed that the 2012 school shooting was a “hoax” and carried out by actors. Several families successfully sued Jones for defamation and emotional damages, and in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation suit against Jones and his company Free Speech Systems. Jones declared bankruptcy in 2022, selling off his assets to pay off his creditors.
The licensing deal will see The Onion pay a monthly fee of $81,000 to the brand’s bankruptcy administrator for six months, with an option to extend it for a further six months. Collins added on Bluesky that comedian Tim Heidecker will join the company as creative director of Infowars.
The Onion, now owned by tech executive Jeff Lawson, is rebooting itself in an attempt to return to its subversive comedy roots.
