The Onion’s new parody of Alex Jones’ Infowars starts with $100,000 to Sandy Hook families
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- The Onion will debut its Infowars parody on Thursday under its own website, sending $100,000 from branded merchandise sales to Sandy Hook families, according to CEO Ben Collins.
- Sandy Hook families have collected nothing from the more than $1 billion in defamation judgments against Alex Jones, who was ordered to pay roughly $1.4 billion in Connecticut and Texas courts for calling the 2012 shooting a hoax.
- Infowars at its peak drew 10 million monthly visitors and over $50 million in annual revenue, but the defamation judgments forced Jones into bankruptcy and broke the conspiracy platform apart.
- The parody site will spoof Jones' signature mix of conspiracies and supplement hustling, featuring fake products including a 'penis flattening device' and a 'pro oxygen' pill the host claims can replace breathing.
- The Onion remains in court trying to take control of Infowars assets, including the Austin, Texas studio, which Collins said the company expects to obtain soon.
- Robbie Parker, whose daughter was killed at Sandy Hook, plans to read his book about fighting Jones inside the Austin studio Jones once broadcast from.
- Attorney Chris Mattei, representing nine Sandy Hook families, said 'every dime Alex Jones makes from here until the end of eternity is going to be claimed by the families.'
Why it matters: The $100,000 donation is small relative to the $1.4 billion Jones owes, but the mechanism matters: The Onion is monetizing the Infowars brand to pay victims Jones has dodged for years, while simultaneously blocking Jones from profiting from his own former empire. Sandy Hook families went from demanding Infowars be shut down forever to embracing a satire campaign that turns Jones' playbook against him.
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