The Onion Is Buying Infowars. No Joke.

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Onion Is Buying Infowars. No Joke

Podcast Title: The Journal
Hosts: Ryan Knutson, Kate Linebaugh, Jessica Mendoza
Production: The Wall Street Journal & Gimlet, Spotify
Episode Title: The Onion Is Buying Infowars. No Joke.

---

Introduction

In a startling and seemingly surreal announcement, The Onion, the renowned satirical news organization, revealed plans to acquire Infowars, a far-right media platform formerly helmed by Alex Jones. This move, initially perceived as a comedic stunt, has profound implications for media, misinformation, and advocacy against extremism.

---

Background: The Onion and Infowars

[00:05-00:37]
Ryan Knutsen opens the episode by highlighting The Onion's announcement to buy Infowars, underlining the initial disbelief and amusement it sparked. Infowars, previously owned by Alex Jones, became available for sale following a bankruptcy proceeding initiated by a $1.4 billion defamation judgment against Jones by the families of Sandy Hook massacre victims.

Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, elaborates on the motivation behind the acquisition:

"[00:37] We wanted people to wake up and be like, wait, I can get a push alert... And at the end of the day, that's the reaction we want from people."
— Ben Collins

---

The Acquisition Announcement

[05:13-07:25]
Ben Collins shares the inception of the idea to purchase Infowars, initially conceived as a humorous thought within The Onion’s creative team. Upon recognizing the potential for leveraging humor to dismantle misinformation propagated by Alex Jones, Collins reached out to John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, to explore the feasibility of the acquisition.

Key Points:

• The Onion aims to use satire to counteract the dangerous misinformation disseminated by Infowars.
• Collaboration with Everytown for Gun Safety ensures that the acquisition aligns with broader efforts to promote gun safety and combat extremism.

---

Collaboration with Everytown for Gun Safety

[05:27-09:30]
Ryan Knutsen introduces John Feinblatt, who discusses the strategic partnership between The Onion and Everytown. Feinblatt emphasizes the opportunity to utilize The Onion's creative prowess to reach and influence diverse audiences, including those entrenched in misinformation.

"[06:48]... The Onion keeps republishing this article after mass shootings. They've run it now 37 times, and it's something every town noticed and appreciated."
— John Feinblatt

John Feinblatt further explains:

"[07:49] We thought that an advertising relationship could actually help us really break through... Sometimes you need that kind of medium of humor to really set the record straight."
— John Feinblatt

---

Rationale Behind the Acquisition

[08:02-12:02]
Ben Collins discusses the dual objectives of the acquisition: delivering humor while addressing serious societal issues. He underscores The Onion’s role in highlighting and mocking the absurdities within American life, positioning the purchase of Infowars as a means to expose and ridicule misinformation.

"[08:31]... The Onion is trying as hard as possible to convince you a real thing is fake. That's basically the difference here."
— Ben Collins

John Feinblatt adds a layer of moral satisfaction to the deal, viewing it as "poetic justice" against Alex Jones' harmful narratives.

---

Plans for Infowars Under The Onion’s Ownership

[12:05-19:58]
Ben Collins outlines The Onion’s vision for transforming Infowars into a satirical platform that continues to engage its existing audience while attracting new viewers through humor. The objective is to dismantle the facade of misinformation by presenting parody content that highlights the absurdity of conspiracy theories.

"[13:34] We have a wide open blank canvas here that a lot of comedy writers have wanted to play in this space, but only at the quality bar that The Onion can provide. So that's what we're going to do."
— Ben Collins

Plans include:

• Relaunching Infowars as a parody news site in January 2025.
• Utilizing humor to reach and influence audiences previously aligned with Infowars.
• Integrating Everytown’s advocacy efforts to promote gun safety through creative content.

Challenges Addressed:

• Navigating the delicate balance between satire and sensitivity towards victims of misinformation.
• Overcoming skepticism from audiences accustomed to Infowars’ serious tone.

---

Handling Infowars’ Supplement Business

[18:57-19:58]
In a lighter segment, Ben Collins humorously addresses the future of Infowars' supplement business, acknowledging the absurdity of managing a warehouse full of supplements.

"[19:08]... if you know a supplement guy, give me a call."
— Ben Collins

This segment serves to reinforce the satirical nature of the acquisition, highlighting The Onion’s intent to inject humor into all aspects of Infowars’ operations.

---

Legal and Ethical Considerations

[14:43-16:26]
The sale faces scrutiny over its transparency and legality, with Alex Jones and First United American Companies questioning the process. A bankruptcy judge has scheduled a hearing to review the sale's legitimacy, ensuring that the acquisition adheres to legal standards.

John Feinblatt emphasizes the ethical imperative behind the acquisition, linking it to broader efforts to combat fear-driven narratives and promote factual discourse.

---

Conclusion

[20:20-20:38]
As the episode wraps up, both Ben Collins and John Feinblatt reiterate the significance of the acquisition as a tool for societal change. Collins maintains the humorous stance regarding future plans, while Feinblatt underscores the justice served against Alex Jones' legacy of misinformation.

"[20:22] I think that just to underscore the bottom line here is if I've ever seen a case of poetic justice, this is it for Alex Jones."
— John Feinblatt

"[20:33] The supplement offer is real. If you know a guy, just give me a ring."
— Ben Collins

---

Final Thoughts

The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars represents a bold experiment in using satire as a weapon against misinformation and extremism. By partnering with Everytown for Gun Safety, The Onion aims to leverage humor to reach broader audiences and challenge entrenched narratives. As the legal proceedings unfold, the media world watches closely to see if this unconventional strategy can effect meaningful change.

---

For those interested in exploring further, The Journal offers comprehensive coverage on topics intersecting money, business, and power, blending investigative journalism with insightful discussions.

Transcript

[Ryan Knudsen]

Yesterday, the company that owns the satirical news organization the Onion shared some news that almost seemed like a parody. The Onion was going to buy Infowars.

[John Feinblatt]

The Onion jokingly wrote, this is a coup for our company and a well deserved victory for multinational elites.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Infowars was owned by the far right media personality Alex Jones and was up for sale as part of a bankruptcy proceeding. To a lot of people, the news came as a big, hilarious surprise.

[Ben Collins]

Yeah, I mean, that's what we wanted it to be like. We wanted people to wake up and be like, wait, I can get a push alert. That's not the worst thing in the world. Like, I get a push alert. That's like, oh, my God, a nice thing happened on the planet. So we just want. We wanted people to feel that way.

[Ryan Knudsen]

This is Ben Collins, the CEO of the Onion.

[Ben Collins]

Alex Jones is. This is a guy who has spent his whole life trying to legitimize some pretty awful ideas through the veneer of the news. He's going to keep doing this. Like, that's just the way it is. But we can interrupt him and also we can get one over on him. I think, like, when most people read this news yesterday, they looked at their phone for the first time in a while, potentially and was like, huh, Something good happened. Something funny happened. That's what we wanted to do. And like, at the end of the day, that's the reaction we want to have from people. And also, you know, we also get to build this world. Like, the Onion is the very best place at going at the heart of, like, the absurdities of American life. And there's nothing more absurd than this.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan knudsen. It's Friday, November 15th. Coming up on the show, why the Onion Bot InfoWars and what it plans to do with it.

[Ben Collins]

This episode is brought to you by Empower.

[John Feinblatt]

If you're like most people, you've got your fair share of financial questions. Questions like, will we be able to.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Afford having a third kid?

[Ben Collins]

Will we be able to do everything.

[John Feinblatt]

We want when we retire? What if we outlive our savings? Empower knows these questions can be stressful, but they'll help answer your what ifs? And empower, what's Next? So join 18 million Americans and take control of your financial future with Empower.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Start [e-mail] this episode of the Journal is brought to you by Global X. Since 2008, Global X ETFs has been committed to empowering investors with unexpected, explored, intelligent Solutions. Global X specializes in exchange traded funds that offer exposure to the artificial intelligence ecosystem, including themes like data centers, robotics, semiconductors and cloud computing. To learn more about Global X's entire suite of ETFs from covered calls, fixed income, emerging markets and more, Visit Global.

[Ryan Knudsen]

X etf's.com How InfoWars ended up in the Hands of the Onion started with a conspiracy theory. In 2012, a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school. The Sandy Hook massacre. Soon after the tragedy, Alex Jones started to spread lies about it through his platform on infowars, saying that the shooting and others like it were hoaxes, that the victims and their families were just actors, and that it was all a pretext for the government to take away guns. In response, families of the Sandy Hook victims sued Jones for defamation and they won. A judge ordered Jones to pay the families $1.4 billion in damages. Following the trial, Jones filed for bankruptcy, saying he didn't have the money to pay them, which kicked off a lengthy bankruptcy court case in an auction to sell some of his assets to pay the families. One of those assets was infowars, and that gave Ben Collins an idea.

[Ben Collins]

You know, in June, we saw it was for sale and we thought like, man, wouldn't it be funny if the Onion bought in for us? And it was like, just like a bit in our head. Trust me, we say, wouldn't it be funny all the time. But then I was like, but I think we can do this. Like, I knew the family's lawyers. I used to be a disinformation reporter. So I knew some of the family's lawyers and I gave them a ring. I was like, what's the deal? Like, what's going on here? What's exactly the process here? And then I started to realize, like, maybe we can actually do this. And I started to call around internally in the office and people in the larger Onion alumni group, which is like every great comedy writer in America. And we started NDA ing people and being like, what would we do if we got this thing? And their ideas were insane. They were incredible and beautiful ideas.

[Ryan Knudsen]

So it's like funny jokes. People were like, yeah, this would be hilarious if we owned infowars.

[Ben Collins]

Like even beyond the first initial joke, which I think everybody thinks this would be the funniest thing that ever happened. How do we sustain that?

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ben saw the potential to take over Infowars and transform it into something new. But he needed a partner. So he approached John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, for gun Safety, a gun control and violence prevention advocacy group. John, what was your reaction when you heard about this offer? And can you say anything about how the. How the parents of Sandy Hook reacted when they got this offer?

[John Feinblatt]

Well, I think three things were really going through our mind when we started talking to Ben and to the Onion team. One was, you know, there is nothing we can do to heal the pain of the Sandy Hook families. But our feeling was like if we could contribute one ounce of restitution or one ounce of something that brings them some sort of satisfaction, it would be completely worth it to us. And then the second thing, obviously, that came to our mind was just the battle against extremism and misinformation. We know that from all the polling we do that most Americans believe in gun safety. However, misinformation and hate and fear has so distorted reality that we knew we had to get into the fight of battling it.

[Ryan Knudsen]

The third thing that caught John's eye was the Onion's record on the issue of gun safety. One of the Onion's most viral posts is from 2014. It's about mass shootings, and the headline is, no way to prevent this. Says, only nation where this regularly happens. The Onion keeps republishing this article after mass shootings. They've run it now 37 times, and it's something every town noticed and appreciated. So they were on board with Ben's idea, and they signed a deal to be the exclusive advertiser for the relaunch of Infowars.

[John Feinblatt]

We thought that an advertising relationship could actually help us really break through. I mean, we've got at our fingertips the facts, the data, the research, the stories. But what they've got is the creativity and the ability actually to use humor to cut through misinformation. And sometimes you need that kind of medium of humor to really set the record straight.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Well, say more about. You said that there's an element of satisfaction. I think I've heard you say elsewhere that there's, like, an element of justice. What is satisfying about the Onion owning Infowars to you?

[John Feinblatt]

I think it's karmic justice, truthfully. You know, what did Alex Jones do after the Sandy Hook massacre? He called it a hoax. And for the Onion to couple itself with a gun safety organization, I think is karmic justice.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ben, you said a moment ago that you think that this is, like, the funniest idea ever, but where do you see the humor in it?

[Ben Collins]

Yeah, I mean, it's obvious. It's trying to put on the affect of a real news organization. He has tried to take these ideas that mass shootings are writ large false flags done by the government to take away your guns, that these victims of shootings aren't real sometimes, that they never existed, that they're actors or whatever, which is this double whammy of grief that these people in America and really only America have to go through right now. They are, you know, the families of the victims of shootings first have to deal with the most horrific thing that's ever happened to them and then have to have that have to be visited by this wave of awfulness. And he managed to for several years legitimize himself and what we can do as the Onion is bring it back to where it should be, which is farce and like lunacy. And also more importantly than anything else, we can build something on top of it.

[Ryan Knudsen]

What they plan to build, that's after the break.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This episode is brought to you by Workday get the whole band together with Workday. Impair finance and HR on one platform for an epic performance. With Workday AI at the core, you'll make confident decisions faster than ever, and you'll drive flawless business and finance operations with an agile platform that constantly evolves to future proof your organization. Be a finance and HR rock star with Workday. Visit workday.com to learn more. This episode is brought to you by GlobalX ETFs. Looking to invest? Start your journey by exploring exchange traded funds with GlobalX ETFs. Exchange traded funds, or ETFs for short, create baskets of stocks, bonds and other assets that you can buy in a single trade. GlobalX specializes in ETFs that track emerging trends like the rise of artificial intelligence, as well as strategies aimed to generate income potential. Visit globalxetfs.com to discover how you can get started.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ben Collins used to spend his days looking at sites like Infowars. For years, he was a reporter who covered disinformation online. And then in April, Collins, alongside a group of friends and a tech billionaire, took over the Onion. Since then, he's been trying to breathe new life into the publication, restarting its print edition and the Onion News Network, its cable news parody. Ben sees Infowars as the Next Great Idea Ben, is this just funny or is it also a good business decision for the Onion?

[Ben Collins]

It's a great business decision for that's why we did it. Like it's, it's this has a lot of different reasons for doing it. You know, we took over this company seven, eight months ago now, and since then the Onion.

[Ryan Knudsen]

You took over. Yeah.

[Ben Collins]

And what we've been able to do is bring back the newspaper, and we've been shocked by the response by it. We send you a physical newspaper in the mail once a month, and people love getting it. It's really nice. We've been, like, really blown away by support.

[Ryan Knudsen]

How many subscribers does the Onion have?

[Ben Collins]

We have, I would say now, two arenas full of people. Like, we have a lot of people.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Two arenas. So not 4.3 trillion, which it says in the about us section of the Onion.

[John Feinblatt]

I don't want to contradict you, but I thought it was 4.4 TR.

[Ben Collins]

Oh, yeah. Well, yesterday we had a big day, John.

[Ryan Knudsen]

So what can you say about your plans for infowars if this deal does go through as expected and once you get control of it?

[Ben Collins]

Yeah, we're really excited. We have this moment where media is so balkanized and everybody has their own little cult armies. We're going to go after that. We're going to find a way, in the Onion's own way to tackle this really weird and incredibly siloed media environment that we have now.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Are you planning to turn infowars just into, like, a joke, an obvious joke, or do you want to, like, only tweak it enough so that, like, do you want to keep its existing audience, but try to change the existing audience's mind by not making it so obvious that you're just turning it into a satire?

[Ben Collins]

I think you'll see they are building a universe right now where I think there's a world in which they being the coma yesterday, and you were an Infowars fan and you woke up in January, you would be like, oh, it's a little bit different, but I could see it. I think that's what it is. And look, man, we have. I do want to say, like, ever since this news came out, every great comedy mind in the country has reached out to us, asking how they can help and asking if they can write synonymously for us. And there is a wide open blank canvas here that a lot of comedy writers have wanted to play in this space, but only at the quality bar that the Onion can provide. So that's what we're going to do.

[Ryan Knudsen]

John, what will Everytown's role be in this?

[John Feinblatt]

Look, we're gonna be the major advertiser and the premier advertiser, certainly at the launch. And that could mean anything from banner ads to video to doing joint creative content to doing links. And it is a chance to bring the issue of gun safety to a whole new Bigger, broader audience and do it with humor. And look, I mean, if there's one thing that is completely on our mind, and I think everybody else's mind who's sort of observes what's going on in this country, it's the role of misinformation and the fact that we have to stop just talking to ourselves. We have to talk to broader audiences. And I think that this is a way of accomplishing both of those things for us at every town.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ben and the Onion haven't said how much they paid for infowars. One piece about the deal that we do know is that the Sandy Hook parents wanted to sell to the Onion so badly that they agreed to forego a portion of what they are owed by Alex Jones in order to support the Onions bid. John, can you say anything about why the families were willing to accept less money for this deal?

[John Feinblatt]

Look, they realize that the currency of Alex Jones is fear. And fear has distorted people's perceptions of really reality in many ways. And I think that in some ways, the Alex Jones is sort of a stand in for the whole gun industry. And the gun industry makes money off of death. There's really no two ways, you know, to put it. And I think this was an opportunity to really shine a spotlight on it. And in a different way. I mean, we're living in an age of misinformation, and sometimes facts don't do the trick and sometimes you've got to use different mediums. And I think humor is one way to cast a really harsh spotlight, not just on Alex Jones, but on the whole sort of industry of fear of misinformation and hate that's so permeating the discussion of the issue of gun safety. It's what drives the industry. They make money off of tragedy. And this was an opportunity to really cast a pretty harsh spotlight and using humor and reaching audiences that we don't always reach. Conservatives, youth, young men.

[Ryan Knudsen]

There was at least one other offer to buy infowars by a company called First United American Companies. First United is associated with Alex Jones new online store. The company alleges that the sale process was flawed, citing a lack of transparency. First United didn't respond to our request for comment. On Thursday, Alex Jones took to X and made a similar claim.

[Ben Collins]

The words were exactly. This was a private, secret sale. Basically, illegal is the word that's used. Basically, it's crime. I mean, bankruptcy crime. I mean, on its face, disguised as.

[John Feinblatt]

An auction that wasn't an auction.

[Ryan Knudsen]

A bankruptcy judge said he would schedule a hearing for next week. To review the sale process and the bids. The sale can't close until the court approves it. How do you think it solves the problem, though? You know a satire website because there are Reddit threads and there's a section of the Onions Wikipedia page about times when people thought that the Onion was real and that the headlines were real.

[Ben Collins]

Well, I think the most important thing here is the Onion is the diametric opposite of Infowars. Infowars is trying as hard as possible to convince you that a fake thing is real. And we're trying as hard as possible to convince you a real thing is fake. That's basically the difference here. And I can tell you I used to be a disinformation reporter. I was for the last decade of my life before I took this job. And there's only so many facts you can show people before that are inconvenient and might not help their life before they might slink off into news that feels better to them, news and quotes that feels better to them, but it isn't actually true. You know, the 6,000 word features I used to write about, like cults that had websites, they were beautifully constructed and really good and well edited and, you know, who knows what impact they made. But a joke that lands, that's like a joke that's 10 words long that lands, that might have more outsize impact than anything else.

[Ryan Knudsen]

So you're sort of saying that like, rather than fight misinformation with facts, you want to fight it with humor and satire.

[Ben Collins]

Yeah, we want to fight fear and like, we want to show what's happening. And the only real way to get to them that way is to be funny. Like, you can scold them all you want. You can do the hardest hitting feature of all time. But I'm here to tell you, like, the best way to get to people is to be like, isn't that kind of silly that you used to believe this?

[John Feinblatt]

And what I think humor and satire can do is sort of point out the manipulation and sort of saying, you know, you're being sort of strung along with fear and we're manipulating you into behavior that makes us richer, makes an industry richer, and makes a country more violent.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Now, I understand that you'll also gain control of this supplements business that Infowars has made so much of its money off of. What are your plans? What supplements are you going to get and what are you going to do with them?

[Ben Collins]

I believe, I mean, I want to defer to a global tetrahydrogen CEO who said, we would boil it down to one Omnivitamin that the CEO will be able to eat to gain immortality. I think that's probably the best way of handling it. We don't really have a second idea yet. To be real with you, I don't know what to do with a warehouse full of supplements, but we're going to figure it out. It is a very silly thing, and I obviously never anticipated having to deal with this. But look, if you know a supplement guy, give me a call.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Mm. Can you. I know that you're being. You don't want to share much about what you plan to do with the site when it relaunches in January of 2025, but can you give me, like, what would be. Like, what do you think the lead story will be on infowars?

[Ben Collins]

Oh, I'm not. I'm not funny enough for that. But, like, look, the way the world's. I mean, we're gonna have a world by January 2025, so let's just. Let's pray we get there. We'll see how it goes. And then if we get there, we'll have a very pretty and very nice website to show you with some of the most unhinged sentences you'll ever read.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Great. Any final thoughts from either of you before we let you go?

[John Feinblatt]

I think that just to underscore the bottom line here is if I've ever seen a case of poetic justice, this is it for Alex Jones.

[Ben Collins]

The supplement offer is real. If you know a guy, just give me a ring.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Okay, that's all for today. Friday, November 15th. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Alexander Gladstone, Joseph De Avila and Akiko Matsuda. The show's made by Kathryn Brewer, Jonathan Davis, Pia Gadkari, Rachel Humphries, Matt Kwong, Kate Limebaugh, Jessica Mendoza, Annie Minoff, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez de la Rosa, Sarah Platt, Alessandra Rizzo, Alan Rodriguez Espinosa, Heather Rogers, Pier Singh, Jeevika Verma, Lisa Wang, Katherine Whalen, Tatiana Zamis, and me, Ryan Knudsen, with help from Trina Menino. Our engineers are Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapak and Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by so Wiley. Additional music this week from Katherine Anderson, Billy Libby, Bobby Lord Nathan, Singapok, Griffin Tanner, so Wiley and Blue Dot Sessions. Fact checking by Mary Mathis and Kate Gallagher. Thanks for listening. See you Monday.