Onion CEO discusses Infowars purchase and plans for site’s future

Satirical website The Onion purchased Alex Jones’ site InfoWars on Thursday,
For years, Jones exemplified far-right anger and sensationalism. Infowars began as a website and a public access TV program before transitioning to livestreams. It focused on far-right conspiracy theories and was primarily funded by advertisements for dietary supplements and alternative medicine.
After the tragic 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults, Jones shocked and devastated the nation by claiming that this massacre was actually a hoax. He alleged, without any evidence, that lawmakers were involved, the Obamas were complicit, and even that the parents of the victims were in on it.
After years of insisting that he retract his false statements, the parents finally sued him for defamation. In court, they spoke about the impact that Jones’ lies had on their lives. The parents won more than $1 billion in damages, stating that this was the only way to put an end to his actions.
Jones was ordered to relinquish almost all of his possessions and auction off the website he created. On Thursday, The Onion, the satirical newspaper and website famous for its humor, acquired the site with the approval of the Sandy Hook parents. It also won the applause of gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, which will have an exclusive advertising deal with the site.
ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast host Brad Mielke spoke with Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, and John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, about the future of Infowars.
START HERE: We’re joined now by Ben Collins, the CEO of The Onion, and John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown. Ben, you bought Infowars. Why?
COLLINS: Because it would be very funny. I think we all agree this is really funny. Don’t you agree this is really funny? I think this is the funniest thing in the world. I think when we, you know, when we initially thought about it in June, when we read in the newspaper that it was for sale, we all had the same reaction it’d be like, it’d be really funny if The Onion bought it. And then we really thought about it like, but actually, how could we do this?
And I, from a previous life, I used to be a disinformation reporter. I knew the Sandy Hook family’s lawyers. And I gave them a ring. I was like, what does this look like? Is this really for sale? And all this stuff. And, you know, over the next few months, it became real. And we started talking to Everytown about this. Everytown was founded after Sandy Hook happened. And we wanted a good launch partner for this that made sense, and this is obviously the thing that makes the most sense.
Then we started talking to like Onion Hall of Famers, like the Hall of Fame comedy writers that have come through the halls of The Onion over the last few years. And when you NDA them and tell them this is happening, they get pretty excited.
So we built up this whole universe and this whole world that we’re excited to show everybody in a couple of months. But, you know, first just bathe in this, this is a really funny moment. You’re allowed to laugh at it. I hope, when you, I hope if you got a push alert or something — or if this is the first time you’re hearing of it — when you heard this happen, I hope you, hope you laughed really hard because it’s a funny moment.
START HERE: John, what was your reaction when The Onion came to you guys with this idea?
FEINBLATT: Well, I think most people would think at first blush, sort of strange bedfellows, but we thought the opposite. For years, The Onion has been really highlighting the crisis of gun violence in America. And obviously, that’s what we’ve been doing. And we thought that was perfect synergy here. You know, at our fingertips, we’ve got facts and we’ve got stories and we’ve got research, but they’ve got the creativity to really cut through misinformation and to reach new audiences.
START HERE: I was going to say, The Onion has always been, every time there’s a big mass shooting, The Onion has this famous headline of “No way to prevent this, says the only country where this regularly happens.”
FEINBLATT: Without a doubt. And we’ve known them and admired them for years. And what we know is that when you’ve got hate-filled misinformation, humor is sometimes the way to really get a reset and to really shine a spotlight on the fact that misinformation is really fueling irrational thinking.
START HERE: Ben, how will this actually work? Because is it just the website? Like Alex Jones had a number of platforms that were part of the company that was, is Infowars. Right? So what do you guys acquire and what do you do with it?
COLLINS: Yeah, we acquire everything. In fact, we acquire all of his broadcasting equipment. We acquire his whole supplement empire, which we are at this moment still trying to figure out what to do with.
START HERE: Wait like literally? Wait like, are there like pills in boxes somewhere?
COLLINS: There are pills in boxes somewhere. We don’t even know where they are, but we are trying to figure that out right now. And like, that’s the thing here, is that we — it was important to the families is that we really try to take him off the air for a couple of days and see what happens. And that’s important to us, too.
Like, we want to be able to wipe the slate clean with this thing and, you know, in a couple of years what we want to be able to say is if you think of Infowars, you really think of this hilarious joke that we pulled off or, you know, even better that we’ve built something on top of it that’s big and flourishing and crazy and is the funniest website that you know.
START HERE: Wait that’s my question, is it like, does a website supplant it now or and like, what does that actually look like?
COLLINS: Yeah, we will take over– Infowars.com I believe right now is down and we will take that over once that is transferred over to us. And then we’ll start building a whole new world there.
START HERE: Sorry, I just want to be clear though. What does that mean? Like a whole new world? Is it like The Onion now also has a different domain that’s called Infowars. Or is it a totally different thing?
COLLINS: Yeah. No, we’re building a whole new website with, you know, our own — so basically what we want to do is there is a sub economy of alt media people who’ve gone, you know, unmocked for too long. And we, those people, we call them alt media. It kind of like took over everything like quietly, you know, the podcast people selling you supplements, the people getting you addicted to fear and anger and all that stuff.
And it’s not just Alex Jones types. It’s all sorts of weird guys that you see on your TikTok and Instagram feeds. We’re going to create a world where that is, you know, appropriately — the appropriate amount — ritually mocked.
FEINBLATT: And, you know, when you think about the pain and the suffering that Alex Jones visited on the Sandy Hook families, the fact that Everytown and The Onion are painting a new chapter, there’s no other way to describe this than poetic justice. It’s almost karmic justice.
START HERE: How much did you guys pay for it?
COLLINS: $1.1 trillion.
START HERE: I don’t think that’s true. I think that is parody.
COLLINS: No, it’s look, it’s, I agree with you. It’s a small price to pay, but we decided that, look, in our vast empire of puppy mills and other things that Global Tetrahedron funds …
START HERE: Just to be clear with our listeners, that is the parent company you set up with the same name as the The Onion’s — fictional corporate overlords, your company does not do all those things.
COLLINS: Um, that’s, that’s up for you to decide first of all. Second of all, yeah, it’s just, you know, it’s a small price to pay for, for a good, public good.
START HERE: OK, but if, so, if you’re not going to tell me and that’s fine that you guys are not going to tell me how much you actually paid for this. I guess the thing I want to get at is, is this an expensive way to troll people? Is it a way for the Onion to effectively donate money to Everytown? Because I know Everytown is going to have an exclusive advertising deal with you guys.
Or is this something, is this like a way to have an impact on the conversation around conspiracy theorists? Does this last beyond that push alert that you just mentioned that made people laugh?
COLLINS: Oh yeah, absolutely. Like our goal is to make this a, like I keep saying a whole universe, a whole new universe for people to understand. And I just want to make it clear, the money goes to the families. The families are owed $1 billion from Alex Jones. All of this money will go — for the sale of Infowars — it goes directly to the families. And we are going to make something better.
We’re going to pay this over and give some people a good place on the internet to go to because that’s very rare now. That’s a big part of why we want to do this. We want, the media ecosystem is just filled with like lies and hate and garbage, and we want to give people a place to at least laugh at it.
START HERE: John, does this take Alex Jones out of the equation entirely? He’s already responded to this, saying that this is all “rigged,” that “Infowars is stronger than ever,” that his empire is stronger than ever. What’s your response?
FEINBLATT: We’re putting Alex Jones in the rearview mirror. We’re painting a new chapter and we’re going to reach new audiences.
And I think that’s what’s most important here for both Everytown and for The Onion to talk about this in yes, in a humorous way, but to really expose the damage misinformation does and talk to people that are beyond just talking to ourselves. Talking to conservative people, talking to young people and reaching them and really, really exposing how misinformation distorts reality.
START HERE: That’s the thing, because I keep wondering if, like, I doubt the average Infowars listener or consumer sticks around and goes like, oh, I got to check out this website or this Twitter account or whatever it is. You’re saying, you’re not assuming you’ll get those people tuning in every day, but you do think you’ll reach what, regular people at some point?
FEINBLATT: I think we will reach all Americans and probably some of the people who have been following Infowars because, look, when it comes to gun safety, we know where the American public stands, but we also know the damage that Alex Jones has visited — not just on the Sandy Hook families — but on on people all across the country in thinking about it. His currency is fear. And we’re ending that chapter.
START HERE: All right. Ben Collins, John Feinblatt, thank you both so much.