Will The Onion's Infowars Buyout Make a Mockery of Fighting Disinformation?

The Onion Buys Infowars: Vows to Finally Bring Honesty to Fake News. It's one of the most unlikely media mergers to date: a satirical newspaper that runs hilariously fake headlines secures the winning bid on a defunct company that spewed some of the biggest conspiracy theories on the internet.

The Onion has long delighted readers with a mix of highbrow and stupidly silly news stories that parody the latest social trends and political tirades, highlighting their absurdity-and deeper truths. Their most famous recurring headline, "‘No Way to Prevent This' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens," is a grim reminder of the reality of gun violence in the United States.

Now, the outlet has gone beyond quick-hit stories to maneuver a corporate-level prank to take over Alex Jones' Infowars.

Jones launched Infowars in 1999, later folding it into Free Speech Systems, the ironically Orwellian-named parent company that runs his media empire. On the site, he shared his version of the truth-conspiracy theories under the guise of asking questions and providing commentary. It peaked in influence during the 2016 presidential election cycle, emerging as a megaphone for President Donald Trump's views throughout his first term and later reinforcing unproven 2020 election fraud claims. But Jones' embellished reports went too far, giving The Onion "the opportunity to do the funniest thing of all time."

‘One of the Better Jokes We've Ever Told'

The satirical news outlet began its takeover after Jones and his media empire filed for bankruptcy following a $1.4 billion defamation judgment against Jones for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 20 children plus six others were killed, a hoax. The Onion, backed by Sandy Hook families, initially won its bid to take over the website in bankruptcy court in 2024, in what The Onion's leadership described as "one of the better jokes we've ever told," only to have the bid temporarily stayed, sending the parties into a legal battle. Earlier this year, The Onion struck a deal to gain temporary control of Infowars' website, trademark and related intellectual property amid liquidation proceedings. But another last-minute blockage in a Texas court paused proceedings until a new hearing on May 28.

The Onion's (real) CEO Ben Collins wrote on Bluesky that his readership wanted them to "mock the very capricious and unjust system we are currently experiencing all throughout America."

He told Newsweek the company is ready to move forward on behalf of the Sandy Hook families.

"Every delay in this process directly impacts their ability to receive justice," Collins said. "Our goal is simple: to take a platform that caused real harm and build something better."

By early May, however, Infowars had shuttered and The Onion was going ahead with its rebrand and its plans to give the profits directly to victims of the school shooting. In a message to readers, The Onion's fictional owner Bryce P. Tetraeder said the website will become a place where "panic and capital feed on each other" like twins in the womb of a monster known as "modern-day America."

This was paired with fake ads to "turn your p*** into gold" and a video shot by comedian Tim Heidecker doing his best Jones impression: deep raspy voice stringing together words never before uttered in the history of the English language.

Beyond Parody?

When Stephen Colbert launched his outlandish Republican pundit character on The Colbert Report during President George W. Bush's second term, it was funny and refreshing. Looking back, that level of polarization in the news seems quaint.

In the past decade, the exaggerated plots and ridiculous characters on fictional shows like House of Cards, Veep and The Boys seem to predict what real-life politicians do months after the episodes are written. If even fiction feels too real, is Jones' brand of disinformation beyond parody?

Jones may have lost his URL, but he's moved his show to a new platform. He shares his rants on the Alex Jones Network website and to 4.5 million followers on X. He seems content in his new home, where his loyal base is greeted with a layout as scattered as his thought patterns and littered with pop-up ads for his questionable health supplements. And still not a single dollar paid to the Sandy Hook families. Newsweek reached out to Jones for comment.

In a time of rampant AI slop and widespread misinformation, everyone is susceptible to bots and online vitriol, pushing them further into their preferred political corner.

Author, filmmaker and media entrepreneur Steven Rosenbaum told Newsweek that with all the content people consume daily, he can't blame readers for not being able to tell the difference between news, parody, opinion and fact.

The author of the book The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality admits he even questions the authenticity of every video of a dog, the president or a shooting he sees.

"I'm empathetic to the fact that when people get to a place where all the information in front of them is not believable, untrue or misinformation, I think the larger danger is that a meaningful number of people in society will just say, ‘it's all lies, I don't believe anything,' and that leads to profound questions about how democracy functions," Rosenbaum said.

With all of that framing gone, he warns a satirical Infowars is a "bridge too far."

"I don't think there's any amount of money from Infowars version two for the [Sandy Hook] families that makes it worth it," he said.

So even if the Sandy Hook families get every penny they are owed and more, the fact is Jones is still out there, and not even the cleverest left-leaning satire can counteract his at times harmful rhetoric.

We can chuckle at a funny headline or cartoon, but when the laughter dies down, we are left with the sobering realization that Jones is streaming live.

In the meantime, you can buy a tote bag from the Onion/Infowars merch shop featuring "Infowars" in rainbow letters, with the signature Onion logo swapped in for the "o," because, as the site promises, "lies never looked so good."

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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 2:00 AM.