Infowars host Alex Jones on Monday went shirtless as he reacted to a deal unveiled earlier that day by The Onion to acquire his right wing-centric brand and website from bankruptcy.
“Look, just because you’re wearing my shirt don’t mean you’re me, so let’s be 100 percent clear about that,” the Infowars founder and host declared during a livestream on X. Earlier that day, The Onion and its parent company Global Tetrahedron announced a licensing deal for the company’s brand names and IP, including its website. The pact comes nearly a year and a half after The Onion’s prior effort to acquire Infowars was nixed by a bankruptcy judge.
The Jones-founded outlet has been in receivership after the families of Sandy Hook victims successfully sued it into bankruptcy. This new deal with The Onion, though, requires court approval, which has left Jones fuming about what satirical outlet has in store for his website should a judge agree to its proposed takeover.
“They’re gonna misrepresent that they’re us to confuse people and quote, ‘Rip people off like Alex Jones did.’ They’re gonna make money. The whole thing’s about defaming me. You can’t take something over and then act like you’re somebody, even if you say it’s a parody. You could do a parody of somebody, but not if you took something from them,” Jones argued.
The licensing deal will see The Onion pay a $81,000 monthly fee to the bankruptcy manager for the brand for six months, with the option to extend it for another six months. In addition, comedian Tim Heidecker has been attached as Infowars’ creative director.
The bankruptcy proceedings were the result of the defamation lawsuit filed by the families of the Sandy Hook victims against Jones. The latter had claimed that the 2012 school shooting was a “hoax” and was staged by actors. Several families successfully sued Jones for defamation and emotional damages, and in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems. Jones declared bankruptcy in 2022, leading to the selling off of his assets to pay his creditors.
Jones on his X livestream said The Onion with its subversive comedy aimed to confuse audiences about Infowars. “They’re body snatchers. They may try to take our clothes, we’re still the Infowars,” he added amid attempts to continue operating Infowars should the website be taken over by the satirical publication.
