Summary

A Texas federal bankruptcy judge has ordered an evidentiary hearing to review the auction process that awarded Infowars to satire site The Onion, citing concerns about transparency.

Alex Jones, who owes $1.5 billion to Sandy Hook families, claims the process was “rigged” and expects the site to be returned to him.

Attorneys for Elon Musk’s X Corp. unexpectedly joined the case, with Jones suggesting Musk will play a key role.

Despite the sale proceeding, Jones resumed Infowars broadcasts, while The Onion plans to relaunch the platform as a satire in January. The hearing is set for next week.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    882·
    16 days ago

    Musk has too much power and overreach. He’s attending to every far right infant in existence making sure they keep spreading misinformation.

  • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
    47·
    15 days ago

    So the argument is that it was unfair to sell Infowars to The Onion, because they weren’t the highest bidder - rather, the Sandy Hook parents approved of this bid, and not any others that were higher.

    BUT… Those Sandy Hook parents also agreed to forfeit a portion of their settlement in exchange for favoritism towards the Onion, making that bid the one that would cover the largest number of settlement dollars, which is the primary goal of auctioning off his assets in the first place.

    So good luck arguing against this sale. The Sandy Hook parents have $1.4B worth of settlement dues to work with, and they know that they aren’t going to see most of it repaid in their lifetimes. They can keep conditionally forfeiting money until you’d need to pay hundreds of millions to acquire Infowars. If Elon decided to do that anyway, the cash would go straight to the parents, and he’d be opening himself up to massive liabilities the moment Alex Jones inevitably opens his mouth about Sandy Hook conspiracy shit on X.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    16 days ago

    “I was told Elon is going to be very involved in this,” Jones said during a live broadcast on X. After Infowars was seized and the site shut down, Jones promptly began operating under the name and branding of a new venture, dubbed the Alex Jones Network, which streams on X.

    That’s the reason, they’re using the media and courts as advertising to get it out there.

    The sale will go thru and they’ll both make a big show about “the only place for the truth is X!”

    Because everyone literally does forget about Truth Social till someone mentions it

  • Botzo@lemmy.world
    26·
    16 days ago

    Pardon any errors here (Cunningham’s law and all), I was a bit toasty while listening to the knowledge fight episode.

    My favorite part of this whole thing is that he’s calling shenanigans because he knows that the high bid didn’t win. And Alex signed documents acknowledging there were other factors.

    There were 2 bids. Just 2. And do you know what the high bid was? $3.5 million. That’s it. A paltry sum for his life’s work. The price of a McMansion in California.

      • frezik@midwest.social
        8·
        15 days ago

        He would care because the money would pay off debts, and if a lower bid was accepted, then less of that debt is paid off. However, apparently the families (the debt holders) agreed to forfeit part of that debt so The Onion’s bid could be accepted.

        As is often the case, your lawyers can file any paperwork to try to stop things. Doesn’t mean it will go anywhere. It only delays the inevitable.

  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    201·
    16 days ago

    I just don’t like the non-zero chance that this somehow gets reversed once the Trump administration begins. Jones is a huge Trump supporter, and I could absolutely see him meddling in this case in whatever illegal-but-theyll-make-it-legal way he can. The outright bribery and corruption is on full display, and I absolutely could see Trump do this even if only to show everybody else the rewards they might receive if they get on board.

  • steel_nomad@lemmy.world
    151·
    16 days ago

    This whole affair is a load of shit in every way. Jones doesn’t deserve this treatment. The system wants their 100 pounds of flesh for him not being a good boy.

    • Jordan117@lemmy.worldEnglish
      33·
      16 days ago

      Fuck that. Did the Sandy Hook parents deserve to have their murdered children used as fodder for Jones’s conspiracy bullshit?

      • steel_nomad@lemmy.world
        12·
        13 days ago

        Not lies. Not conspiracy. Freedom of speech. These people didn’t suffer because of him. Jeesh.

        • Jordan117@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          He used his platform to claim that murdered children were fake and that the parents were “crisis actors”. He so roiled his audience with blatantly false inflammatory bullshit that they began harassing the parents and sending them death threats, all for the crime of having their kindergartens shot to death in America. They absolutely suffered and the blame for their harassment lies entirely with that fucking sociopath (who has since admitted that yes, the massacre was real).

    • cheesemoo@lemmy.world
      21·
      16 days ago

      Care to elaborate? Everything I’ve ever heard about him makes it sound like he’s a massive piece of shit. You buy his lies about Sandy Hook? Or think it’s fine to make up whatever you want no matter who it hurts, and expect no consequences?

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
        161·
        16 days ago

        Look at the commenter’s profile. It’s a waste of time asking, you’re only going to get back right-wing talking points or misinformation.