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It’s a sweet taste of irony.
Satirical newsmagazine The Onion was announced as the winning bidder for disgraced media figure Alex Jones’ Infowars empire.
The company was on the auction block as part of court efforts to at least partially satisfy a US$1.5-billion judgment against Jones for, heinously, dismissing the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn., as a hoax intended to build support for gun control.
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Families, including those who lost 20 children and six staff members to the massacre, were outraged by the claims and sued Jones for defamation. In 2022, the families won.
As soon as The Onion was named the winning bidder, lawyers for Jones’ side screamed collusion — even though the trustee, Christopher Murray, had followed court instructions saying he was the sole arbiter of which bids were superior, and had freedom to choose even a bid that wasn’t the highest.
In this case, First United American Companies, which is affiliated with Jones’ dietary supplements business, bid US$3.5 million to The Onion’s US$1.75 million. Those were the only two bids.
The judge has reserved his decision until Saturday at the earliest and possibly not until Dec. 17. He will also entertain The Onion’s request to declare it the winner.
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones (David J. Phillip / The Associated Press file)
The Onion argues, and Murray apparently agrees, that its bid is superior thanks to concessions made by the Sandy Hook families, which it claims will spin more money off to Jones’ other creditors. Jones’ lawyers argue that the position is counting on future revenues that cannot be guaranteed.
The Onion, which has often directed its satire at Jones, wants to rebrand Infowars into a satirical news empire. Sandy Hook families see that as a way to muzzle Jones and prevent future damage to other targets of his conspiracy theories.
Jones, however, has already established a new studio and plans to continue his broadcasts irrespective of the outcome of the Infowars sale.
At the centre of the entire episode, of course, is the concept of free speech.
Absolutists will tell you free speech means you can say anything you want without consequence. But as this case — as well as the US$148-million judgment won by Georgia election workers against former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and the US$750-million judgment against Fox News — show, freedom of speech means the government can’t stop you from saying something; it does not protect you from consequences of saying it.
Libel and slander, the two pillars of defamation, work like this: if you can prove what you’re saying is true, and you’re saying it with public interest in mind, you’re free to say it.
If, however, you flat-out lie about the integrity of vote-counting machines, or about the actions of election workers or about the truthfulness of grief-stricken parents mourning the loss of a child, expect to pay for it.
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