The Onion’s Real InfoWars: Satire, Fundraising, and a Legal Battle

On July 2, The Onion debuted the new InfoWars livestream with two shows, “The Jim Haggerty Show” and “Emergency With Tim Heidecker,” marking the first public programming under the parody brand.

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Alex Jones founded the original InfoWars in 1999 and repeatedly claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. In 2022, a jury awarded the families of Sandy Hook victims $1.4 billion in damages for defamation. Jones has refused to pay, leading a Texas court to order liquidation of InfoWars assets.

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Since 2024, The Onion has pursued acquisition of the InfoWars website to mock Jones. Ownership has been in legal limbo since April, with the case now before the Texas Supreme Court.

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• Real InfoWars’ Instagram audience exceeds 218,000 followers; its YouTube channel has 140,000 subscribers; TikTok follows number 73,000. Six Instagram posts have each surpassed one million views.

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• The Onion’s print newspaper subscriptions have risen above 83,000, placing it among the five largest U.S. newspapers by physical circulation.

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• Merchandise sales generated $100,000 for Sandy Hook families in the first month of the parody operation.

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• Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, says the project’s purpose is to “erase the memory” of Jones while continuing to raise money for the Sandy Hook families, whose compensation has been stalled by Jones’s refusal to pay.

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• Collins added, “If anything, it sped us up.”

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• “People keep asking, ‘What’s the strategy?’ I’m like, ‘We’re building a f–king cult, obviously.’ And it’s working,” — Ben Collins, The Onion CEO

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• “Our goal of erasing the memory of this guy is working. It’s driving him insane, and now he’s fighting with the president,” — Ben Collins, The Onion CEO

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The Onion plans to roll out additional shows in the coming weeks and is eyeing a midterm special, with the broader goal of sustaining the brand through the end of the year.

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