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The Onion buys Infowars

nytimes.com

921–930 of 1001 posts

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#922
post #916
post #818

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a credible source on this?

https://apnews.com/article/onion-buys-infowars-alex-jones-64... "Walter Cicack, an attorney for First United American Companies, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez that Murray changed the auction process only days before, deciding not to hold a round Wednesday where parties could outbid each other. Sealed bids were submitted last week, and the trustee chose only from those, Cicack said." "“We’re all going t…

Thanks. Something I wish the reporting would note is how common this kind of thing is. Is it normal, and do the results change often/ever with these reviews? Questions that would be good for an AP journalist to look into when they know what conspiracy-minded people watching a case like this will assume.

I can't fault a judge for wanting to make sure everything is copasetic with the kind of numbers and personalities involved.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#923
post #916
post #818

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a credible source on this?

https://apnews.com/article/onion-buys-infowars-alex-jones-64... "Walter Cicack, an attorney for First United American Companies, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez that Murray changed the auction process only days before, deciding not to hold a round Wednesday where parties could outbid each other. Sealed bids were submitted last week, and the trustee chose only from those, Cicack said." "“We’re all going t…

Sealed bids is a perfectly normal way to do auctions though.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#924
post #2

The announcement by America's Finest News Source: https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/ Alex Jones response: https://x.com/RealAlexJones/status/1857058831135645739

Founded in 1999 on the heels of the Satanic “panic” and growing steadily ever since, InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses. With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal. They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can’t even put a man on the Moon.

Perfect

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#925
post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt that the SH families will receive the kind of money they could have had if they accepted Jones' original offer. Their lawyers made it clear they were in it not for their clients' interest but for their own political agenda.

Maybe the families were more interested in fixing the issue than in receiving some blood money in exchange for continued harm.

Exactly. What would make me feel better if my children were shot and killed? Censorship, obviously.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#926

The NPR article conveys that this was more than just a very clever stunt > "The Connecticut families agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of The Onion's bid, enabling its success," according to their lawyers. ... Jones was hoping a bidder ideologically aligned with him would have bought Infowars and hired him back to keep doing his show. https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-518939…

This is actually one of the dumbest stunts I'd ever seen. InfoWars is nothing without Alex Jones. They've wasted all their money since Alex will start a new project and his viewership will move.

Oh no, far to the contrary, this is funny as hell. The fact that Alex Jones isn't there makes it even funnier.

And they got all of the stuff and the brands. The chemical brands, the infowars brands, all of it.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#927

Tim Onion's (Ben Collins) statement on Bluesky: [0] > Hi everyone. > The Onion, with the help of the Sandy Hook families, has purchased InfoWars. > We are planning on making it a very funny, very stupid website. > We have retained the services of some Onion and Clickhole Hall of Famers to pull this off. > I can't wait to show you what we have cooked up. Next post: [1] > Does anybody need millions of dollars worth of…

judge blocked

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#928

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like an incredible opportunity to see if it's possible to reprogram InfoWars readers away from the hate and the conspiracy theories. It would be a massive undertaking but wouldn't it be funny if the savior of modern media turned out to be a student newspaper from Madison, Wisconsin?

InfoWars audience is loyal only to Jones himself and will never visit InfoWars again. Jones will go elsewhere, 100% of his audience will follow, and the Onion is in for a big letdown. If you are dreaming about reprogramming Jone's followers by taking over InfoWars, it just shows that you know nothing about the typical InfoWars consumer.

You are overestimating them. By far.

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#929

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lawyers file cases they can win to establish legal precedent. The 1st amendment doesn't protect all forms of speech. Shouting Fire in a theater, sedition, inciting mobs, entrapment, accessory to a crime (by encouraging someone to do it). None of these are covered in the 1st Amendment.

> Lawyers file cases they can win to establish legal precedent. That's actually very rare. Most cases get settled out of court and most court case don't make it to appeal; thus no legal precedent. > Shouting Fire in a theater This is a common misconception. This decision was reversed by the Supreme Court. > sedition, inciting mobs, entrapment, accessory to a crime (by encouraging someone to do it). None of these are…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_the...

… he was sued for defamation[1], which is sort in line with the parent's point that the 1A doesn't grant you unfettered immunity to the consequences of your speech.

AIUI, the cases in total have awarded nearly $2B cumulative to the plaintiffs. That's a pretty hefty sum. According to Wikipedia, most of it hasn't been paid by Jones. ("By the end of the summer of 2023, Jones had paid nothing to the families" [for $1.5B of the cumulative penalties, 1])

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Jones#Sandy_Hook_Elementa...

> This is a common misconception. This decision was reversed by the Supreme Court.

(IANAL.) Partially overturned. And the existing jurisprudence still seems to say that like the above, you'd be held accountable for your actions. It isn't going to be "you can't say that", it would be something like "your actions (shouting fire, falsely) caused a stampede, and people were trampled, and you're now charged with manslaughter". (The Wikipedia article goes into this, too.)

Re: The Onion buys Infowars

#930

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it has increasingly become a right wing echo chamber and place to promote conspiracy theories. In what way? I still only see the very same industry-focused information that I first started using Twitter for. If anything, X has improved in pulling in information from more industry players than I was seeing before, so I consider it to be an even more compelling product now. But perhaps that same algorithm improvement…

If you use lists, then you probably won't notice that much. However if your looking at the "for you" page, shits just kept on getting more extreme. Just wildly off the deepend scams or abuse. Before you could just filter out that stuff as it was fairly rare. but its just everywhere.

> However if your looking at the "for you" page, shits just kept on getting more extreme.

That's all I ever read. I only follow a small number of people who produce high quality content related to my industry, though. Perhaps that is what primes the "For You" page to say within the same realm and not go off the rails as you suggest?

I'm sure you are right that garbage in, garbage out applies. But why feed it garbage?

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