The Onion's new parody of Alex Jones' Infowars starts with $100,000 to Sandy Hook families

By — Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-onions-new-parody-of-alex-jones-infowars-starts-with-100000-to-sandy-hook-families Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter The Onion's new parody of Alex Jones' Infowars starts with $100,000 to Sandy Hook families Nation Jul 2, 2026 2:21 PM EDT The satirical news site The Onion isn't waiting to take possession of Infowars to launch a parody of Alex Jones' conspiracy platform. More than a year after first trying to buy Infowars, The Onion on Thursday will debut a send-up under its own website with plans to give some of the revenue to families of the victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. READ MORE: The Onion launches new bid to take control of Alex Jones' Infowars The families have still received no money from Jones since courts ordered him to pay more than $1 billion for falsely calling the 2012 shooting a hoax. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. The Onion will start by sending the families $100,000 from merchandise sales that combine the conspiracy empire's brand with the The Onion's logo in rainbow colors, according to CEO Ben Collins, whose company is still in court trying to take control of Infowars. "Don't give comedy writers a grudge for 18 months," Collins said. READ MORE: Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones' appeal of $1.4 billion defamation judgment in Sandy Hook shooting The parody will include a series of shows and other content under Infowars branding that spoof Jones' aggressive mashup of conspiracies linking major news events, dubious scientific claims, attacks on people suffering in tragedies and sales of supplements and survival gear. Jones' claims that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut is a hoax have no truth, but Jones continued to amplify them. His followers started to harass victims' families, suggesting they were "crisis actors" and even making death threats. Jones' Infowars empire had 10 million visitors a month and generated more than $50 million in annual revenues at its peak, according to the company. But the $1.4 billion judgements in defamation cases in Connecticut and Texas, where Jones is based, forced him into bankruptcy and broke Infowars apart. "All he's been left with is an iPhone and a fancy microphone," said Chris Mattei, an attorney for nine of the Sandy Hook families. Jones has moved his show to a different website. An email sent to an address to request interviews went unanswered. READ MORE: Satirical news site The Onion buys Alex Jones' Infowars at auction The families knew they could never stop Jones from getting his message out, and he has managed to avoid paying the judgement so far. But they could expose what he said and assure he can never profit aga