Idiotic Medium buys Idiotic Website

latest post from Infowars


Update:

Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts and agency, 11/15/24

Headline:  “Judge orders hearing to review Onion’s purchase of Alex Jones’s InfoWars”

Subhead:  “Judge to audit if conspiracy theorist’s bankruptcy auction was fair, which could delay buying process for satire site”

“On Thursday morning, it was announced that the Onion had bought InfoWars at Jones’s bankruptcy auction.

“But later that day, the judge overseeing Jones’s bankruptcy case held an emergency hearing, during which lawyers representing Jones and a company affiliated with him expressed concerns about the auction process. The judge has ordered an evidentiary hearing for next week to determine if the auction was conducted fairly, which could delay the process.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/the-onion-infowars-bankruptcy

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Article in The Guardian by Anna Betts, 11/14/24

Headline: “The Onion buys rightwing conspiracy theory site Infowars with plans to make it ‘very funny, ‘very stupid’ ”

Subhead:  “Satirical news outlet purchases media platform run by Alex Jones at a court-ordered auction”

“The satirical news outlet The Onion has purchased Infowars, the rightwing media platform run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, at a court-ordered auction.”

“CEO Ben Collins confirmed this in a post on Bluesky on Thursday, writing: ‘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.’ ”

“. . . The sale follows a judge’s order earlier this year for Jones to liquidate his personal assets, to help him to pay off the $1.4bn he was ordered to pay the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators when they took him to court for defamation after he falsely claimed that the shooting was a hoax, and that they were actors who staged the shooting as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/14/onion-info-wars-alex-jones

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Article in Status News by Oliver Darcy, 11/14/24

Headline:  “Not Satire: The Onion acquires Infowars

“As part of the deal, The Onion, owned by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and led by chief executive Ben Collins, acquired Infowars‘ website, product inventory, customers lists, social media accounts, and intellectual property.”

“. . . Owen Shroyer, a popular Infowars personality, expressed disbelief at the news The Onion had acquired the company.

“ ‘It’s almost like a satire of a satire,” Shroyer said on Infowars’ final broadcast. “It’s like a joke of a joke.’ ”

https://www.status.news/p/not-satire-the-onion-acquires-infowars

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Article in Common Dreams by Julia Conley, 11/14/24

Headline:  “Media Justice as The Onion Buys Infowars From ‘Hateful’ (and Bankrupt) Alex Jones”

Subhead:  ” ‘This is going to be our answer to this no-guardrails world where there are no gatekeepers and everything’s kind of insane,’ said the CEO of The Onion.

“In what one journalist called an “insane twist” to the long saga of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ use of his online platform to spread rampant disinformation, satirical newspaper The Onion on Thursday announced it had won an auction to buy Infowars, Jones’ bankrupt publication. ”

“. . . ‘The Onion’s goal with the acquisition is to end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good,’ said the company in a press release, which did not state how much The Onion paid for Infowars. ”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/infowars-auction

 

Media Tiptoe Through the Turnout With Candidate

Article in Daily Kos by Lawrence Lewis, 10/15/24

Headline: “Trump glitches, and of course the legacy media make it seem he improvised a dance party”

“There were a couple medical incidents in an overheated crowd at a Trump rally last night, and Trump started glitching. Steve Benen has a good account, but he’s the exception:

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/lets-just-listen-music-trumps-townhall-event-gets-weird-rcna175449

” . . . We know what the media chorus would have been, had President Biden done something similar.”

“. . . The legacy media are complicit. The only people who can save this republic are us, the voters. So vote! Get every conscious adult you know to vote! This is not a drill!”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/15/2276962/-Trump-glitches-and-of-course-the-legacy-media-make-it-seem-he-improvised-a-dance-party

Journalist Media-Rumor Hurt Presidential Campaign?

The absurd story believed by many about eating cats and dogs isn’t new. Long ago, some media in a frenzy, picked up a fake story during a presidential campaign up and ran with it.

Article by M. Tomoski in The Plaid Zebra May 10, 2016

Headline:   “Hunter S. Thompson once spread a rumor of a presidential candidate’s drug addiction and it was taken seriously”

” ‘Not much has been written about the Ibogaine Effect as a serious factor in the presidential campaign,’ Thompson wrote in an article he later claimed was never meant to be taken at face value. In it, he declares, ‘word leaked out that some of Muskie’s top advisers called in a Brazilian doctor who was said to be treating the candidate with some kind of strange drug.’

“. . . To his credit as an upstanding journalist, Thompson claims he tried his best to question Muskie and even searched the hotel for a Brazilian doctor but was met with obstacles beyond his control.

” ‘I was not able to press the candidate himself for an answer because I was permanently barred from the Muskie campaign after that incident on the Sunshine Special in Florida,’ he wrote, referring to Muskie’s train and a story Rolling Stone had published a few weeks earlier.

“ ‘That crazy son of a bitch got on the train wearing your press badge,’ Thompson recalls another reporter saying. ‘He drank about ten martinis before the train even got moving, then he started abusing people. He cornered some poor bastard from one of the Washington papers . . . ‘

“. . . Hunter had told the man that he could use his press credentials to get a free trip to Miami, but never expected to miss the train himself.

“ ‘About half way through the campaign, I suddenly realized that all these poor bastards out there reading the Rolling Stone believed this madness,’ he said.”

https://theplaidzebra.com/hunter-s-thompson-spread-rumor-presidential-candidates-drug-addiction-taken-seriously/

Newspapers of the Future? Wait . . . The Onion?!

Article in the New York Times by Benjamin Mullin, 8/16/24

Headline: “No Joke: The Onion Thinks Print Is the Future of Media”

Sub-head: “The satirical site is hoping a newspaper with fake stories and fake ads will lead to real money”

“The Onion: ‘Americans Demand New Form of Media to Bridge Entertainment Gap While Looking From Laptop to Phone’

“The Onion will hand out its new print edition next week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — where The Onion is based — though Mr. Collins joked that the publication was not credentialed to cover the event.

“The major influx of influential journalists will make it a perfect opportunity to debut the print edition, said Jordan LaFlure, The Onion’s executive editor.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/business/media/the-onion-print-paper.html?searchResultPosition=1

Right Wing Media Puzzled on Trump’s Selling Bibles!

Picture from the 1973 Paramount movie “Paper Moon”.

Update Headline:  “Trump Made $300,000 for Endorsing Bible, Financial Disclosure Shows”

Article in the New York Times by Shane Goldmacher, Russ Buettner, and Maggie Haberman, 8/15/24

“The Bible is on sale online for $60 with a copy signed by Mr. Trump selling for $1,000. ‘Yes, this is the only Bible endorsed by President Trump!’ the site advertises.”

Headline 3/29/24: “Right-wing media are split over Trump selling $60 “God Bless the USA” Bible”

From a Media Matters article by Justin Horowitz 3/29/24:

http://web.archive.org/web/20240416212423/https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/right-wing-media-are-split-over-trump-selling-60-god-bless-usa-bibles

Alternative Medium Has Good Stuff

Looking for a good source of “alternative” news and “alternative facts”? Truth Social has it all! This article in the New York Times shows us the benefits of subscribing to that site! You’ll find really valuable stuff there, too!

Article in the New York Times by Stuart A. Thompson, 1/27/23

Headline:  On Trump’s Social Network: Ads for Miracle Cures, Scams and Fake Merchandise

Sub-head:  Truth Social, the social network started by former President Donald J. Trump, has struggled to attract large brands.

To explore this special alternative source of media, check out the NYT article!

“Between posts about conspiracy theories and right-wing grievances was an unusual advertisement: a photo of former President Donald J. Trump holding a $1,000 bill made of gold, which he was apparently offering free to supporters.

“But there were a few catches: The bill was not free, it was not made of gold, and it was not offered by Mr. Trump.

“The ad appeared on Truth Social, the right-wing social network started by Mr. Trump in late 2021, one of many pitches from hucksters and fringe marketers dominating the ads on the site.”


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/technology/trump-truth-social-ads.html