The Onion launches second effort to buy notorious conspiracy theory site

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More than a year after its previous attempt fell short, the Onion is again trying to take over Infowars. The satirical publication plans to turn Alex Jones’s conspiracy theory site into a parody of itself. This bid has been given the seal of approval by the families of Sandy Hook victims, who are waiting to collect on a $1.3bn defamation judgement against Jones, and provisionally approved by a Texas court. The tentative deal needs to be signed off by Maya Guerra Gamble, a Texas judge who rejected the Onion’s first effort to acquire the site through a bankruptcy auction. This time the Onion has proposed leasing the site with a view to a future purchase. On Monday, the fictional owner of the Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, promised that the new Infowars would “democratise psychological torture, welcoming brutal and sadistic ideas from everyone, even the very stupidest among us”.

Further reading: Peeling back 40 years of the Onion’s satirical newsroom