ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A federal bankruptcy judge in Houston has tossed out a proposed sale of the conspiracy theory site Infowars to the satirical outlet The Onion. Infowars' owner, Alex Jones, declared bankruptcy after he lost a lawsuit brought by survivors of victims of the Sandy Hook mass killings. He had peddled false claims that the school shooting was staged. The judge says he blocked the sale of Infowars to The Onion because the auction to sell the company was run in a flawed way. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik is here to explain. Hi, David.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Why'd The Onion want to buy Infowars in the first place?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, it's a good question with a kind of wild answer. Let's remember who Alex Jones is. On Infowars, he has hawked so many conspiracy theories, so many of them horrific, over the years. The idea 9/11 was an inside job - it, of course, wasn't. He suggested all kinds of folks could be pedophiles, falsely claimed election fraud in 2020. And he sprayed all kinds of racist and bigoted ideas.
He's also questioned certain mass killings, including, and specifically, Sandy Hook in - the Connecticut elementary school in late 2012. He called that a hoax. He said the victims and survivors were just actors. Let's remind listeners - 20 children and 60 educator - excuse me, and six educators and staffers were killed at that elementary school. He was ordered after defamation suits to pay about a billion dollars to families.
So the site has gone to the block to help give some money toward that - those payments. The satirical site The Onion wants to buy it to run it to make fun of Jones and undermine him, but also to run it in concert with an activist group that will promote gun control. And that - their bid has been boosted by Sandy Hook families agreeing to forego some of the money that they would otherwise be entitled to.
SHAPIRO: So why did the bankruptcy judge, Christopher Lopez, object to that?
FOLKENFLIK: So the court appointed a trustee to oversee this, and he decided to do an auction. At a certain point, he said, I want your sealed best and final bid to bidders. The Onion's offered what seemed to be the best one, beating another offer from an associate of Alex Jones who runs a site that hawks nutritional supplements for Jones. The judge says he's not opposed to The Onion winning but argued that if the trustee hadn't sealed the bids, the Jones associate or others might have had a chance to up their offer to give the highest offer - dollar offer - and said, look, the trustee left money on the table here. And so, right now, Infowars is effectively back on the block.
SHAPIRO: And so what happens to it?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, I got to be honest, Ari - it's a little unclear. It may well go back to the bidding. He sent it back to the trustee. He doesn't think the trustee did anything in bad faith but said, look, it's possible other suitors may emerge. The Onion, its - the CEO of its parent company says it's in it for the long haul and hopes and intends, ultimately, to take control of it as it intended.
There was no comment from Jones' attorney. He recently questioned why The Onion's offer would beat one that is seemingly twice the dollar figure. Remember, the families agreed to take less money and to leave some on the table in order to boost the effective value of what The Onion was bidding. And I'll - got to tell you that Alex Jones himself has proclaimed this judgment to be a ruling in favor of free speech and allowing, you know, Infowars to keep on.
SHAPIRO: And so are Alex Jones and Infowars still on the air?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, that's exactly right. So what you have right now is a circumstance - despite the bankruptcy that led him to have to allow the courts to dictate that it be put up for sale, despite the findings that he defamed people through these horrible, horrible statements - he is still on the air, making all kinds of - maybe not identical statements, but wild and spurious claims. Presumably, someone else will end up owning this - possibly The Onion, perhaps, in some setting, if Jones' associate can get more money, Jones himself. And yet, regardless of what happens, I think we have to recognize that Jones himself will be expected to broadcast or stream on other sites after that's done. After all, he hasn't forfeited his First Amendment rights in which he'll be peddling the same kinds of fraudulent claims.
SHAPIRO: That's NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thank you.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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