Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – November 15, 2024
Remember Infowars? How about do you remember the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting? Did you know that Alex Jones was sued by the families of the children who were killed for calling the massacre a hoax? And, did you know that judgments for over $1.5 billion for defamation was levied against him?
What’s going to happen to all his assets? What will he do next?
Alex Jones started Infowars in 1999. For 25 years he’s been on the radio and his consistent theme has been extreme right wing politics, a lot of antigovernment sentiment and a lot of conspiracy theories, including that Sandy Hook was a hoax. Apparently, the more he came up with these ludicrous theories, the larger his audience grew as well as his revenues. Up to $80 million in revenues covering a fan base of over 100 radio stations and millions of fans.
Now it sounds like it’s all over. In 2022, Jones filed for bankruptcy. Even though he had an estate upwards of $900 million according to Celebrity Net Worth and down to $14 million claimed by his bankruptcy attorney; $9 million in personal assets and his company Free Speech System (FSS) has $6 million in cash on hand. FSS is the parent company of Infowars.
The Sandy Hook families offered to settle for $85 million. Jones has been dragging his feet on paying while continue to live a lavish life style. Yesterday, Jones has had to deal with the sale of Infowars to, get this, The Onion, a satirical news site. They picked it up yesterday at an auction and the funding was partly from the Sandy Hook families. BUT, Alex Jones immediately took to social media and posted on “X” that the auction was “rigged” and “fake”. The Judge in the case said he had misgivings about how the auction was held. Today’s news explains that the only other bidder, First United American Companies, (FUAC) complained when the bidding process was switched from open bid to silent auction. It bears mentioning that FUAC runs ShopAlexJones.com.
I listened to his loud gravelly voice many years ago and liked that he was pro 2nd Amendment but then the more I listened, the more I thought he was too far out there for my taste. A note, he sold his gun collection among other things to help pay down his debt.
Naturally, Jones wants to be able to continue his radio show, but if the acquisition by The Onion stands, he will most likely not continue on Infowars.
A hearing date has not been set.
