It sounds like a headline from The Onion, and in a way, I guess it is.

Now that the satirical news site has won the bankruptcy auction for Alex Jones' website and its assets, the new owners say they plan on relaunching Infowars as a parody of its former self. And The Onion/Infowars (OnionWars?) will have a brand new benefactor and major advertiser when the site relaunches, with Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety signing a multi-year advertising agreement that will also included branded or sponsored content. 

While the alliance between Everytown and The Onion may seem like an odd fit, the two organizations share an interest in curbing gun violence, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. Mr. Feinblatt said that mission was underscored with depressing regularity in the aftermath of mass shootings, when The Onion goes viral with its oft-shared headline: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”

“This was an opportunity for us to give The Onion the facts, the storytelling, the data and the research that’s at our fingertips,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “And for them to give us the creativity of how to turn all of that information into new messaging to a new audience.” 

Mr. Collins said that the relaunched Infowars might publish its own satirical stories that underscored the epidemic of gun violence in America in addition to sponsored content from Everytown.

It's Bloomberg's money and he and Feinblatt can spend it however they want, but other than the opportunity to troll Jones and his fans, I'm not seeing much of an upside for Everytown here. 

The Onion has long had a pro-gun control slant to its satire, so it's not like their version of Infowars was suddenly going to take a pro-Second Amendment point of view. And while Feinblatt says this gives the gun control group a chance to reach a new audience, it's not like Jones' fans are going to stick around. Infowars' new visitors are going to largely be the same folks who are already reading The Onion, and are already on board with Everytown's anti-2A agenda. 

It sounds like Feinblatt wants to turn Infowars into a satirical and snarky version of The Trace; the Everytown-connected "news" site (Feinblatt is both president of Everytown for Gun Safety and The Trace) that regularly partners with outlets like Rolling Stone, USA Today, and The Atlantic. The biggest value of The Trace for the gun control group, though, is its ability to push an anti-gun agenda through mainstream media outlets. That's not gonna be the case for Everytown's involvement with Infowars.

I'm not convinced that there's a need or an audience for a light-hearted and humorous take on infringing on a fundamental civil liberty. It seems to me that they're just paying for a new way to talk to the same crowd that's already on board with their gun control agenda. Then again, I'm not exactly Everytown's primary audience. 

And let's not forget that while anti-gun activists will have a new perch where they can snark and swipe at Second Amendment supporters, they're losing their access and input with the White House. That's a much more important development, and no matter how thrilled Bloomberg and company are with their new partnership, if given a choice they'd much rather keep their relationship with DOJ, ATF, and the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention intact. Everytown's the one partnering with a humor website, but it's Second Amendment organizations who are going to have the last laugh.