We talked about it. Everyone talked about it. The Onion was going to own Infowars, and gun control activists were going to run anti-gun satire out of the site. It was the biggest middle finger they could think of to Jones, but it would have been one to all of us as well.
Anti-gunners were tickled. Now, they're likely to be just ticked.
See, for all the humor of what happened--and even I thought it was a little funny--it turns out that it's not happening.
Well, more accurately, it might not happen.
Here's what my friend Jeff Charles had to say over at our sister site RedState:
Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez blocked The Onion’s purchase due to flaws in the auction process that failed to maximize returns for creditors, particularly the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.
The judge ruled not only against The Onion’s $7 million bid but also the $3.5 million cash-only offer from First United American Companies, which is affiliated with Jones’ dietary supplements business. “I’m not going to approve the sale to the purchaser. I think there’s a great lack of clarity here,” Lopez said.
The judge argued that court-appointed trustee Christopher Murray, the individual who was in charge of managing the auction, “left a lot of money on the table.”
While Lopez said he had no problem with the makeup of The Onion’s bid and that everyone acted in “good faith,” he believed the trustee “left a lot of money on the table, or potential for a lot of money on the table, potential for a lot of negotiation on the table” because of the auction process and because other bidders did not know about the competing bids. Lopez said the trustee should “scratch and claw” for every last dollar.
Lopez further explained that while Murray acted in good faith in his running of the auction, the proceedings were not transparent and that he should have given First United American Companies another chance to bid on Infowars.
Considering where that money was going, Murray should have tried to get every penny he could. I don't think he acted in good faith, personally. I think he went for the troll, but I've grown to be a tad cynical over the last few years.
The truth of the matter is that I don't actually care all that much about what happens to Infowars. I wasn't a fan before and I'm not likely to become a fan afterward. Alex Jones made a living saying goofy stuff and he'll go right on making a living saying goofy stuff. You're not going to shut him up. He'll just do it somewhere else unless he decides he's done, which doesn't seem likely.
And I find the whole "crisis actor" thing ridiculous. It's insulting to anyone who has lost someone they care about in a mass shooting, which includes me, unfortunately. He called grieving parents actors, said they didn't really lose anyone, and he got punished for his outright lies.
That's fine.
But the problem is that the sale of the site needs to be done as transparently as is humanly possible. The Alex Jones fans are already inclined to see shadows lurking--not without cause, I'm afraid, especially based on the last few years--and transparency will at least protect the buyer from allegations of shady dealings.
As it stands right now, though, the big thing is that the goofy stuff coming out of Infowars won't be anti-gun lies dressed up as satire. At least not as it stands now. Hopefully, that status quo remains, because while it's unlikely an Infowars run by The Onion and pushing an anti-gun agenda would actually tip the needle on anything, it would still be annoying as hell.
