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The Onion’s attempt to acquire Infowars, the far-right web site created by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has been blocked by a Texas bankruptcy judge.
The deal was rejected after a two-day hearing, with the court deciding that the auction for Jones’s media assets had not achieved the best bids.
Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion, said on social media on Wednesday morning that he was “deeply disappointed” by the decision, but that the Chicago-based digital media group would “continue to seek a path towards purchasing Infowars in the coming weeks”.
He added that it was disappointing that the process was sent back to the “drawing board with no winner, and no clear path forward for any bidder”.
Infowars was auctioned to pay off settlements to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. Jones owes the families of the victims close to $1bn in damages in defamation verdicts after calling the massacre a hoax.
The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars had been supported by some of the Connecticut families of the Sandy Hook shooting, who were part of the lawsuit against Jones that led to his bankruptcy in 2022.