First, the good news: The Onion bought Infowars. We’re fucking thrilled about this.
Congrats to our pals over there, who will do magnificent things with a nascent right-wing media empire that peddled harmful conspiracy theories at the expense of grieving parents.
And gang, I’ve never been more happy to lose. (Please shut up with any jokes about my past career in Texas Democratic politics. TOO SOON.)
When we launched The Barbed Wire in August, we didn’t think we’d be picking a fight with Alex Jones in September. But when the opportunity to bid on Infowars arrived, we had to jump into the fight. We raised a few thousand dollars from hundreds of generous supporters. However it became very clear, very soon, that we were going to be outbid by a large margin, and we couldn’t be happier to lose out to our friends at The Onion.
Thankfully, we made space for this! In the event that we didn’t raise enough, we said we’d use whatever we did receive for mockery and progressive journalism. Like we promised, that money has been earmarked for exclusive reporting on far right extremism and disinformation in Texas. Now that the world is even more unhinged, we hope you’ll continue supporting us. Stick around for the ride. It’s gonna be a blast.
