“…Jones, for his part, has responded with hostility. On social media and in recent broadcasts, he accused The Onion of trying to “misrepresent him in an attempt to confuse people and defame him.” In a video posted online, he even claimed that the satirical company is trying to steal his identity: “Just because you’re wearing my shirt doesn’t mean you’re me.” The founder of Infowars has vowed to fight the move in court and continue with his regular program, which could lead to further litigation if the deal gets the green light.
Meanwhile, in The Onion, the message blends irony with a fairly concrete plan. In a message signed by the fictional executive Bryce Tetraeder, the company described its vision of Infowars transformed into a deliberately chaotic space, saturated with “ads,” “scams,” and “free radical misinformation” — an exaggeration that seeks to reflect, through absurdity, the current dynamics of the internet. “The InfoWars of old was only the prototype for the hell I know we can build together,” the message states.
The project also includes a creative twist. Comedian Tim Heidecker has been announced as creative director, with the goal of turning the site into a laboratory for experimental comedy. “I just thought it would be just a beautiful joke if we could take this pretty toxic, negative, destructive force of Infowars and rebrand it as this beautiful place for our creativity,” he explained to The New York Times…”