INTERVIEW: Ben Collins on Infowars' past, present, and future
Ben Collins is CEO of The Onion, the satirical newspaper that bills itself as America's Finest News Source. In 2024, Collins announced that The Onion had acquired Infowars, the longtime flagship brand of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, at bankruptcy auction. However, thanks to a series of higher court stays, the Infowars name remains in legal limbo. This month, The Onion relaunched "Real Infowars" at theonion.info as part of a broader strategy to pressure the courts into unblocking the deal. Josh sat down with Ben Collins to learn about the history of the case, the legal roadblocks that remain in their way, and the longer-term plans to build a comedy network using the brand as a flagship logo.
Comments (11)
More interview content.
Love to see the unionization! #thatsgoodjosh
listen: I'm all for what the onion is doing to destroy every atom of Alex jones but... Ben Collins gives me the mega ick. there's the one line about how "that was the day when my girlfriend lost her primary" - for context, and I'm not an arbiter of relationship gaps, but his girlfriend Kat Abughazaleh - who ran a couple districts from me, whom I supported & donated to, not a hit on her at all - is legit but like... Collins is my age. Abughazaleh is twelve years our junior. they met at work. I've worked in restaurants for way too many years to not think that's an incredibly suspicious age gap & circumstances, it's giving "single father line cook dating recent highschool graduate host." I like the onion, I like Collins' politics, Abughazaleh is a beacon of hope in Illinois politics, but I don't trust men who date that much out of their age bracket.
She was 26 and he was 36? Hardly think you need to be getting in such a twist about them dating. It honestly comes off as super weird on your end. Like she’s very much an adult and has agency too man
If you haven’t already subscribed; the physical paper from The Onion IS fucking awesome
Jim Spanfeller is an herb. Deadspin was a good website. Also it's fun to note that like many awful things, g/o media is a direct result of Peter Thiel existing
I haven't listened to the episode yet but I find what the Knowledge Fight guys said has come true. Making a parody of something that is already a parody of itself only drives traffic back to Alex and keeps him and his shithead friends relevant. That being said hit me with some Leo Zagami any day.
yeah i'll hear the guest out but tbh this infowars takeover stunt seems to be panning out pretty fuckin sadly. i've seen zero mention of it in the wild online, zero good sketches, zero anything outside of their own promotion tbh. for the first time in my life i find myself asking, "is tim heidecker washed?"
Insane that we live in a world where a man can destroy the lives of so many people who's lives were already turned upside down, and come away with negligible repercussions A really bad world The Worst
Hearing that the show joined SAG-AFTRA made me immediately pause and go upgrade my membership tier. Great interview, this shit is so important to cover.
Very good interview. It was a lot more satisfying than the extremely short one the NYT did. 10/10.