Judge orders hearing to review Onion’s purchase of Alex Jones’s InfoWars : politics

[+] _bcron_@lemmy.world 122 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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[–] Kyuuketsuki@lemmy.ml 100 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

"The Onion was the highest bidder[...]"

Literally the point of the suit is that The Onion was not the highest bidder. From the article:

The exact bid amount offered by the Onion for InfoWars remains unknown, but it has been reported it was lower than First United American’s bid of $3.5m.

The victims of Jones decided it was better to get less money and not allow the brand to go to one of his allies to continue the usual operations. They are saying that even though they effectively own the brand, that they don't have the right to choose who it's sold to.

There is only one way this should go, but...

[–] Anti_Face_Weapon@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

But you see, the judge agrees politically with the former content of Info Wars. You should learn to be more sensitive of the feelings of egoist judges! Their job is soooo hard being he backbone of American democracy.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

The Onions winning bid was lower than the other bid.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 10 months ago

Not after 8 families opted to take a smaller cut of the sale.

[–] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So what?

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Auctions are contracts, most of them are beholden to the highest bidder. I am guessing thr lawyers are either being paid to make media waves, or they didn't read the terms of the auction.

[–] originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee 34 points 10 months ago

The auction house specified that they will not necessarily accept only the highest bid

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 61 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Guardian's slow on the news. This was known yesterday.

There were only two bidders, the Onion and a backup bidder. The judge is looking into how the bidding process was run, because the Onion won with a lower bid than the back up bidder.

The Onion’s offer was seen as a better deal because some of the related Sandy Hook families agreed to forgo a portion of the sale proceeds to help pay off Jones’s other creditors.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 36 points 10 months ago

Both article explains that. They used a “credit” given by the Sandy Hooks survivors so that their money from this sale would go to Alex’s other debts first. So it was less money but allocated more beneficially for jones.

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

That is interesting.

[–] superfes@lemmy.world 57 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm comfortable with The Onion owning infowars.

[–] Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago

The quality and integrity of the journalism will only improve.

[–] nao@sh.itjust.works 52 points 10 months ago (3 children)

“No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction.”

What did he mean by that?

[–] whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml 12 points 10 months ago

The way I read it: The judge sees InfoWars as a beacon of hope and truth, and Onion as an anarchist, absurdist fake news site. To him it is like giving away the Federal Reserve to Friedrich Engels as a gift. It just feels wrong. Endlessly funny.

[–] Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

How do feelings even enter into this? They judge is nuts

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

There are going to be a ton of people getting upset now that their source of fake boner pills is getting disrupted.

If there is anything that could trigger a bloody uprising and revolution, it's that.

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Are there laws in the US or courts just act based on how they feel?

[+] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

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[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Liquidation auction efforts, logically, should pursue the option that pays out the most money.

To whom?

The money is going to Jones's victims. The victims seem fine getting less money if it means InfoWars goes to someone who will destroy the brand rather than some conservatives who will pump money into it to further destroy their lives.

Typical American "justice". Only first world country where the death penalty is in vigor because "this is what the victims would want", but when a plaintiff looks like they might actually get a small moral win against fascists suddenly the Law is a dispassionate machine.

[–] booly@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

To whom?

All the creditors, as an entire body.

The victims seem fine getting less money

To be clear, it's only some of the victims that have said they're fine with less money. The trustee has a responsibility to make sure that the creditor body as a whole gets the most money. If some subset of creditors (the families willing to reduce their claims if the Onion buys the assets) are willing to reduce their claims as part of the bid, great, they should add that money to the pile and consider it as part of the bid.

But the families that do agree to take less money can't force the other families to take less money. It has to be voluntary for everyone.

And it sounds like the Jones-affiliated bidder is complaining about the auction procedures. If they followed the already-approved procedures perfectly, there's not much to talk about there. But if they changed the procedures at the last minute, or if the actual auction followed procedures that weren't described in the approved procedures (such as accepting creditors' reduction of their claims as part of the bid, or not allowing "topping bids" after the sealed bids were submitted), then it's normal to hold a hearing to make a decision on whether the auction followed the right procedures.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

Where exactly are you hearing all this? Sources please.

But the trustee who oversaw the auction said he followed the judge’s rules laid out in a September order, which made the overbidding round optional.

The exact bid amount offered by the Onion for InfoWars remains unknown, but it has been reported it was lower than First United American’s bid of $3.5m. The Onion’s offer was seen as a better deal because some of the related Sandy Hook families agreed to forgo a portion of the sale proceeds to help pay off Jones’s other creditors.

It was reported on Thursday that the Onion’s purchase of InfoWars received support from families of Sandy Hook shooting victims, to whom Jones owes $1.4bn in defamation judgments after he falsely claimed the 2012 school massacre was a hoax.

[–] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 25 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The dishonorable judge Griftopher Lopez

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

He seems to be pretty uncomfortable with the results of this auction himself.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

How about you review my fuckin' nuts, your honor.

[–] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

I knew it was too good to be true.

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