The Onion’s Latest Joke: Taking Over Infowars

About this episode

<p>Last Thursday, the satirical newspaper The Onion started its own version of Infowars, the infamous online hub of misinformation created by Alex Jones.</p> <p>The takeover has been years in the making. After Mr. Jones lost two defamation cases, his assets were put up for auction. The Onion took over Infowars and said it planned to convert the site into a parody of itself.</p> <p>Ben Collins, who is the chief executive of The Onion, and the comedian Tim Heidecker talk about what they plan to do with the newly acquired platform and why they pushed so hard to take control of it. </p> <p>Guest:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Ben Collins</strong>, chief executive of The Onion</li> <li><strong>Tim Heidecker</strong>, actor and comedian</li> </ul> <p>Background reading: </p> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/business/infowars-alex-jones-the-onion.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Onion’s plan</a> to take over Infowars.</li> </ul> <p>Photo: Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times</p> <p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>nytimes.com/thedaily</strong></a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p> <p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>