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November 13, 2024 - 5:00pm
After losing a series of defamation lawsuits over his false claims about the Sandy Hook school shooting, Alex Jones’s Infowars brand is headed to auction today. But this court-ordered sale marks more than just the dismantling of a controversial media platform. It represents a curious moment in American cultural history, where progressives and conservatives could find themselves scrambling to claim the audience of a man who turned late-night conspiracy radio into a multimedia phenomenon.
Jones wasn’t the first to tap into America’s appetite for alternative explanations. He emerged from a distinctly American tradition of paranoid broadcasting, following in the footsteps of Behold a Pale Horse author Bill Cooper, whose “Hour of the Time” broadcast warned of secret societies and Government plots throughout the Nineties, and Art Bell, whose Coast to Coast AM kept insomniacs company with tales of alien visitors and shadow governments. But where these predecessors remained voices in the darkness, Jones dragged conspiracy culture into the mainstream daylight.
His innovation wasn’t in the content — most of his theories were recycled from older sources — but in the delivery. Cooper broadcast from a shack in Arizona until his death in a police shootout. Bell spoke in measured tones about supernatural possibilities. The squat, powerfully-built Jones, by contrast, created a full-throated multimedia experience, complete with props, on-location broadcasts, and an ever-present sense of urgency in projects such as 2000 film Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove, which made his predecessors seem quaint by comparison.
What’s remarkable about the current moment isn’t just Jones’s temporary fall from grace — it’s the rush to fill whatever void he’s leaving behind with the brand. Progressive groups are floating plans to acquire Infowars and transform it into a fact-checking operation, with The Barbed Wire‘s publisher vowing to “unwarp the broken minds of friends and loved ones” and “excise damaging lies from history” (Jones would surely applaud the enthusiasm). Meanwhile, conservative figures speak of preserving the site as a kind of museum for alternative media, perhaps supported by the financial assistance of Elon Musk.
The battle over Infowars’ remains will prove intense. It’s not just about acquiring a website or a customer list — it’s about claiming the attention of an audience that has demonstrated its loyalty and purchasing power. Jones himself seems to understand this better than anyone. Even as Infowars heads to auction, he’s busy setting up new platforms and hinting at mysterious “patriot” buyers who might preserve his role.
After all, like the radio pioneers he followed, Jones has shown remarkable adaptability throughout his career. He evolved from a public access small-timer into a digital media mogul, survived deplatforming from major social networks, reasserted himself on X after Musk restored his account, and maintained his audience’s loyalty even after admitting in court that the Sandy Hook shooting was “100% real”. Now, despite bankruptcy and the loss of his flagship platform, he’s positioning himself for yet another transformation. In an era in which Donald Trump — once a guest on Jones’s show, and another powerful ally to have — has reclaimed the White House despite his own legal troubles, it would be premature to count Jones out.
Today’s auction, then, isn’t really about the end of Infowars or even Jones himself, who will surely continue to find ways of making his voice heard. It’s about the beginning of whatever comes next in America’s long tradition of alternative media. The question isn’t whether someone will fill the space Infowars occupied, but whether anyone can replicate — or perhaps further innovate — the peculiar alchemy that turned late-night questioning of official explanations into a highly profitable operation.
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SubscribeThis is possibly the most intelligent article/analysis from this regular contributor to Unherd.
The alternative media landscape, post-Trump victory, will be something for all of us to keep a close eye on; not least, the msm itself and how it reacts to the changing cultural landscape.
I don’t follow any podcasts or substacks, and from the UK the US media is a foreign country (united by a common language) but it’s of huge interest how this plays out.
I have never listened to Jones, but as a cultural phenomenon it is kinda interesting. Not to be intrusive, where do you get your info besides Unherd?
Good question (not intrusive!) To answer, i’d change the word “info” to something more like ‘a review of the entire cultural landscape’ which includes msm, not least to see what ‘it’s up to’.
I appreciate you may do the same, but that’s what makes Unherd so interesting: the comments from others, and how the often subtle changes to the zeitgeist are navigated.
I’m engaged in the arts field, so gain a lot of feedback from there too, via newsletters, contacts, etc. The thing about the arts is how it reflects the cultural capital of those both producing (includes myself) but also those commissioning and championing, often from an elite platform. I strongly believe that this is what will remain of us, centuries hence (if we survive!!) just as the galleries/museums we visit hints at how the world looked in previous times.
Ultimately, it’s all about our humanity. (Apologies for the lengthy reply.)