The Onion's Ben Collins finds hope online again

The Onion tried to buy Infowars

Two years ago, after Donald Trump won his second presidential election, The Onion CEO Ben Collins and researcher Kat Abughazaleh decided to try taking over Alex Jones' media empire during what felt like a hopeless…

“Yeah. Nobody else is going to do this.”

The deal fell apart in court

The Onion won the media network in a bankruptcy auction, but a federal judge in Texas struck the deal down. The legal battle is still ongoing.

Collins feels hopeful after midterms

Speaking at WIRED World Fair in Miami on Wednesday, Collins said Democrats' midterm wins changed things. He noted Texas has a new attorney general who might make a different decision about Infowars.

“I want people to feel hope today because things changed last night.”

The Onion is buying a college football bowl

Collins cagily mentioned The Onion's interest in sports during the panel. On Thursday he posted on Bluesky that The Onion is extremely close to buying a Division one college football bowl series bowl game.

“The Onion is extremely close to buying an honest-to-goodness, Division 1 college football bowl series bowl game.”

Satire cuts through the noise

Collins, a former extremism reporter, said satire lets The Onion state things plainly and get to the heart of the matter faster.Many of The Onion's headlines, including almost everything about RFK Jr.

“We don't need three sources to write down the perfect sentence about what's wrong in the United States.”

The internet needs fixing, Collins says

Collins called the current internet a joy vacuum that takes away anything that could be fun.

“You kind of need to find ways to stay sane when things are so messed up.”