The Onion’s Bid to Acquire Infowars Has Gotten Messy

There was a merry triumphalism to the announcement last week that The Onion, a satirical outlet based in Chicago, won an auction to acquire the conspiracy site Infowars out of bankruptcy.

The deal seemed done: Infowars went offline; memes of an apoplectic Alex Jones, its founder, sped across social media; and Ben Collins, chief executive of The Onion’s parent company, pronounced the coup “hilarious.”