A satirical site's coup of Alex Jones' media empire is on pause, at least for now. NPR reports that a Texas appeals court on Wednesday granted the conservative conspiracy theorist's emergency bid to temporarily halt a deal that would let the Onion license the Infowars name and repackage the show as a spoof, leaving the proposed takeover in legal limbo. Users who headed to the Infowars site as of early Friday morning saw nothing but a blank screen and an "Off Air" message. The Onion's move to take over the Infowars site is backed by the families of Sandy Hook victims, who are owed more than $1.3 billion in defamation judgments by Jones after he called the 2012 Connecticut school massacre a hoax.
A court-appointed receiver now controls Jones' assets and, according to Jones, has stopped covering basic costs at Infowars' studio in Austin, Texas, forcing him to relocate and declare Thursday as having been "the last official Infowars show." Jones hailed the appeals ruling as "a massive victory," claiming efforts to shut him down have only fueled interest in Infowars. The Sandy Hook families' lawyers say they're undeterred and "look forward to the Onion's ultimate takeover," calling on Texas courts to move quickly toward what they describe as the "inevitable" shutdown of Infowars. More here from the AP, which reports that a judge has scheduled a new hearing in the matter for May 28.
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