Exclusive: How The Onion Finally Shut Up Alex Jones for Good
4/20/202654 min
The notorious conspiracy theorist profited from his vile Sandy Hook conspiracy. Then America's finest (fake) news source decided to troll the world's greatest troll. Ben Collins — who transformed from reporting on the historic Infowars defamation trial to buying out his "ideological enemy" in a Storage Wars-style auction saga — tells Pablo why The Onion committed to the ultimate bit: doing the right thing.
(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsPablo Torre· Host0:00
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're gonna find out what this sound is.
Alex Jones· Soundbite0:06
Oh, we're getting shut down. We've, we beat so many attacks, and, but finally, we're shutting down at the middle of next month.
Pablo Torre· Host0:13
Right after this ad. [upbeat music] I'm really proud of you, what you've done. I'm not kidding. Like, it's really hard to do what you've done here, and it's, uh- Thank you, dude. It's hard to do journalism at all, and you took a-- you bet on yourself, and, uh, you hit the [censored] jackpot, so I'm really proud of you.
Ben Collins· Guest0:33
I think both of us have probably felt this, where it's like, "Man, the bar's real low."
Pablo Torre· Host0:38
[laughs] It sure is. There's nobody, nobody's picking up the phone anymore a- to do any kind of journalism. It's crazy.
Ben Collins· Guest0:44
It, it's a market opportunity- Yeah ... as well as the problem.
Pablo Torre· Host0:48
[laughs] The actual reporters left are the kids who are currently in journalism school, 'cause they're being told, like, old-fashioned tricks on how to do stuff.
Ben Collins· Guest0:55
[laughs] Right.
Pablo Torre· Host0:55
Like, they realize, like, that's actually the thing that's gonna get me a journalism job- Yes ... is, is scoops.
Ben Collins· Guest0:59
It's actually- Information ... breaking [censored] news.
Pablo Torre· Host1:01
Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Ben Collins· Guest1:02
Yeah, I know.
Pablo Torre· Host1:03
What an accurate, descriptive summary of the thing we're here to talk about.
Ben Collins· Guest1:07
Yep.
Pablo Torre· Host1:07
Um, and the, by the way, the exclusive big announcement you're here to make with us here today.
Ben Collins· Guest1:11
Yes, yeah.
Pablo Torre· Host1:12
So thank you- Yeah, of course ... Ben Collins, for doing that. For those who are not familiar with your current job, what is the title that you have?
Ben Collins· Guest1:19
I'm the CEO of Global Tetrahedron. It's primarily a puppy mill. That's where we make most of our money, a clandestine puppy mill. We also print a newspaper called The Onion, which you may have heard of. Um,