PREDICTION: Infowars Will Go Down in History as the Next Drudge Report

Infowars is available for purchase. (Alex Jones is sold separately.)

Yesterday, at the behest of a Houston bankruptcy judge, it was determined that the assets of Infowars kingpin Alex Jones will be sold at auction. The proceeds will go to the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims. So far, Jones owes a grand tally of $1.4 billion — with more damages still to be tabulated.

Presumably, Jones’s assets will include the Infowars website, broadcasting equipment, social media accounts, trademarks and copyrights, and its entire catalog of content. That’s ample fodder to launch an alternative media platform ASAP — virtually overnight.

All the infrastructure is right there to hit the ground running.

The “Infowars” brand definitely has financial value: It’s drawn a ton of eyeballs, enjoys vast name recognition, and has successfully sold lots of products. But quantifying its value is tricky: Do you focus on retaining core Infowars fans? Can you steer the site towards a more mainstream direction? Or is the lingering toxicity of Alex Jones a deal-breaker that will always kneecap its long-term growth potential?

It’s kind of an unfair question, because — good or bad — the Infowars brand is the Alex Jones brand. The two are synonymous; they’re inexorably intertwined. So if you value the former, you probably value the latter.

Will someone buy Infowars, hire Alex Jones as its on-air talent, and then try to rebuild the platform? It’s possible. Jones has some deep-pocketed fans and supporters. If you can afford it, why not buy Infowars? It would be a cool passion project.

I suspect, however, that the number of Alex Jones critics greatly dwarfs the number of fans. And the ultimate fate of Infowars will be eerily similar to the fate of the Drudge Report.

At one point, Drudge was the biggest alternative platform in the world. He scooped the mainstream media on the most monumental story of the entire 1990s: the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinski sex scandal. And for the decades that followed, all Drudge had to do was post a link to an article, and traffic would shoot through the stratosphere. 

He was the preeminent kingmaker in independent journalism. Whenever Rush Limbaugh turned on his “ditto-cam,” you’d almost always see his monitor tuned to Drudge.

Today, of course, the Drudge Report is like Southern California: A place we used to visit and enjoy, but it’s gotten so bad that nobody goes there anymore. The Drudge Report has become a zombie-aggregator — an undead, lumbering presence in digital media, coasting on its past laurels, hemorrhaging readers, influence, and credibility.

The Drudge Report is a private company, and private companies keep their financial data private. Fine. But obviously, the site has undergone a profound editorial change: It’s now the most rabidly anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, anti-Republican site anywhere in media! And it’s not like whoever runs it is being subtle about it, either: It’s as in-your-face as you can get. Drudge has become Kamala’s top cheerleader!

Question: Why would an investor purchase a brand like the Drudge Report — a site with an established, successful business model — and then toss that model out the window?

Answer: Because they weren’t primarily motivated by profits. Instead, they bought the site to silence and control their opposition.

I’ve worked with some extremely wealthy people and their motivation isn’t always money. Sometimes it’s ego. Or boredom. Or keeping up with another rich guy. (One billionaire who bought a record label and recording studio told me, “Scott, wanna know the secret to making a small fortune in entertainment? You begin with a big fortune!” But hey, he loved music, so that’s what motivated him.)

After all, money’s for spending.

So that’s my prediction for Infowars: A wealthy leftist will purchase the site. (The money will go to the Sandy Hook families anyway, so it’s not like it would personally enrich Jones. That fact alone makes the transaction more palatable for a leftist.) 

And then, eventually, Infowars will share the same fate as the Drudge Report: A conservative site that anti-conservatives co-opted. For their own personal entertainment — and to antagonize right-wingers, of course — the new owners will let these sites continue to operate until they’ve hemorrhaged so many viewers that it’s just not fun anymore.

The Drudge Report died years ago. At this point, it’s nothing more than a corpse attached to a car battery, jittering and jolting out of instinct. Each day, its last drop of humanity is drained a little further. A similar destiny awaits Infowars: A taxidermized pelt on a liberal’s mantle.