In what he described as an “emergency broadcast” on Saturday, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed that his far-right news company, Infowars’, studios in Austin, Texas, might be shut down by federal authorities soon.

“This is going to be Infowars’ last show, because I learned yesterday that they were going to padlock the door and kick us out last night,” Jones said while on Infowars on Saturday.

On the same day, Friday, May 31, the news outlet published an article saying it might be shut down in 48 hours.

Newsweek contacted Infowars by email on Sunday morning for comment and any evidence of the alleged attempt to shut down the company’s studios.

Jones said that he spotted “guards looking at me weird” at the entrance of the Infowars building and believed that his company was going to be shut down.

Basically, the entire studio has been repossessed, has guards around the perimeter.

You can currently find clips of him breaking down and crying on twitter, and the whole broadcast is viewable on rumble, but I don’t have an x account nor am I going to post a rumble link.

He played out the end of the broadcast with, of course, ‘My Way’ by Sinatra.

  • st3ph3n@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    200
    ·
    6 months ago

    This made the rounds yesterday, but the only source was Jones himself, and nothing appears to have happened. So, yeah, probably just drumming up cash from the rubes.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    144
    ·
    6 months ago
    1. It’s clearly fake crying

    2. It’s probably just a donation push.

    It could be happening, but when the only source of something is Alex Jones, there’s not a reputable source for it

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    132
    ·
    6 months ago

    I heard it’s because they have a child sex ring they’re running out of the basement there.

  • Paprika@lemmy.cafe
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    93
    ·
    6 months ago

    Realistically they are losing the lease on the building they rent and some mediocre recording equipment, maybe some dumb neon signs. He could run his shitty podcast from his bedroom if he wanted to. He’s whining like they are forcing him into silence, but this won’t even cover the teeniest fraction of what he owes the people whose lives he tried to destroy. Fuck him. Way harder.

  • neidu2@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    84
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    It’s worth noting that almost every episode he broadcasts contains “emergency broadcast”. And he’s made claims that he’s about to be arrested/assassinated/disappeared/shut down for well over 20 years at this point.

    Looking forward to the next ep of KnowledgeFight, though.

    EDIT: Sweet, new ep or KF is out!

    EDIT 2: Hoboy, this is a wild one. Even those who normally don’t listen to Knowledge Fight should check this one out (episode #930).

    • PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      6 months ago

      Yeah he does an emergency broadcast at least once a fuckin month. Just like Trump raised over 38 mil after his convictions. It’s all a con job. To take a page from Knowledge Fight, the media really needs to learn how to cover ol’ AJ.

      • Tja@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        6 months ago

        Trump claimed to raise 34, 38 or 52 millions after the conviction. Stop taking his word for anything.

      • mPony@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        6 months ago

        Trump raised over 38 mil

        Ya know, I just don’t believe that claim. Not in the slightest. Why on earth would anyone take anything he or his people say at face value?

      • neidu2@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        But instead the media behaves like nothing was learned during the 2016 campaign. Who would’ve thunk: Clicks, ratings, Oxford comma, and ad revenue are all more important than ethical and non-destructive coverage. And I only agree with one of those.

      • polle@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        6 months ago

        I imagine a permanent police siren sound in the background for the extra tension!

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      6 months ago

      Gotta love a 3.5+ hr podcast. Sounds like the time the Some More News folks did a “brief” look at Jordan Peterson for 3 hours. Good thing I commute 2 hrs a day and listen at 2.5 speed.

      I don’t really understand how channels like these crank out so much content. I wrote a lot of essays in college but I think producing 20000 words every week would just about kill me.

        • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          25
          ·
          6 months ago

          Knowledge Fight thoroughly breaks down Alex Jones’ arguments, he says a lot of bullshit so it takes a lot of time. Also they’re comedians and it’s pretty entertaining.

          Literally the reason the episodes are so long is because of the constant stream of bullshit Alex Jones spews.

          • Good_morning@lemmynsfw.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            6 months ago

            Ohh, I’m so out of the loop I thought knowledge fight was the title of Alex Jones podcast and was wondering what strange corner of Lemmy I stumbled into.

            • body_by_make@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              10
              ·
              6 months ago

              That’s Info Wars, that’s a fair thing to think if you don’t watch Alex Jones much, the title of the Knowledge Fight podcast was intentionally chosen to parody it

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 months ago

      Yeah, doing this right after the Trump conviction just sounds like he’s trying to tap into the RW base’s persecuting complex right now.

      • neidu2@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        He’s been doing that too for years. His rhetoric is very similar to that of Trump in that he claims to be the last bastion of defense against woke commie transgenders. "Support me by buying my crap, and you help me help you against this tyranny "

  • whygohomie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    75
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    For anyone confused about the MAGA-ese: Failure to make payments under Bankruptcy and repo man coming for what’s due = federal government repressing muh rights

    It’s embarrassing how, if you say the magic words, the MAGA brain shuts down and just becomes compliant with anything.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    6 months ago

    “They want us shut down because in bankruptcy and what was happening we have a path with the judge to continue on for years, and the judge has signaled that. So, different groups involved in the bankruptcy that will be exposed soon have literally made a move to shut this place down and end my show,” he added.

    I know that when I’m desperate and worried that something terrible is imminent, I like to hold back a big surprise as a teaser. It helps with ratings. Even though I’m not on tv. The point is, ya gotta juice the moment.

    “I’ve been targeted for abuse. I was duped by someone. Federal files in secret have claimed that I’m committing crimes. This was untrue, of course[…]This may be my final performance.”

    Bar bar bar, blub blurb… Cry for me, Alex. Let me drink your sweet tears.

    Jones received the immediate support of MAGA Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who posted a photo with Jones on X writing: “I stand with Alex Jones.”

    Oh, Margie. You’re such a handful. Tell ya what. Put mirrors on the roof of Allie’s studio to protect it from the Jewy Space Lasers and everything will be ok.

    I’m starting a GoFuckMe for ole’ Alex and Margie to buy some mirrors. Dig deep everyone. We gotta save this bastion of truth and freedumb.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      6 months ago

      Lol yeah, that shit is what made me realize he wasn’t trustworthy even as I was down the rabbit hole he made his money from. It was basically (in the conclusion of a several hour high production video), “The esoteric agenda is that the global elites want to kill off 90%+ of the world population to reduce resource usage. But don’t worry, I have a solution! Just wait for my next video and I’ll tell you all about it!”

      I watched that video a few years after it came out, so looked for that follow-up (thinking the whole time, “isn’t this a bit urgent to wait for the next video? You could just add a few minutes to this one and say it now! Though if you really have a solution and this is really going on, how are you even still alive to say all of this? Also, how are you paying for such a well-produced video?”

      Paranoia pulled me out of that rabbit hole because I concluded at the time that he was either just lying about it all, or if he was right about any of it, he was more likely hired by them to throw people off by adding in bullshit like aliens or lizard people and kill the credibility, as well as keep people who still did believe (or just filtered the obvious bullshit like I did, thinking there was still something of value left over) delayed, waiting for that “next video with the solution”.

      I had no idea at the time that the grift actually generated a lot of cash from donations and selling bullshit brain pills. Hope his empire is really coming to an end here and that this isn’t just another push for more donations (or call to violence).

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          6 months ago

          Yeah, glad I came out but I don’t regret going down that rabbit hole. It was a very informative experience and made 2016 unsurprising. And it informs me the only way they’ll be deprogrammed is if they decide they want to be on their own. No amount of convictions or election losses will convince them otherwise and actually reinforce their narrative that it’s them vs a broken system.

          The fact that Alex Jones was left alone while saying all of that was itself evidence he was full of shit. That’s no longer the case for both Jones and Trump. Same can be said about Hillary, Biden, and son not facing legal “consequences”. For them, the lack of charges against any of them is because the system is broken and corrupt, not because there isn’t any case against them.

          And, of course, it doesn’t help that the system is actually broken and corrupt. It’s not in the ways they think it is, but that played a big role in my willingness to go down that rabbit hole in the first place. And when I came out, I didn’t go back to believing in the world I believed in before I went down. Shit is fucked but MAGA is being manipulated to support making it worse.

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        6 months ago

        and that this isn’t just another push for more donations (or call to violence).

        It’s both. Plus a grift for more money.

  • arc@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    40
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    He’s been saying variations of this shit for years. If you listen to the Knowledge Fight podcast there is scarcely a week when he hasn’t invoked some schtick about how this could be the last broadcast.

    Of course, if this dumpster fire has genuinely stopped paying the bills and the creditors are changing the locks then boo hoo for Jones. I’m sure he’ll weave it as a conspiracy but this asshole has had it coming and then some.

    • Mirshe@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      It’s not creditors - lawyers from his supplement company were attempting to get a bankruptcy judge to shut down InfoWars’ parent company. I don’t fully disagree with a lot of assessments saying this is pretty clearly Jones trying to manufacture a crisis to drum up cash (probably to pay the giant settlement he owes in CT). On the other hand, the judge handling his bankruptcy case is expected to make a decision on whether or not Free Speech Systems will continue operating by the end of next week, so Dan and Jordan may have to find someone else to style on for their podcast.

      And that’s my bright spot.

      • iamtrashman1312@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        6 months ago

        I know they’ve talked about who they’ll do if Jones really does vanish from the public eye but all disrespect to the man: who could fill his role on their show?

        I’m Neo, I’m Leo, I’m Desiax Clarke; I AM THE MYSTERIOUS PROFESSOR

    • itsgoodtobeawake@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 months ago

      Great podcast! I immediately checked to see if they had a new episode after reading this headline, gotta check it out. Thinking the same thing about the fake shutdowns… One of these days he is finally gonna be right tho.

  • rayyy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    6 months ago

    He described it as an “emergency broadcast”. Translation - send money morons, lots of it