Latest / Austin Signal / Infowars site shuts down amid tussle with The Onion

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Infowars site shuts down amid tussle with The Onion · Austin Signal

0:08
A group of civil rights
0:09
organizations filed a new lawsuit
0:11
this week, seeking to stop parts of
0:13
the law that would let state police
0:14
arrest people suspected of illegally
0:16
crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
0:18
More about the law and why it's been
0:20
paused, and the Infowars platform,
0:22
long home to Austin-based conspiracy
0:24
theorist Alex Jones, shut down
0:26
quietly over the weekend.
0:28
It's been a years-long back and
0:29
forth with the satirical publication
0:31
The Onion Over the Property.
0:33
We've got more about those stories
0:34
coming up on today's show.
0:36
The Austin Signal is a production
0:38
of KUT News, hosted by
0:40
Jerry Quijano.
0:42
In Austin, Shakespeare Company is
0:43
starting a new era in town after
0:45
losing their home theater.
0:47
We're going to take you out there.
0:49
And the sounds and impacts from
0:50
Austin's music scene go far
0:52
beyond the city limits.
0:54
Hear more about that coming up next
0:56
here on Austin Signal.
1:08
Howdy out there, you are listening
1:10
to Austin Signal.
1:11
It is Tuesday, May 5th.
1:13
Thank you for joining us.
1:15
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
1:16
You are tuned into community powered
1:18
public radio, KUT
1:20
News.
1:22
Senate Bill 4 is set to take effect
1:23
next week in Texas after being on
1:25
hold for years.
1:26
It's a law that passed in 2023
1:28
making illegal border crossing a
1:30
state level crime.
1:32
But a group of civil rights
1:33
organizations filed a new lawsuit
1:35
this week to stop parts of that law
1:37
from going into effect.
1:39
Joining us to explain is Alejandro
1:41
Serrano, reporter for the Texas
1:42
Tribune covering politics and
1:44
government with a focus on
1:45
immigration policy.
1:47
Alejandro, welcome to the Austin
1:48
Signal.
1:49
Thank you for having me.
1:50
So this law was passed back in 2023.
1:53
Can you remind us exactly what it
1:54
does and how it differs from
1:56
existing federal law?
1:58
Sure. So this was passed during
2:00
a special legislative session and
2:02
it also occurred as
2:04
the number of border crossings were
2:06
hitting record highs.
2:07
As we might remember, the
2:09
state's Republican officials were
2:11
arguing then and still argue that
2:13
that amounted to an invasion and
2:15
they wanted to do something about
2:16
it, as they used to say.
2:18
So they passed this law that
2:20
tried to mirror federal law.
2:23
Of illegal entry into the country
2:25
for crossing the border or re-entry,
2:27
which, you know, trying to cross the
2:28
border again.
2:30
And state lawmakers and
2:32
state lawyers have argued that it
2:33
mirrors federal law, doesn't really
2:34
conflict with it.
2:35
But Biden administration's
2:36
Department of Justice disagreed with
2:38
that.
2:38
But that the government's
2:40
participation ended under the Trump
2:41
administration and that lawsuit,
2:43
the initial lawsuit challenging the
2:44
law came to
2:46
an end a couple of weeks ago, about
2:48
two weeks ago when a judge said that
2:50
initial plaintiffs did not have
2:51
standing. Soon.
2:52
Now we have a new lawsuit.
2:54
Before we move on to the lawsuit
2:55
that this law has been on hold for
2:57
years already.
2:58
Why the pause and what's
3:00
changed now?
3:02
Yeah, so it was paused by a
3:04
lower court, a district judge,
3:06
federal district judge who granted
3:08
an injunction while the case
3:10
went through the legal system.
3:13
But that lawsuit was,
3:14
did not. Ultimately address the
3:17
overall question from plaintiffs
3:19
that say that the state's law
3:20
conflicts with federal immigration
3:22
law. Courts have long held that
3:24
federal immigration enforcement is
3:26
solely the federal government's
3:27
responsibility.
3:28
And this goes back to the
3:29
Constitution and sort of the idea of
3:31
one nation having one set of rules
3:33
when interacting with nations.
3:36
However, last two weeks ago when
3:38
the initial lawsuit was dismissed,
3:40
the court did not really weigh in on
3:42
that issue at all and they instead
3:44
said that the plaintiffs did not
3:45
have standing yet to sue, so the
3:47
overall underpinning
3:50
constitutional question still
3:51
remains unresolved.
3:54
Okay, so back to the lawsuit.
3:56
Who is involved and what are they
3:58
arguing for?
3:59
Yeah, so a group of civil rights
4:01
organizations file this
4:03
lawsuit on behalf of two plaintiffs.
4:07
One of them is a
4:10
lawful permanent resident,
4:13
and the other has a U visa.
4:15
It's a class action lawsuit, so
4:17
they're seeking to represent people
4:18
in the state who might be in
4:20
similar situations.
4:22
They want to stop a couple of
4:23
provisions that are part of this
4:25
law, in particular the re-entry.
4:28
Ones that say if
4:29
a person reenters the country
4:31
illegally, you know, they could be
4:33
prosecuted by the state and
4:36
they want to stop this because
4:37
they're arguing that, you know,
4:39
a person could since get lawful
4:41
status such as a U visa or a green
4:43
card but the state law may not
4:45
recognize that.
4:47
Okay, so where do things go from
4:48
here? What are you watching for
4:50
next?
4:51
Yeah, next we're waiting for a judge
4:52
to weigh in on the matter, see if
4:54
they will continue to pause the law.
4:56
And if not, see how
4:58
law enforcement across the state
4:59
respond to it going into effect.
5:02
Okay, we have been speaking with
5:03
Alejandro Serrano.
5:04
He is a reporter for the Texas
5:05
Tribune. We're gonna have a link to
5:07
his reporting in today's show notes.
5:09
Alejandro, thank you for your time.
5:11
Thank you for having me.
5:21
New developments this week in the
5:22
battle over Infowars.com.
5:25
That's the website once run by
5:26
Austin-based conspiracy theorist
5:28
Alex Jones.
5:29
Over the weekend, the website went
5:30
dark, now displaying a blank page
5:32
with just two words — off
5:34
air.
5:35
It comes as the satirical website
5:37
The Onion has been attempting,
5:39
unsuccessfully so far, to take
5:41
over the domain name.
5:43
KUT's government accountability
5:44
reporter Andrew Weber has been
5:46
following this story, and he is back
5:48
on the show to talk about it.
5:49
Hi, Andrew. Hello, Jerry.
5:50
So, what do we know so far about
5:52
the apparent shutdown of
5:53
InfoWars.com?
5:55
You know, I figured we should just
5:57
let Alex Jones tell
5:59
us for himself.
6:01
So the onion failed to
6:03
get Infowars for the second time
6:05
in a year and a half.
6:07
But the receiver told
6:09
us to get out of the building by
6:11
midnight.
6:13
So they're turning the place off
6:14
that makes the money.
6:16
So that's a video from last week
6:17
that he posted on x.com,
6:20
formerly Twitter.
6:22
It's him outside of his studio in
6:23
South Austin off Stasney basically
6:26
explaining what the
6:28
situation is.
6:29
He's in a bankruptcy case and
6:31
the receiver, which is basically the
6:33
middleman between the parties,
6:35
has said, we're not gonna pay your
6:36
rent anymore.
6:37
So locked him out and he is
6:39
unable to control
6:41
the info wars.com domain.
6:44
And as you've been following this
6:45
story, we've been hearing a lot
6:45
about Infowars and a lot about the
6:47
Onion as well, but this story
6:49
involves a lawsuit from the victims
6:50
of the Sandy Hook school shooting as
6:52
well. Can you tell us a little bit
6:53
of backstory on that?
6:55
Yeah, for years and years,
6:57
Jones regularly called families
7:00
of the Sandy Hook shooting,
7:02
he called them crisis actors,
7:04
and said that this was a sort of
7:06
false flag operation to take
7:07
everybody's guns away, and
7:09
it galvanized a lot of people
7:11
to harass these families.
7:15
Children's graves were,
7:18
a lot terrible stuff happened to
7:20
these folks, so they sued him for
7:22
defamation.
7:23
And judges in Connecticut and Texas
7:25
basically said,
7:27
okay, you're right, this is
7:29
defamation. And he was ordered to
7:30
pay almost $1.5 billion in
7:32
damages.
7:33
So because of that, he declared
7:35
bankruptcy. That's why we are where
7:36
we are right now.
7:38
And so after that, he's
7:40
just sort of kept doing what he's
7:42
doing while this
7:44
all plays out in court.
7:45
And last week there was a hearing
7:46
and I spoke with Mark Bankston,
7:48
who's an attorney for the Sandy Hook
7:49
family. He said it's really
7:51
frustrating that this has gone on
7:53
for so long, that 1.5
7:55
billion ruling was
7:57
from 2022.
7:58
And he said basically this whole
8:00
time, Alex Jones has been able to do
8:01
what he has been doing for 25 years
8:03
and hasn't paid families anything.
8:07
As far as the world is concerned,
8:08
Infowars is dead.
8:09
I think everybody knows that.
8:12
He's trying to keep a bloated corpse
8:14
of a media organization alive in
8:15
these last little bits, but it's all
8:17
a joke. Everybody knows where we're
8:18
going. And I'm sure he's going to
8:20
try to start something new.
8:22
I'm I'm he's gonna try to use every
8:23
trick he can to try dissipate the
8:25
assets of the estate.
8:26
That's what we're doing up here is
8:27
trying to stop all that.
8:29
So can you explain a little bit more
8:30
about how the onion plays into all
8:32
of this saga and is there a chance
8:34
that they're still going to take
8:36
over the side eventually?
8:37
Yeah, yeah, there is a chance.
8:39
I mean, basically this kind of
8:40
started as a bit, like they wanted
8:42
to, they thought, okay,
8:44
what would be the funniest thing
8:45
that we could possibly do?
8:46
And that was Takeover Infowars.
8:48
So they tried to do that in late
8:50
2023 and they've
8:52
been consistently trying to take
8:54
it over with the help of the,
8:56
well, with the cooperation, I should
8:57
say, of the Sandy Hook families.
8:59
They want to take over the site,
9:01
basically skewer Jones for,
9:03
you know, what he's been doing for
9:04
25 years.
9:05
And share
9:06
at least a little bit of the profit
9:08
that they can make with families.
9:11
And that is now sort of up in
9:13
the air. There's gonna be a hearing
9:14
later this month on whether they can
9:16
officially do that.
9:17
But over the weekend, they sort of
9:19
teased what they would do if they
9:20
were to take it over.
9:22
And they got Tim Heidecker, who's a
9:23
comedian, who does just a really
9:25
shockingly good impression of Alex
9:27
Jones.
9:28
He was sort of doing bits.
9:30
He had one bit where he said he was,
9:31
I hope it was fake blood.
9:32
He said he drinking blood in a
9:33
satanic ritual.
9:35
And he also said that he could
9:37
turn listeners' urine
9:39
into gold, which is
9:41
a thing that I didn't think I would
9:42
ever say in the
9:44
course of my duties.
9:45
This is exactly what we created the
9:47
Austin signal for, Andrew.
9:48
Yes, sir. Okay.
9:49
Well, I noticed that even in your
9:51
headline at kut.org it says Alex
9:53
Jones Infowars site has finally shut
9:55
down for now.
9:56
The saga seems to go back and forth
9:58
and back and fourth.
9:59
You think we're coming to a close or
10:01
could we see even more legal
10:02
challenges coming?
10:04
Mark Bankston, the attorney we heard
10:05
just a bit ago, he said,
10:07
I'm really bad at predicting when
10:09
this stuff's gonna end.
10:10
He thought it would be wrapped up by
10:12
now. He did say by the end of
10:14
the year, he hopes that this can
10:15
finally be put to bed.
10:16
There's gonna be a hearing on the
10:18
28th about all of this, whether The
10:19
Onion can officially take over.
10:22
And Bankston said, you know,
10:24
just, he wanted this to
10:26
all end just for the family's sake,
10:27
just because they've already been
10:28
through so much.
10:29
And then this all happened to
10:31
them, and he just, you now, wanted
10:32
to sort of put it to bed
10:34
That is KUT's Government
10:35
Accountability Reporter, Andrew
10:37
Weber. Andrew, thank you.
10:38
Thank you, Jerry. We're gonna have a
10:39
link to his reporting in today's
10:41
show notes, and we're gonna be back
10:42
after this break.
10:44
This is Austin Signal.
10:46
Thank you for tuning in.
10:50
This is Austin Signal, welcome
10:52
back to the show.
10:54
The Austin Shakespeare troupe, The
10:55
Barron's Men, are performing this
10:57
season in a venue that is not
10:59
their long-time home on Lake Austin.
11:01
The Curtain Theater, a replica of
11:04
Shakespeare's Globe Theater, was
11:05
torn down after the property it
11:07
sits on was sold.
11:09
For KUT's Art Beat, Ella Kopeikin
11:11
reports on the group's second
11:13
act.
11:22
The actors commanding the stage at
11:24
the Scottish Rite Theater last
11:25
Thursday looked less like
11:27
the average community theater troupe
11:29
and more like time travelers.
11:31
Pray you, like hand in hand,
11:34
yourselves an orta set, and
11:36
twenty glowworms shall our lanterns
11:38
be, to guy our measures
11:40
round about the tree.
11:42
But stay, I smell
11:44
a man of Middle-earth.
11:46
The play is Shakespeare's Mary
11:48
Wives of Windsor and the players
11:50
are the Baronsmen, Austin's
11:52
only Elizabethan Shakespeare
11:53
company.
11:54
That means that the troupe performs
11:56
Shakespeare according to the
11:57
standards of the late 16th century.
12:00
There are handmade costumes and
12:01
props and simple sets that fit right
12:03
into the style of the time.
12:05
They do however make a couple
12:06
exceptions.
12:07
Women and electricity are allowed.
12:10
Jackie O'Keefe has been a supporter
12:11
of the troupe for three years.
12:13
They are very refreshingly
12:16
open and they feel
12:18
original. They feel like they are
12:20
always inventing it as they go
12:22
along.
12:22
This run at the Scottish Rite marks
12:24
27 years for the Barron's
12:26
Men. It's also the group's first
12:28
time performing in a venue that
12:29
isn't their long-time home, the
12:31
Curtain Theater.
12:32
Last fall, the theater was closed
12:34
and dismantled after a real estate
12:36
developer bought the property it
12:37
sits on.
12:38
Here's Michael Osborne, the director
12:40
of Merry Wives of Windsor.
12:42
He joined the troupe in 2011 and
12:43
currently serves as president of its
12:45
board of directors.
12:46
The Barrensmen have become
12:47
synonymous with the curtain theater,
12:49
so it's kind of an unknown for
12:51
everybody.
12:52
Executive Artistic Director Lindsay
12:54
Polinsky has been with the Baronsmen
12:55
since 2010.
12:57
The Curtain Theater was one
12:58
of North America's only
13:00
wooden-o Elizabethan replica
13:02
outdoor theaters.
13:03
It was purpose-built for the Barons
13:05
Men 20 years ago.
13:06
The original Wood& O was the Globe
13:08
Theater, a rounded amphitheater
13:10
in London where Shakespeare staged
13:12
his plays.
13:13
Over time, the Baronsmen evolved
13:14
from a few friends performing for
13:16
each other into a full-fledged
13:18
theater company.
13:19
They put on two shows a year and
13:20
became a certified 501c3
13:22
non-profit in 2015.
13:24
Here's Michael Osborne again.
13:26
Every bit of money that comes in
13:28
goes right back into the
13:29
organization, into development.
13:31
We do actor workshops and
13:33
we do also a lot of educational
13:35
outreach.
13:36
So we will go out to schools and
13:37
we'll run some scenes.
13:38
We'll do like a little history
13:39
lesson.
13:40
The theater itself grew, too.
13:42
Other organizations began using the
13:44
stage, but the Barron's men remained
13:45
the main residents.
13:47
Then, last year, the troupe
13:49
got news that the land the theater
13:50
was built on would be sold.
13:52
They're like, you can do one more
13:53
show there and then you got to get
13:55
up.
13:55
And that was much to do.
13:57
And it was like one of our biggest
13:58
shows was a wonderful sendoff.
14:00
Lindsay Polinsky directed the final
14:02
show staged at the theater.
14:04
The will-they-won't-they couple
14:05
comedy much ado about nothing.
14:07
The board and artistic directors
14:08
began planning for the next chapter
14:10
of The Barrensmen.
14:12
The goal became building their dream
14:13
theater.
14:14
Our big, you know,
14:16
mood board of grand ideas.
14:17
We want an outdoor theater and we
14:19
want an indoor theater and a
14:20
rehearsal space and locker rooms and
14:22
real bathrooms for the audience.
14:24
You know, after hearing those
14:25
slamming port-a-potty doors for 20
14:27
years.
14:28
In the meantime, the team's main
14:30
focus is keeping their annual
14:31
two-show schedule going.
14:33
You know, at the end of much ado, we
14:34
sort of launched a relocation fund.
14:36
That's a easy peasy donate button
14:38
on our website and we'll
14:40
be putting more concerted efforts
14:42
towards community partnerships
14:44
and we need to
14:46
really look at sustainable
14:48
fundraising for figuring
14:51
out how we can ramp up
14:53
into our growth.
14:55
One of their biggest discoveries has
14:56
been realizing how much fans of the
14:58
troop wanna help.
14:59
Hudson Perma is 15.
15:01
He started coming to the curtain
15:02
three years ago with his family.
15:04
I had been aware of Shakespeare,
15:06
but I never experienced it
15:08
in a proper setting and in a proper
15:10
way. I think that's why I enjoyed
15:12
it so much.
15:13
It just felt very real.
15:15
Hudson and his dad run a local film
15:17
club, the Austin Flick Click.
15:19
It's dedicated to exposing younger
15:21
audiences to classic films.
15:23
After hearing about the curtain's
15:24
closure, he reached out to see if
15:26
there might be a way to use the club
15:27
to raise money and awareness for the
15:29
troupe.
15:29
If they can't have a new theater and
15:31
they can keep doing what they do,
15:33
it's not just a loss of
15:35
art, it is a loss for the community
15:36
and we were like, well we can help
15:38
them.
15:39
The Baronsmen decided to collaborate
15:41
with Hudson for a three-film series
15:43
called To Screen or Not to Screen.
15:45
All proceeds go to the players.
15:47
There's so many good Shakespeare
15:48
film adaptations, so it kind of just
15:50
all fit and locked into place.
15:52
With Mary Wives, another play coming
15:53
up this fall, and the Flick Click
15:55
series, the troupe has officially
15:57
entered its second act.
15:59
We're a 100% volunteer
16:01
run organization.
16:02
We're committed and invested
16:04
in the next 25
16:06
years of The Barrensmen and beyond.
16:08
We hope to build an
16:10
organization that outlives us.
16:12
While the curtain may be gone, the
16:14
Barron's men are here to stay.
16:16
For KUT's Art Beat, I'm Ella
16:18
Copaican in Austin.
16:27
This year's ACL lineup has
16:29
finally dropped, and we're gonna
16:31
tell you who's coming to town in
16:32
just a bit, but the iconic
16:34
Austin TV show turned global
16:36
festival underscores an important
16:37
question that was asked during a
16:39
panel at last weekend's KUT
16:41
Festival.
16:42
The question, why does Austin's
16:44
music scene matter globally?
16:47
Program director for KUTX, Matt
16:48
Riley, posed the question to a panel
16:50
of Austin's music leaders,
16:52
musician Alejandro Rose Garcia.
16:54
Better known as Shaky Graves,
16:57
shared this answer.
16:59
Why?
17:02
I'm not totally sure,
17:05
I have seen the effect of it
17:07
directly being
17:09
born and raised here and
17:11
literally kind of being immersed in
17:14
art in general my entire life
17:16
and it took me
17:18
leaving Austin to kind of realize
17:20
how specific
17:22
and kind of ubiquitous
17:25
music and art and all this culture
17:27
that I kind of take for granted from
17:28
time to time really is.
17:31
And it's always blown my
17:33
mind that kind of no matter where I
17:35
travel, I don't have
17:37
to enunciate
17:39
where I'm from or explain
17:41
anything.
17:42
It's like I'm Austin, Texas, and
17:44
people are like, ah, that's great.
17:46
That's amazing.
17:48
And that's always
17:50
blow me away, and I've realized
17:52
that I've really...
17:54
You know, I've benefited from it in
17:56
ways that I can't even probably
17:58
acknowledge or understand.
18:01
But why is it like that?
18:03
I think it just, I think has to do
18:05
with the kind of
18:07
couple days a year we get like this
18:09
where somebody visits and is like,
18:10
ah, this is wonderful.
18:11
And then they get trapped here
18:12
during the summer.
18:15
And I mean, there's a deep, deep
18:17
community of people that is very
18:19
reflective of this.
18:19
When I walk around and there's
18:21
you know, a band and assless chaps
18:24
playing while there's a little kid
18:25
throwing up.
18:25
We had this discussion.
18:26
I know.
18:27
This is redundant.
18:28
It's redundant.
18:29
They're just chaps chaps are
18:31
assless. It says otherwise their
18:32
pants It's just a good excuse to
18:34
say the word assless, so we'll
18:36
try and work that into other phrases
18:37
just in case this evening
18:40
But yeah, there's like kids throwing
18:42
footballs around there's noise
18:44
rock. There's a
18:46
Republican congressman in there
18:48
trying to have a speech.
18:49
It like It's
18:51
that's pretty that's a pretty damn
18:53
Austin. So I think that all of that
18:55
permeates the
18:59
The vibes here, man,
19:00
and I think that that is
19:02
why the music scene matters,
19:06
because that is an important...
19:07
I think our little corner of the rug
19:09
is important and
19:11
significant. So the underlying
19:12
conditions.
19:13
I think we have a nice assless city
19:15
here in the middle of Texas.
19:18
I don't know if that's the right way
19:19
to put that.
19:20
We'll work on it.
19:21
We've got some time. We're
19:22
spitballing here.
19:25
That was musician Alejandro Rose
19:27
Garcia, better known as
19:29
Shakey Graves.
19:30
He was part of the Why
19:31
Does Austin's Music Scene Matter
19:33
Globally panel that was happening
19:35
during the inaugural KUT
19:37
festival over the weekend.
19:39
The conversation continued on with
19:40
the music leaders talking about
19:42
rethinking the idea of
19:44
selling out as more
19:46
of a necessity, as more support
19:48
from businesses becomes available.
19:50
We're gonna have a link to that
19:51
story in today's show notes
19:53
and you can find more at kut.org
19:55
slash signal.
19:57
And I mentioned the lineup has
19:59
dropped for this year's Austin City
20:00
Limits Music Festival.
20:02
Among the headliners are Charlie
20:03
XCX, Lorde and
20:06
21 Pilots, dozens and dozens
20:08
of others, including Turnstile,
20:10
The Chainsmokers and Geese,
20:12
and lots of local acts as well,
20:14
including the excellent Houston
20:15
Tillotson University Jazz
20:17
Collective.
20:18
Tickets went on sale today.
20:20
Three day passes for each of the
20:22
two weekends start at $365.
20:26
$750 for general admission
20:28
plus a whole lot more.
20:30
Fortunately for you and for me out
20:32
there.
20:32
Future for our future credit
20:34
card bills that is the five figure
20:36
y'all access passes are
20:38
already sold out.
20:40
I was just about to get mine then
20:41
they sold out so maybe
20:43
next year I'll have better luck.
20:45
ACL Fest is coming up October
20:47
2nd to the 4th and 9th to the 10th
20:49
in Silker Park and you can bet your
20:51
bottom dollar we're gonna have lots
20:52
more to share about ACL
20:54
in the months ahead and
20:56
you You can always find more from us
20:58
at KUT.org slash
21:00
signal.
21:01
We are here every weekday afternoon
21:03
at one o'clock on community powered
21:05
public radio.
21:06
This is KUT News.
21:08
I'm your host Jerry Quijano,
21:10
we'll talk to you tomorrow.