Left Wing Group Media Matters ‘Diligently’ Considers Buying — InfoWars? REPORT

Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File

Media Matters for America is considering purchasing InfoWars after a Texas judge ruled the outlet could be liquidated to pay the families of the victims of the 2012 shooting in Sandy Hook, Semafor reported Sunday.

Texas and Connecticut courts found Alex Jones liable for paying the families $1.5 billion in damages for repeatedly claiming the shooting never happened. On Tuesday, judge in Houston ruled that Free Speech Systems, the parent company of InfoWars, could be liquidated and put up for auction.

On Sunday, Semafor reported that multiple liberal and nonprofit organizations are exploring bidding on InfoWars, including the left-leaning media watchdog group, Media Matters.

“We are diligently considering this acquisition,” Angelo Carusone , president of Media Matters, said in a statement to Semafor. Carusone also noted that the organization would consider examining InfoWars archives to see what the outlet has not published.

Carusone concluded, “As we saw with the Tucker tapes, the archives could contain un-broadcasted material that ends up having real news value — not schadenfreude — but actually useful information.”

Semafor also reported that other publications were exploring how to own the conspiracy outlet:

Jeff Rotkoff, the CEO of the new Texas-focused digital publication The Barbed Wire, told Semafor that although he isn’t currently in a position to buy the Austin-based company outright, he was having conversations with people in his network and was seriously considering how the site could partner with other interests or publishers to get in on the bidding. In a brief telephone conversation this week, Rotkoff, who is also the Texas state director of Democratic-aligned super PAC Forward Majority, said that he remembers being baffled while watching Jones on local television decades ago when he was in college in Texas.

“We started The Barbed Wire in part to disrupt the constant stream of conspiracies and disinformation from people like Alex Jones and Joe Rogan, and it would be a step towards justice to use the InfoWars brand to undo some of the damage they’ve caused,” Rotkoff said.

A third current executive at a left-leaning media company said they’d looked into it this week, and an adviser to several progressive nonprofit news organizations said they are speaking with big donors about placing a bid or launching a crowdfunding campaign.

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