MS NOW Host Caught Off Guard by New InfoWars Boss’s ‘Boner Pill’ Dig at Alex Jones: ‘I Actually Thought I Misheard You!’

 

The Onion CEO Ben Collins caught his former colleague Stephanie Ruhle a little off guard by casually dropping a “boner pill” dig at Alex Jones after taking over his conspiracy theory-fueled network.

Collins, a former NBC News reporter, joined Ruhle on MS NOW’s Money, Politics, Power on Thursday following the announcement that The Onion will be debuting a parody of Jones’s show this week, as well as paying $100,000 to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

Families of the shooting victims sued Jones, who was ultimately ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages in the defamation case. Jones pushed a conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook shooting was a “hoax” and reports about it included “actors.” He’s since admitted the shooting occurred, but has not paid the families.

The Onion acquired InfoWars at auction in 2024.

“This story is extraordinary,” Ruhle said before bringing on Collins.

She got a bit choked up while reporting on Jones and Sandy Hook.

She said:

Alex Jones’s infamous Infowars website is getting a major rebrand thanks to The Onion. The satirical site, led by CEO Ben Collins, is set to launch a new version of InfoWars tonight at 8 p.m. eastern, with original programming including a parody of Alex Jones’s old show where he spent decades spouting right wing conspiracy theories. Awful ones. It was one of those theories that brought his downfall, a lie that that the Sandy Hook shooting that took the lives…I’m choked up even thinking about it…took the lives of 20 children — they were kindergartners and first graders and six of their teachers. He said the whole thing was staged. This resulted in him losing a defamation case brought forward by the families and owing them $1.5 billion. And tonight, The Onion plans to start compensating those families with an initial payment of more than $100,000.

Collins said the $100,000 is an initial payment and that the plan is to compensate them with more once they physically take over Jones’s studio.

While noting Jones has not paid out any of the $1.5 billion, Collins took a dig at him “basically selling boner pills” and revealed some of his rebrand plans. Jones would often push his own products on his show, which would include everything from toothpaste without fluoride, water filtration systems, and vitamins and various supplements.

Collins said:

We hope to eventually take over that studio and part out that studio and give everything that comes from that studio, you know, to the families so they can make a lot more than $100,000 over time. But the most important thing now we get to do is make fun of the whole empire. This guy made so much money selling basically boner pills on the backs of every American tragedy over the last 10 years. And look, we can do that too, but we’re going to sell some oxygen pills tonight. And everyone, it’s so much effort to breathe, so just take a pill instead.

Ruhle buried her face and cracked up when she heard Collins drop the “boner pill” dig.

“I actually thought I misheard you,” she said. “I thought, he couldn’t have just said boner pills, but of course that’s exactly what you said.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.