Yogurt Company Chobani Sues Alex Jones For Defamation

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo



By KRISTIN SALAKY Published APRIL 24, 2017, 4:17 PM EDT

Chobani, of Greek yogurt fame, is suing conspiracy theorist and InfoWars founder Alex Jones for linking the company’s founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, to an assault that happened at an apartment complex in Idaho, the Idaho Statesman reported Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in Idaho District Court, accuses Jones of publishing false information linking Ulukaya to the 2014 incident of three immigrant boys who sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl in a laundry room. Right-wing sites, including InfoWars, got ahold of the story and included false information in regards to the incident, saying that a rape had occurred and that it was actually a group of men who attacked the girl: the boys were 14, 10 and 7, according to the Idaho Statesman.

InfoWars included Ulukaya in its coverage of the incident, saying that he was importing “migrant rapists” and saying that his practices of hiring refugees brought in high crime and tuberculosis to the area. The suit accuses InfoWars of misrepresenting Chobani’s owner and Chobani’s products.

The suit also claims that Chobani and Ulukaya, who is a Turkish immigrant himself, have asked Jones to take the videos and stories down to no avail. Chobani is asking for damages in excess of $10,000, according to the suit.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chobani-sues-alex-jones

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Read the entire suit at link, above

[Leghorn21]

1. Ten grand??! Oh hell no, Mr. Ulukaya! Ten G's is for a new taillight from a fender-bender

incident, sir!

3 millllllion, please. Start there. Get a bad, baaaad lawyer and make life strange and weird for this Jones motherfucker, for as long as you can. (please)

[AngryAmish]

4. It is called jurisdictional pleading, to keep the case out of small claims.

You ask the jury for a lot more. Every pleading is an admission and if you ask for 100 million, the defense will say you wanted 100 million before any facts were known.

[Leghorn21]

5. Thank you for this explanation, Angry - appreciated! n/t

[mainer]

2. I say $10 million at least. He must protect his good name.

Take down Alex Jones, Mr. Ulukaya.

[Danascot]

3. Oh no!

Now the alt-right will boycott and Chobani will lose sales of maybe 6 cups of yogurt.

[dalton99a]

6. Kick.

[oasis]

7. $10,000? Letting him off light.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Drump's go to news source

[Hortensis]

9. THIS is why the mean right doesn't like Chobani:

Remember? "In April, 2016, Chobani announced it was giving 10 percent of its ownership stake to its employees. Considering there are 2000 employees, this would be on average $150,000 per employee.[11] Some employees will be becoming instant millionaires as a result of this action, because share awards were based on tenure at the company."

Glad to hear this, but I sure hope more than Infowars' sensational lies will be reported in any coverage.

[NickB79]

10. I worked with a guy that worked at the upstate NY Chobani factory

He quit and moved to the Twin Cities, MN, because the factory he worked at there was in the middle of nowhere, and he couldn't stand it. This was around 2014 or so? He didn't stay long at our facility.

I wonder if he ever kicks himself, knowing that if he'd only toughed it out a couple more years he would have been hitting the lottery?

[Hortensis]

12. Oh, dear. Of course he does. Not kick, but the usual "if only"

most of us who've lived for a while have over something in the middle of the night. Hadn't thought of them, but hope he, and others, are the types to blow this off with mostly a shrug and a rueful smile.

[KittyWampus]

11. Chobani's business model is the future if we manage to overcome the oligarchs now.

Profit sharing. Only way to keep people in decent conditions with automation.

[Hortensis]

13. Agree for the most part. We are rapidly approaching a transition

to some sort of universal, or partial U, or, probably, various kinds of income economy.

Jobs don't come first, as right-wing propagandists insist. Consumer demand comes first, then jobs creating products and sales, or profits don't happen. I just wish all the people who are so frightened of the future realized they are, at least in the foreseeable future, indispensable.