Chobani Lawsuit Against Alex Jones Is How We Stop Fake News

We can't do anything about fake news, but we can do something about lies.

(Photo by Rommel Demano/Getty Images for Chobani)

(Photo by Rommel Demano/Getty Images for Chobani)

You can’t have the government step in and define “real” news from “fake” news. It doesn’t matter how much of a problem you think fake news is for the country. It doesn’t matter that fake news is used by our geopolitical enemies to influence our democratic elections. The First Amendment cannot and should not abide state actors telling us what kind of news we are allowed to read.

But you can sue the purveyors of fake news to death if you catch them in a lie.

Chobani, makers of Greek yogurt, filed a defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones on Monday. Jones runs popular the fake news website Infowars, and Infowars somehow forms the basis of reality for the President of the United States and people who vote for him.

Chobani claims that Jones published articles and videos that falsely link the company to child rape and a tuberculosis outbreak near its plant in Idaho. (Yes, Greek yogurt is made in Idaho, because globalization is a thing.)

As clear as I can tell, Chobani drew Jones’s ire because it hires refugees. In Inforwars logic that means:

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Before the election, many people would take “stories” of this nature with a grain of salt. It would be laughable to sue over something so stupid, if for no other reason than the Streisand effect would make the stupidity more popular.

But then, somebody brought a gun to Comet Ping Pong looking to bust up a child sex ring. Then, America elected a reality TV show huckster.

We no longer have the luxury of ignoring these idiots, not when these idiots are, in fact, in charge of the country.

Even as we recognize fake news as a clear and present danger to the proper functioning of our polity, fixing the problem is dangerous. Acts of Congress against “fake news” would clearly have a chilling effect on “real news powerful people don’t like.” Google and Facebook can tweak their algorithms, but fake news people are clever at gaming the system. And even if they’re not, I’m not wild about having gigantic corporations telling us what we can see and can’t see.

In the marketplace of ideas, the bad ideas are winning. This is our well-deserved punishment for failing to invest in education.

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We might not be able to do anything about bad ideas. But we can do something about lies. That’s where the Chobani lawsuit comes in. From the Associated Press:

The complaint says Infowars released a video on April 11 describing Chobani’s practice of hiring refugees and a sexual assault case that did not involve the yogurt company.

During the video, an Infowars reporter republished statements that claimed the Chobani plant brought crime and tuberculosis since it opened the plant five years ago while also pointing out previous reports of its willingness to hire refugees in Twin Falls….

“The defendants defamatory statements were designed to cause — and did in fact cause — customers to call for a boycott of Chobani’s products,” the lawsuit stated.

If Peter Theil can sue Gawker out of existence for publishing a true story, certainly Chobani and other companies should be able to sue Infowars for publishing allegedly false stories. The First Amendment does NOT give publishers carte blanche to say anything they want so long as it generates clicks. If you publish something with reckless disregard for the truth, if you do it specifically to hurt somebody’s reputation, that’s illegal. That speech is not protected.

Truth, of course, is a defense to defamation. But just listen to how Jones defends himself, this does not sound like something he ran this by his lawyer. From the Washington Post:

Jones vowed to fight the case, saying it was without merit.

“I’m not backing down, I’m never giving up, I love this,” he said in the recording. “They have jumped the trillion-pound great white shark on this baby.”

For those playing along at home:

“Not backing down” is not a defense to defamation.
“Never giving up” is not a defense to defamation.
“I love this” is not a defense to defamation.

And, just in case there are some Infowars fans reading this article, trillion-pound great white sharks DO NOT EXIST. Adult great whites can weigh as much as 2,400 lbs, which is less than 1,000,000,000,000 lbs.

We don’t need new laws to combat fake news. We need to enforce our existing laws… viciously.

If Chobani did not scour the earth looking for migrant rapists to “import” into Idaho, then they have a “real” case against Alex Jones.

Jones claims that George Soros is somehow behind the Chobani lawsuit. There’s no evidence whatsoever that he is, but dammit, I hope that he is. Any liberal with money should be litigation-financing lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit against fake news organizations.

That’s how you beat them.

Alex Jones Sued By Chobani After Yogurt Maker Says Radio Host Posted Fake Stories [AP]
Chobani sues Alex Jones, saying he falsely linked company to child rape, tuberculosis [Washington Post]


Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.