https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/u...suit.html?_r=0

U.S.
Alex Jones Retracts Chobani Claims to Resolve Lawsuit By CHRISTINE HAUSERMAY 17, 2017

The right-wing radio host Alex Jones in Austin, Tex., in April. Credit Tamir Kalifa/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated PressAlex Jones, a high-profile conspiracy theorist and the host of a right-wing radio show, said Wednesday that he had “mischaracterized” the yogurt company Chobani in statements on social media that led to a lawsuit.In a statement at the end of one of his broadcasts, Mr. Jones said: “During the week of April 10, 2017, certain statements were made on the InfoWars Twitter feed and YouTube channel regarding Chobani L.L.C. that I now understand to be wrong.“The tweets and video have now been retracted and will not be reposted. On behalf of InfoWars, I regret that we mischaracterized Chobani, its employees and the people of Twin Falls, Idaho, the way we did.”

Chobani had filed a lawsuit against Mr. Jones on April 24, claiming that he had posted “false” and “defamatory” news reports about the company and its founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant of Kurdish descent. The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Twin Falls County, Idaho, where the company has a factory, named Mr. Jones and the media companies InfoWars and Free Speech Systems as defendants.The reports — published on April 11 on InfoWars.com, Mr. Jones’s website, and on the Alex Jones Channel on YouTube — said the factory in Idaho, which employs refugees, was connected to the 2016 sexual assault of a child and a rise in tuberculosis cases. The reports were promoted on Twitter under the headline “Idaho Yogurt Maker Caught Importing Migrant Rapists” and were spread widely online.On Wednesday, a Chobani spokesman, Michael Gonda, said in an email, “The case has been resolved.”Lawyers for Mr. Jones did not immediately reply to emails on Wednesday. In a video statement last month after the lawsuit was filed, Mr. Jones said his organization was reporting on the assault case and tuberculosis rates from material that “has been all over mainstream news.”

Chobani started as a yogurt business in upstate New York and expanded to Twin Falls, a city of about 46,500 south of Boise. Mr. Ulukaya became the target of anti-immigrant ire after he stepped up his advocacy for refugees, employing more than 300 of them in his factories and starting a foundation to help migrants.The lawsuit filed by Chobani said Mr. Jones and his companies had declined to remove the reports or publish a retraction despite multiple written demands and noted that Mr. Jones was “no stranger to spurious statements.”It cited his previous contentions that the Sept. 11 attacks were orchestrated by the United States government and that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax concocted by those hostile to the Second Amendment.It was not the first time that Mr. Jones has apologized for his remarks. In March, he apologized for his role in spreading the hoax known as Pizzagate, which featured false claims that top Democratic officials were involved in a child abuse ring centered on Comet Ping Pong, a restaurant in Washington.The restaurant was besieged by threats, and in December, a man drove to the pizzeria from North Carolina and fired a rifle inside. The man, Edgar M. Welch, 28, has pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon and interstate transportation of a firearm and will be sentenced in June.Daniel Victor contributed reporting.A version of this article appears in print on May 18, 2017, on Page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: Prominent Conspiracy Theorist Retracts ‘Wrong’ Claims About a Yogurt Maker. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe