ABC News sued for defamation over "pink slime" reports

[alp227]

Source: Reuters

ABC News was hit with a $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit on Thursday by a South Dakota meat processor that accused it of misleading viewers into believing that a product that critics have dubbed "pink slime" was unsafe.

Beef Products Inc sued over ABC reports in March and April about the company and its "lean finely textured beef." In court papers, the company said ABC falsely told viewers that the beef product was not safe, not healthy, and not even meat.

"The lawsuit is without merit," Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, said in a statement. "We will contest it vigorously." ABC News is a unit of Walt Disney Co.

Beef Products is the largest U.S. producer of lean finely textured beef, a filler made from fatty trimmings. The trimmings are sprayed with ammonia to kill bacteria.

Read more: http://reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/us-usa-beef-pinkslime-lawsuit-idINBRE88C0R720120913

---

If ABC has sharp enough lawyers, this lawsuit will go down like the beef industry's failed lawsuit against Oprah.

[tomm2thumbs]

1. when this gets in front of a jury and more press, their 'meat' is going to look 1,000x worse

They have literally stepped in their own 'slime' and are going to find that sh*t sticks like nothing else does

[valerief]

2. Wow, Disney against Beef. This should be interesting.

[Blue_Tires]

3. Good luck with that shit...

Mickey Mouse didn't get to where he is by backing down in the courtroom...

[marble falls]

4. Pretend its safe. I want to know in what foodstuffs its in so I can make an informed decision ....

if its so damn good, why do ALL the corporations making it and using it shy away from informing the consumers about it? In a country where "Country Time Old Fashioned Lemon-aide" has no bit of lemon in it and has about seven different corn derived products buried in the can.

[Kali]

10. it WAS used in processed beef products

like preformed frozen beef patties and those gross chubs of bargain hamburger. stay away from that crap and have your own roasts ground (or do it yourself) or even the store's fresh hamburger and you will be safe.

even intensively fed/managed beef is pretty damn safe, but if you are really concerned pay the extra for local grassfed http://www.eatwild.com/

oh and the pink slime wasn't unsafe, it was just kind of disgustingly unattractive. wait until the lab grown "meat" hits the market. mmmm mmmm good

[Kali]

22. that was probably the low end crap sold in "chubs"

fresh ground beef - ground at the store itself should not have contained any additives

hence my suggestions if one cares to avoid things like "pink slime" or product sourced from multiple animals and composed of low end scraps and questionable grading. It is all edible - our ancestors knew how to use every scrap as well, this has just elevated it to mass-production. But if you prefer to pay more and only eat the very best, it is fully available. as someone mentioned below, if you are eating $0.99/lb product you are not getting choice steak. It seems pretty obvious. I don't have a problem with it existing, but consumer education/awareness needs to be part of the equation. Would all the purists prefer to just waste that food? There are a lot of people able to afford safe, relatively tasty protein from these methods - and if they are aware of the whole story then they should have the option. Personally I will buy medium grade hot dogs and bologna on occasion, but prefer my ground beef to be from a single animal and ground fresh.

ammonia is not particularly harmful and it beats the hell out of getting sick from bacteria. that does NOT mean I advocate needing a system that uses it, jut that scientific reality is often at odds with esthetics.

I don't have any issue with whistleblower matters - if BPI* was misrepresenting what its product could do they deserve the exposure. The facts are, ammonia as used is not a health hazard, the "slime" IS beef, bacteria do exist and there are ways to avoid or mitigate contamination and illness (including my suggestions for what to purchase and then handling and cooking it properly).



*the issue was BPI representing to other ground beef producers that if they mixed THEIR ammonium hydroxide-treated product with the other producers' product that it would reduce ALL bacterial contamination, not that the "pink slime" bacterial content was high.

[4th law of robotics]

11. It's generally assumed that if you buy hotdogs/ground beef

at 99 cents per pound or less you're getting whatever scraps couldn't be sold in any other form.

Were people expecting Kobe Ribeye in their generic hotdogs?

[former9thward]

5. The success of this suit will depend on what ABC documents show.

Their documents and emails relating to these reports will be deposed. If they ignored facts or arguments that were against what they reported they will be in trouble.

[alp227]

26. Like the failed lawsuit against the Tampa Fox station?

Basically two fired journalists with WTVT lost their lawsuit accusing WTVT of distorting the news. WTVT insisted on including Monsanto's side of the story.

In 1997, Steve Wilson and Jane Akre began work on a story regarding the agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto and recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a milk additive that had been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration but also blamed for a number of health issues. Wilson and Akre planned a four part investigative report on Monsanto's use of rBGH, which prompted Monsanto to write to Roger Ailes, president of Fox News Channel in an attempt to have the report reviewed for bias and because of the "enormous damage that can be done" as a result of the report. [6]

WTVT did not run the report, and later argued in court that the report was not "breakthrough journalism." Wilson and Akre then claimed that Monsanto's actions constituted the news broadcast telling lies, while WTVT countered looking only for fairness. According to Wilson and Akre, they rewrote the report over 80 times over the course of 1997, and WTVT decided to exercise "its option to terminate their employment contracts without cause," [7] and did not renew their contracts in 1998. WTVT later ran a report about Monsanto and rBGH in 1998, and the report included defenses from Monsanto. [8]

After Wilson and Akre's contracts were not renewed, they filed a lawsuit concerning WTVT's "news distortion" under Florida's whistleblower laws, claiming their termination was retaliation for "resisting WTVT's attempts to distort or suppress the BGH story." [9] In a joint statement, Wilson claimed that he and Akre "were repeatedly ordered to go forward and broadcast demonstrably inaccurate and dishonest versions of the story," and "were given those instructions after some very high-level corporate lobbying by Monsanto (the powerful drug company that makes the hormone) and also ... by members of Florida’s dairy and grocery industries." [10] The trial commenced in summer 2000 with a jury dismissing all of the claims brought to trial by Wilson, but siding with one aspect of Akre's complaint, awarding Akre $425000 and agreeing that Akre was a whistleblower because she believed there were violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and because she planned on reporting WTVT to the Federal Communications Commission. Reason magazine, referring to the case, noted that Akre's argument in the trial was that Akre and Wilson believed news distortion occurred, but that they did not have to prove this was the case. [8]

An appeal was filed, and a ruling in February 2003 came down in favor of WTVT, who successfully argued that the FCC policy against falsification was not a "law, rule, or regulation", and so the whistle-blower law did not qualify as the required "law, rule, or regulation" under section 448.102....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTVT#Monsanto_controversy

[former9thward]

28. Yes and no.

Every lawsuit depends on the specific facts involved and the law which applies to it. South Dakota has a specific law allowing libel suits to proceed when its agricultural products are falsely attacked.

[Heather MC]

6. Explaining the process of how pink slime is made

is not defamation, it's truth it's educating the consumer. That's why they mad

[mkultra321]

7. Why, then tell us, do you spray ammonia on a product that is perfectly safe?

Months ago I saw an interview with NYT's Mark Bittman on this very issue. Sick cows, standing in their own filth, sick mainly from being fed a corn diet they can't digest, are more likely to carry ecoli. Ecoli is found in highest concentration near the bone. These bits they centrifuge and soak in ammonia are from trimmings nearest the bone. They soak it in ammonia to avoid mass ecoli outbreaks and the subsequent recalls and negative attention.

[alp227]

8. Good points, and welcome to DU!

[mkultra321]

14. Thanks Alp

Luckily I prefer baptism by fire.

[Kali]

9. say what?

E coli is found in the digestive tract.

[mkultra321]

13. E coli is indeed found in the digestive tract

But, most disgusting I know, e coli via fecal contamination (post digestive tract) is passed through tissue like skin and bone. Cows standing side by side knee deep in the stuff are pretty likely to get salmonella or e coli. Ammonia is then used to neutralize both of those nasties in commercial meat.

[4th law of robotics]

12. More likely to carry E. coli?

You mean like people and cats and dogs and pretty much anything with a digestive tract?

[roz2477]

16. Spam deleted by tkmorris (MIR Team)

[roz2477]

17. Spam deleted by tkmorris (MIR Team)

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. It used to be only used in pet food

Now they can put it in ground beef, up to 15%, WITHOUT LABELING. That's the problem I have with it. I assume my ground beef is GROUND BEEF, not stuff swept up from the slaughterhouse floor and chemically processed. It was approved for human consumption in 2004, during the GW Bush administration.

Hmmmm, aspartame (Nutrasweet) which had been rejected by the FDA many times, was approved during the GW Bush administration. Donald Rumsfeld was a former president of the company that made Nutrasweet.

And fracking used to be much more heavily regulated, until the GW Bush administration. What one of the biggest companies in the fracking industry? Dick Cheney's HALLIBURTON.

See a pattern?

[proverbialwisdom]

24. See 'Halliburton loophole' story.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=halliburton+loophole&oq=halliburton+loophole&gs_l=hp.3..0l7j0i30l3.1081.5468.1.7692.20.14.0.6.6.1.384.3993.2-8j6.14.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.iPxgsRHc-ic&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=4c3c8d4c8b525bee&biw=1957&bih=964

[roz2477]

19. Spam deleted by tkmorris (MIR Team)

[.99center]

20. If this goes to trial

Where will it take place? I'm assuming since BPI's HQ is in Dakota Dunes it will take place in that county and if that's the case it wouldn't matter if Johnie Cochran was defending ABC, finding an unbiased jury will be impossible. They have been working with local business's placing "we stand with BPI" signs through out their buildings, employer's holding workplace meeting's with their employee's for the sole purpose of spreading BPI PR points, and sponsoring picnic's and other events through out the city. People around here have a patriotic view of BPI because of their highly successful PR campaign, I've almost been in fights over asking people the simple question of what's wrong with knowing whats in your food.

[alp227]

21. Yes, in the Union County, SD Circuit Court.

Name of the lawsuit is at the way end of the Reuters article linked. The Big Sioux River separates Dakota Dunes from Nebraska, and I-29 southbound goes straight to Iowa.

[Archae]

23. This is a SLAPP phony lawsuit.

ABC didn't say that pink slime was "unsafe," they just described it as gross, and reported (correctly) that meat makers didn't even have to tell us pink slime was in ground beef.

I'm reminded of when a news agency reported on Food Lion selling expired meat, by altering the expiration date, or putting barbecue sauce on expired chicken.

Food Lion tired to do a SLAPP lawsuit against the news agency, also.

[alp227]

27. That lawsuit was also against ABC, and Food Lion won.

During the court battles between Food Lion and ABC, over 40 hours of unused footage were released that helped Food Lion's case. In the unused footage, two undercover producers are seen trying to encourage violations of company policy; however, employees resisted and correctly followed sanitary practices. [23]

Wikipedia

[Archae]

29. I didn't know about those.

Looks like ABC was creating a story, like when NBC news rigged that truck to explode.

In this case though, the "pink slime" case, I don't see any setups by ABC news. Not yet.

[proverbialwisdom]

25. The lawsuit also targets Gerald Zirnstein, the USDA microbiologist... who gave an interview to ABC.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/abc-news-sued-pink-slime-370126

ABC News Sued for $1.2 Billion Over Report on 'Pink Slime'

10:48 AM PDT 9/13/2012
by Eriq Gardner

Beef manufacturer claims defamation in March report that led to consumer uprising against a processed beef product.

ABC has been hit with a $1.2 billion lawsuit over "pink slime."

Beef Products Inc., a South Dakota-based boneless-lean-beef giant, has sued the network as well as news anchor Diane Sawyer and several correspondents for news reports that allegedly have caused the company harm.

Until March, much of the ground beef in supermarkets, many restaurants and school lunches used a meat product some have called "pink slime," which includes the use of fillers and trimmings, plus ammonia to kill bacteria. Then, ABC featured it, leading to a big consumer backlash

<...>

The lawsuit also targets Gerald Zirnstein, the USDA microbiologist who came up with the term "pink slime" and gave an interview to ABC.

<...>

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