Standard News

Hide Advertisement
  • Business
  • Culture
  • News
  • Technology
  • Trending
Site logo
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

‘Pink slime’ maker drops targets in defamation case against ABC

August 24, 2016 | By Reuters
The Beef Products Inc (BPI) facility is pictured in South Sioux City, Nebraska

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Meat processor Beef Products Inc has dropped more than half the defendants from a lawsuit over its allegations that TV network ABC and others defamed a meat filler critics have dubbed “pink slime.”

Advertisement

The company, known as BPI, removed ABC’s news division, reporter David Kerley, two former U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists and a former BPI employee from the lawsuit, according to documents signed by a South Dakota Circuit Court judge on Wednesday.

The ABC network, its former news anchor Diane Sawyer and reporter Jim Avila remain in the case.

Family-owned BPI sued in 2012 over news reports about its “lean finely textured beef” product, a meat filler made from fatty trimmings sprayed with ammonia to kill bacteria.

The lawsuit said they falsely told viewers the product was not safe, not healthy and not even meat, causing BPI to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in profits and roughly half its employees.

A trial on the lawsuit is scheduled to begin in June 2017. Beef Products Inc is seeking $1.2 billion in damages.

Representatives of Walt Disney Co, which owns ABC, could not immediately be reached for comment. Lawyers for ABC, Sawyer, Avila and Kerley also could not immediately be reached.

ABC has previously said the lawsuit is without merit.

BPI voluntarily dropped defendants from the lawsuit “in an effort to streamline and concentrate its case,” Dan Webb, a Winston & Strawn law firm co-chairman representing the company, said in a statement.

The statement called ABC, Sawyer and Avila “the primary targets of the litigation” and said dropping defendants was unrelated to the merits of the case. In particular, it said BPI dismissed ABC News because “ABC is the corporate entity that published the defamatory reports.”

BPI dropped litigation against Gerald Zirnstein, a former USDA microbiologist credited with using the term “pink slime” to describe the beef product. Former USDA employee Carl Custer and former BPI employee Kit Foshee also were dismissed from the lawsuit.

All appeared or were quoted in ABC’s reports.

Bill Marler, a lawyer for Marler Clark who represented Zirnstein and Custer, said they were glad to be out of the lawsuit. “This whole case is an attack on the media’s responsibility to have discussions about controversial topics,” Marler said.

Foshee’s attorney, Steven Sanford of Cadwell Sanford Deibert & Garry, said the dismissal “should have happened a couple years ago.”

The case is Beef Products Inc et al v. American Broadcasting Cos et al, Circuit Court of South Dakota, Union County, No. 12-292.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; editing by Grant McCool)

tagreuters.com2016binary_LYNXNPEC7N1KB-VIEWIMAGE

← Previous Post Next Post →
Advertisement - Continue reading below
Share  On Facebook

The Deadly Dancing Plague Of 1518

Michigan prosecutor charges six in Flint water scandal

Tarzan swings again in screen tale of rescue and revenge

Clinton brother-in-law arrested for DUI in California: police, media

The Myth of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Gun Control

The Haunting Legend of the Water Babies from Pyramid Lake

Obama commutes sentences of 58 non-violent drug convicts

U.S. may seek power to pre-approve self-driving car technology

Florida man sues Samsung, says Galaxy Note 7 exploded

L.A. policemen who shot unarmed black man sue city for discrimination

load more Loading posts...

sidebar

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

sidebar-alt

  • About Us
  • Imprint
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy