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BPI files defamation suit against ABC News over LFTB coverage
Story Date: 9/14/2012
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Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 9/13/12
Beef Products Inc. filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against ABC News seeking $1.2 billion in damages for misleading consumers about lean finely textured beef, a company spokesman confirmed to Meatingplace.
The lawsuit was filed in South Dakota, which is where BPI is based.
The reports cited in the lawsuit include those aired on television and online.
A news conference on the lawsuit is scheduled for 10 a.m. Central time today. It will feature BPI lawyer Dan Webb, chairman of the politically connected Chicago law firm of Winston & Strawn, and Craig Letch, the company’s director of Food Safety and Quality Assurance.
That the "pink slime" story incurred economic damage is indisputable. In the wake of coverage on ABC News, on blogs and elsewhere, retailers and processors that used LFTB as a way of lowering the fat content of ground beef stopped buying it. School districts, which were a big market for LFTB, which is used in frozen ground beef patties, placated worried parents by refusing to include it in their purchases for the 2012-13 school year.
In May, BPI shut down production at three of its four production facilities and eliminated dozens of corporate jobs. AFA Foods Inc., based in King of Prussia, Pa., was a major supplier of frozen ground beef patties to school districts and others; the company filed for bankruptcy in April and has been liquidating its assets.
In a statement posted on the ABC News website, from Jeffrey W. Schneider, Senior Vice President, ABC News, the company said, "The lawsuit is without merit. We will contest it vigorously.”
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
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