Lawsuit details: BPI alleges 200 defamatory statements from ABC

Dan Webb, chairman of Winston & Strawn LLP legal firm, said that he had never seen such a defamatory campaign with the scope, length and amount of people affected as he talked about the $1.2 billion dollar lawsuit that Beef Products Inc. filed against ABC News yesterday. The suit, which is also asking for punitive damages, was filed in the South Dakota circuit court and named American Broadcasting Companies Inc. and ABC News Inc. as defendants, as well as reporters Diane Sawyer, Jim Avila and David Kerley as well as Gerald Zirnstein, Carl Custer and Kit Foshee, all of whom contributed to the alleged defamatory broadcasts.

BPI has counted nearly 200 alleged defamatory statements against the company and its lean, finely textured beef (LFTB), both in televised broadcasts and online reports. The statements were made in the midst of a consumer outcry against LFTB, which critics named “pink slime.” Webb mentioned in a press confreence yesterday that ABC called the product “pink slime” more than 130 times.