Beef producer’s defamation case against ABC News headed to trial

ABC News has lost a bid before South Dakota’s highest court to avoid a trial in a beef producer’s $5.7 billion defamation case over reports about a product that critics call “pink slime.”

P.J. Huffstuter of Reuters reports, “The order signed on Monday by state Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson denied ABC’s petition to appeal a recent ruling letting plaintiff Beef Products Inc (BPI) take its case to a jury.

“In February, Judge Cheryle Gering of the Union County Circuit Court in Elk Point, South Dakota, said ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co, and its reporter Jim Avila must defend against claims that they damaged BPI by referring in a series of reports to BPI’s ‘lean finely textured beef’ product as ‘pink slime.’

“Gering did not rule on the case’s merits, nor did the Supreme Court.

“ABC declined on Wednesday to comment while BPI said in a statement it looked forward to holding the defendants accountable.

“The case is scheduled to go to trial on June 5 and could last eight weeks.

“Lean, finely textured beef is made from beef chunks, including trimmings and exposed to tiny bursts of ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria.”

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