"Pink Slime" Maker Files Defamation Lawsuit Against ABC

By Anthony Todd in Food on Sep 13, 2012 3:00PM

Ah, modern corporate law. After a huge fervor erupted earlier this year over Beef Products Incorporated's ammonium hydroxide-treated beef, sometimes referred to as "pink slime," their sales took a hit. How much of a hit? BPI won't say, but they did have to close down three of the plants that manufactured the product after fast food restaurants and schools across America decided to stop using it. What to do now? Well, they could come up with another product, or try to improve their image. Oh wait, that didn't work. Guess it's time to go to court!

Beef Products Inc. announced yesterday that they were planning to file a defamation suit today, but wouldn't admit who they were suing. Now we know: They are suing ABC.

The lawsuit is for $1.2 billion in damages. BPI claims that all of the damage to its business was caused by 200 defamatory statements on ABC News. They also claim that they lost over 80 percent of their business in just a a month. Jeffrey W. Schneider, Senior Vice President at ABC News released a statement. "The lawsuit is without merit. We will contest it vigorously."

Now, defamation concerns damages made by false statements - in other worse, they are likely going to claim that coining the term "pink slime" was akin to spreading misinformation about their product that caused them financial harm. ABC News has already sent out a press release linking to the many other stories that ran before ABC News picked up the pink slime story. Why did BPI pick ABC to sue? It's not clear.

Here's the interesting thing: truth is a defense to defamation. In order to win, BPI will have to prove that the term "pink slime" is false, in addition to damaging. That's going to be interesting, both given the vagueness of the term (does "slime" have a technical definition?) and the fact that every potential judge and juror in America has probably heard about this stuff in great, disgusting detail already.