Disney settles its beef in ABC News defamation lawsuit over 'pink slime' fake news story for well over $177 million!

ABC's derogatory characterization of BPI's lean, textured beef filler as 'Pink Slime'
came back to bite Disney in a very bad way this week
When it rains, it really pours for Mickey Mouse. With all that has happened this week, this has got to be the worst week ever for the Walt Disney Company with disappointing financial disclosures, plummeting share prices and details of a number of lawsuits filed against the House of Mouse.

In a tiny, little financial footnote on the company's lackluster U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing (SEC) on Tuesday, the Walt Disney Company reluctantly had to disclose it paid out more than $177 million "incurred in connection with the settlement of litigation" over the summer, connected to a defamation lawsuit filed by a South Dakota meat processing company, Beef Products Inc. (BPI.)

Beef Products sued ABC TV for more than a $1.9 billion over a controversial 2012 ABC News report on BPI's use of a ground beef filler called lean, finely-textured beef product (LFTB), which ABC derogatorily referred to as "Pink Slime." The processed beef byproduct was widely used as an unlabeled filler in a large portion of the ground beef supply, commonly found in many supermarkets and restaurants across the country before 2012. 


The years-long legal dispute claimed that the 2012 ABC investigative news report misled the public and caused irreparable damage to BPI's business reputation, resulting in a significant loss of income for the South Dakota-based meat-processing company.

ABC News is only one of many mainstream media outlets that is being accused
of reporting 'fake news' with this latest big defamation suit settlement
Although ABC News made it clear in its reports that the so-called "Pink Slime" was not unsafe to eat, BPI claimed that the persistent negative, false and derogatory media coverage of its processed beef product nearly put the beef producing company into bankruptcy, losing a large portion of its clientele, closing a large number of its plants and forcing the company to lay off over 700 workers after the in-depth investigative report first aired on ABC News. 

Disney and ABC TV officials would not comment on the story and would not specify what it exactly spent the $177 million in legal expenditures on, that were filed in the SEC report; however, the attorney representing BPI, Dan Webb, told the press that its settlement with Disney was worth far more than $177 million listed on the SEC filing footnote.


According to Webb, the $177 million figure is only the portion of the settlement that Disney is paying the plaintiffs out of their own pockets. The rest is presumably being paid off by Disney's insurance carrier.


In the current era of "fake news" from the a number of mainstream media outlets and the large awards granted by juries against media outlets for defamation claims, such as the Hulk Hogan case against Gawker, there is deep concern that the Disney settlement could badly tarnish the reputation of an already reeling journalism establishment and establish a dangerous precedent, emboldening others to bring more defamation suits against mainstream media outlets who willfully play loosely with the truth in their news reports.

ABC's settlement with BPI over its 'Pink Slime' story is, without a doubt, a
big black eye on the integrity of journalism from the mainstream media
The two sides apparently reached an undisclosed, confidential out-of-court settlement in June of this year, three weeks into the defamation trial, which was held on BPI's home turf of Elk Point, South Dakota.

While Disney and ABC News insist that they are still standing behind their reporting, there is little doubt, by the humungous sum of the settlement, who exactly emerged as the clear victor in this highly contentious legal dispute. 

Local news reports back in June had already described a jubilant reaction from BPI when the settlement was first announced in the courtroom.

Dan Webb, the attorney representing BPI in court, said that he was "extraordinarily pleased" with the terms of the settlement, although the terms of the agreement were kept under wraps and never publicly disclosed. 


According to Webb, the undisclosed settlement amount, which we know starts at $177 million from Disney own coffers, ranks as the biggest settlement amount ever paid out in a media defamation case in U.S. history.


"Based on all the research we've done, that alone would make it the largest," Webb said in a phone interview with CNN, who themselves have been accused by U.S. President, Donald Trump, of being "Fake News." "As I said at the time, we got an extraordinarily favorable settlement."


Before the ABC News story on "Pink Slime" aired on television, BPI's lean, finely textured beef or LFTB was in about 70 percent of all ground beef sold in supermarkets nationwide, but hardly anyone knew about the secret beef ingredient because it was allowed to be left unlabeled on store refrigerator shelves by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

ABC News has paid a very heavy price for its 'fake news' story on 'Pink Slime'
BPI claimed that after the 2012 ABC News story aired, the sales of their patented beef filler declined from 5 million pounds per week to less than 2 million pounds per week due to overwhelming negative press coverage on their controversial food additive.

Lean, finely textured beef is made from beef trimmings and byproducts left after cattle are butchered and processed at the slaughterhouse.

The BPI byproduct is then processed further to separate out the fat, and ammonia gas is applied to the beef byproduct to kill any remaining bacteria that might cause spoilage or contamination.

Disney, ABC News and its news correspondent Jim Avila were the lone standing defendants left at the time of trial, after ABC anchor Diane Sawyer and a number of U.S. Department of Agriculture officials, who were interviewed on air in the investigative report, were dropped as co-defendants in the case.


Details of any damages that Jim Avila had to pay were not disclosed; however, it may be safe to presume that the party with the deepest pockets (i.e., the Walt Disney Company) likely covered any of his liabilities.


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