Dan Gainor, MRC's vice president of business and culture, appeared on "Stossel" with John Stossel on Fox Business Nov. 29, to discuss ABC's crusade against a product called lean finely textured beef (LFTB), which they referred to over and over again by the perjorative: "pink slime."
Gainor said that the company that made LFTB, Beef Products, Inc. (BPI) has received awards for how well they do with "consumer safety."
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Stossel asked if the lawsuit that BPI filed against ABC was just a way of saying "we disagree, so you should just shut up," and whether that should fall under ABC's freedom of speech. "We have a right to be foolish."
Gainor replied that what they did not have was a right to slander or state things wrong. "The reason they've sued, for $1.2 billion ... is because they said 'we told you this was factually incorrect, we told you that you were disparaging our product unfairly.' And what they tried to do, by targeting the supermarkets and all the companies that use the product, they tried to shut them down."
What's the agenda? Gainor said that the agenda is driven by activists who are "pushing against meat, against food in general."
BPI closed three out of four plants due to the ABC news special report.
Stossel began the segment by referring to the ABC investigation as "bunk." to which Gainor added that "bunk" was the polite word for it.
