Beef Products Inc.

ABC News learned that sliming a company can cost a lot of money. An attorney for Beef Products Inc. told CNN Money, BPI was awarded more than $177 million in the settlement of its defamation lawsuit against ABC because its beef was called “pink slime” by the network.

A case with huge implications for journalists and speech began on June 5, and the three broadcast networks ignored it. Perhaps because it is one of their own — ABC — which is being sued for its biased attacks on one company’s product. The company, Beef Products Inc (BPI), had to close three out of four beef processing plants as revenue dropped 80 percent, following a series of ABC reports…

Lean, finely-textured beef (LFTB), commonly referred to by media outlets as “pink slime,” is “back in demand,” according to Yahoo! News. In 2012, a series of media attacks on LFTB, including several by ABC News, scared grocery stores like Kroger and Safeway and restaurants like McDonald’s away from using the meat product even though it had been safe and approved for use by the USDA for many…

Summer is almost over, but Politico is still ready to throw lean, finely-textured beef back on the fire to cook some more, following ABC’s 2012 roasting of the product and the company that makes it. The Sept. 9 Politico story referred to the beef as “controversial” twice, “scraps” twice, and “the product” six times. It even referred to it as “remnant scraps of cattle carcasses.” The…