Lean Finely Textured Beef

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…

Apparently the burden of proof rests with MSNBC’s viewers to notice when the cable channel uses incorrect photos. MSNBC’s “News Nation” hyped a Politico hit job of the beef industry on Sept. 10 – but there was a problem with a picture they used to illustrate the “grossness” of lean finely textured beef, which they continued to smear as “pink slime.” MSNBC host and NBC national correspondent…

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…