Abc News Vs Beef Products Inc Lawsuit
Disney "pink slime" lawsuit settled for whopping $177 million
Five years after an infamous ABC News written report describing "pink slime" in ground beef created a national uproar, the network's corporate parent Walt Disney (DIS) has settled a defamation case brought past the food company that created the production for more than $177 one thousand thousand, the most ever in a corporate legal instance of its kind.
Meat processor Beef Products Inc. filed arrange in 2012 charging that ABC's coverage of its production -- officially called "finely textured beef" -- misled consumers into thinking it wasn't prophylactic to swallow. After the reports aired, some grocery chains said they would no longer carry footing beefiness containing what ABC dubbed "pink slime." Every bit a result, sales plummeted from about 5 million pounds per calendar week to less than ii million pounds.
The S Dakota-based company, whose product was used in about 70 percent of the nation'due south basis beef, had originally sought as much as $1.nine billion in damages, an amount that could have been tripled to $v.7 billion under South Dakota's Agricultural Food Product Disparagement Act, which the company alleged ABC had violated.
Executives from the Burbank, Calif.-based media conglomerate, whose properties include ESPN and Walt Disney World resorts, settled the case with BPI in June. Disney disclosed the legal costs associated with the litigation when it reported earnings Thursday. Terms of the settlement, though, were confidential.
"ABC was hemorrhaging legal costs," said Charles Glasser, a media lawyer and a Media Police force and Ethics Professor at NYU's Graduate School of Journalism, adding that a trial alone could have cost ABC "a 1000000 dollars or more than."
"We forget that these news organizations are corporations -- they have a fiduciary duty to stockholders," he said.
BPI's case was unusual for several reasons. About 80 pct of libel and defamation cases become thrown out of court on procedural grounds before they reach a jury. Media companies that brand what almost experts would deem "honest mistakes" are typically protected by the Offset Amendment. However, when the case survives the initial challenges, the odds tilt in favor of the plaintiff confronting the media companies -- especially those seen as having deep pockets.
"They had to do a chance calculation well-nigh what if this thing goes to trial," Glasser said.
The Hulk Hogan litigation against the now-defunct Gawker website might accept served every bit a cautionary tale for ABC News.
Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy protection terminal year after losing the case the former professional wrestler brought against information technology for publishing a sexual activity tape featuring him. A Florida jury awarded $140 million in amercement to Hogan, who ultimately settled for $31 one thousand thousand through federal bankruptcy courtroom. Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, whom Gawker had outed as a gay man in before coverage, had bankrolled the Hogan case.
Whether the BPI and Gawker cases will have a "chilling effect" on newsrooms is hard to say.
"Yes, there is much more public hostility to the media in full general," Glasser said, adding that at that place is a "sad tendency to say the sky is falling every time a media entity loses a case."
For his part, Glasser doesn't share that pessimism, noting that huge jury verdicts against the media aren't new and that the protections afforded by the Starting time Amendment remain robust.
Cheers for reading CBS NEWS.
Create your gratis account or log in
for more than features.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/disney-pink-slime-lawsuit-settled-for-177-million-abc-news/
0 Response to "Abc News Vs Beef Products Inc Lawsuit"
Post a Comment