Beef Battle: BPI Lawsuit May Face Challenges - Siouxland News - KMEG 14 and FOX 44

Beef Battle: BPI Lawsuit May Face Challenges

BPI is taking the fight over its lean, finely textured beef to the courtroom, but this lawsuit isn't the first of its kind.

Ken White, a first amendment attorney, says history shows a courtroom win won't be easy.

"There's a history in this particular industry of such lawsuits, the beef industry famously went against Oprah Winfrey with an agricultural defamation suit in the 90's," said White. "That ended very badly for them and very well for Oprah Winfrey."

The company, based out of Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, has allies like Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who says the fight with ABC boils down to a battle of words.

"They used a very pejorative term that churned up all kinds of fear in the minds of people," said Gov. Branstad. "This product, 'LFTB,' is a safe product, there's never been a problem with it. And for this network to do this again, again and again, it did a lot of damage. It put people out of work, it caused a lot of people to shy away from using a safe and lean product."

But, that pejorative term is also one of the major hurdles in this 250 page lawsuit, the fact that BPI says the term "pink slime" is defamatory.

"I think that's going to be very difficult for them to prove," said White. "It's clearly a slogan or a term that's being used as a term of art. It has components that are opinion based and I think it's going to be very difficult for them to clear the first amendment hurdle that reporters can't use that term."

There is also a chance BPI's day in court may not be in South Dakota. White says the lawsuit could end up in Federal Court, a much friendlier setting for ABC.

White did, however, praise BPI for filing an extremely detailed lawsuit.