News

BPI: ABC sources weren’t familiar with processing plants

Jurors in Beef Products Incorporated’s defamation suit against ABC News heard that ABC used sources who had never been in a BPI plant, but also that BPI failed to follow guidelines justifying a USDA inspection exemption. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports that BPI general counsel Rich Jochum conceded in court that the USDA revoked its exemption for BPI to skip routine testing.  That happened after the agency learned the company had not followed guidelines used to justify the exemption.

In its reporting, ABC failed to use sources that BPI supplied.  Instead, it relied on sources that had either never been to a BPI plant or hadn’t been in one in a decade.

BPI is suing ABC News for $1.9 billion resulting from a series of reports in 2012 in which ABC frequently referred to BPI’s Lean Finely Textured Beef as “pink slime”.