Disney Settles Defamation Case With Beef Products Inc.
Disney "pink slime" lawsuit settled for whopping $177 million
Five years after an infamous ABC News study describing "pink slime" in basis beefiness created a national uproar, the network'south corporate parent Walt Disney (DIS) has settled a defamation case brought by the food visitor that created the product for more than $177 million, the most ever in a corporate legal example of its kind.
Meat processor Beef Products Inc. filed adjust in 2012 charging that ABC's coverage of its product -- officially called "finely textured beef" -- misled consumers into thinking information technology wasn't rubber to eat. After the reports aired, some grocery chains said they would no longer conduct basis beef containing what ABC dubbed "pink slime." Equally a result, sales plummeted from nigh 5 1000000 pounds per week to less than 2 million pounds.
The South Dakota-based company, whose product was used in virtually 70 percent of the nation's footing beefiness, had originally sought equally much as $1.9 billion in damages, an amount that could accept been tripled to $5.7 billion under South Dakota'due south Agricultural Nutrient Production Disparagement Deed, which the company alleged ABC had violated.
Executives from the Burbank, Calif.-based media conglomerate, whose backdrop include ESPN and Walt Disney Earth resorts, settled the instance 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 Law and Ideals Professor at NYU's Graduate School of Journalism, calculation that a trial alone could have cost ABC "a million dollars or more."
"Nosotros forget that these news organizations are corporations -- they have a fiduciary duty to stockholders," he said.
BPI's instance was unusual for several reasons. About 80 per centum of libel and defamation cases go thrown out of court on procedural grounds before they reach a jury. Media companies that make what well-nigh experts would deem "honest mistakes" are typically protected by the First Amendment. However, when the case survives the initial challenges, the odds tilt in favor of the plaintiff against the media companies -- peculiarly those seen every bit having deep pockets.
"They had to exercise a take a chance calculation about what if this thing goes to trial," Glasser said.
The Blob Hogan litigation against the now-defunct Gawker website might take served as a cautionary tale for ABC News.
Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy protection final twelvemonth after losing the case the one-time professional wrestler brought against information technology for publishing a sex activity record featuring him. A Florida jury awarded $140 million in damages to Hogan, who ultimately settled for $31 million through federal defalcation court. Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, whom Gawker had outed as a gay human in earlier coverage, had bankrolled the Hogan case.
Whether the BPI and Gawker cases will take a "spooky effect" on newsrooms is hard to say.
"Aye, in that location is much more public hostility to the media in general," Glasser said, adding that in that location is a "sad trend to say the sky is falling every time a media entity loses a case."
For his office, Glasser doesn't share that pessimism, noting that huge jury verdicts against the media aren't new and that the protections afforded by the Outset Subpoena remain robust.
Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.
Create your free 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 "Disney Settles Defamation Case With Beef Products Inc."
Enregistrer un commentaire