Lawyers for ABC News are asking a judge to throw out the billion-dollar defamation suit over its use of the term “pink slime.” The suit was filed in September by South Dakota-based Beef Products Incorporated, which claims the controversy cost it $400-million in profits.
What the network called pink slime, BPI calls lean, finely-textured beef. In filing the motion to dismiss the case, ABC says the term “pink slime” is unflattering but not false and the product was never called unsafe.
BPI is opposing the court action. The company closed three factories that made the product, in Kansas, Texas and Waterloo, Iowa, eliminating some 700 jobs.
Only one plant remains open in South Sioux City, Nebraska.