The George Soros-funded eco-news outlet Grist attacked Beef Products Inc (BPI). In its March 6 blog titled “Pink-slime Maker’s Lawsuit Against ABC Grows Slimier” Grist writer Susie Cagle bashed the company’s lean beef as “uber-gross” and inaccurately described it as “ammonia-soaked.”
Cagle went on to complain that “I’d be bitter, too, if I were Beef Products, Inc.” According to Cagle, a BPI win against ABC would be “chilling for reporting on industrial food,” as opposed to encouraging more professional and accurate news coverage.
The story almost happily reported the company’s revenue drop from “more than $650 million a year to $130 million.” Nowhere in the story was the mention of more than 700 jobs that were lost in the company alone or the more than $500 million in economic damage.
Her post continued the misinformation campaign against BPI. In her explanation of the basis of this lawsuit, she left out the fact that BPI’s complaint started in March 2010 with Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution.” After Oliver’s show, ABC was told about its inaccuracies, long before the 2012 ABC series.
The American Meat Institute did complain to ABC in 2010 after Oliver’s spot on his show where he referred to Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) as “shit” and “not fit for human consumption.” AMI informed ABC that continuing to report on this would be “false and malicious.”
Yet, here we are three years later. ABC not only ignored AMI’s complaint, but it launched a full-throttled attack in March 2012 against BPI and LFTB. In a span of nearly two months, ABC used the term “pink slime” as synonymous with LFTB 137 times on its news broadcasts.
Grist has a history of being over the top. In 2011, it was thrilled by the presence of environmentalists in the Occupy Wall Street protests. Back in 2010, Grist came to the defense of a controversial ad of exploding children, and Grist writer David Roberts charged that America “should have war crimes trials for these bastards” in reference to global warming skeptics.
