Jurors heard the videotaped deposition of A-B-C-TV News Reporter Jim Avila in the defamation lawsuit filed by Beef Products Incorporated against A-B-C Broadcasting and Avila. Avila has been in Elk Point, South Dakota for the entire week and a half of the trial, but his taped deposition was played instead of him taking the witness stand. B-P-I’s attorney Dan Webb questioned Avila over how thoroughly he vetted the credibility of his sources used in his news reports that alleged B-P-I’s lean finely textured beef was not safe and was actually “pink slime’ and not beef. Avila said he didn’t know Gerald Zirnstein, a former U-S-D-A scientist used as a source was a crusader against L-F-T-B. He was asked if that would have made a difference in his report.
Webb asked Avila several times if he thought using “pink slime” to describe a food product was derogatory. Avila hedged and referred to Zirnstein.
B-P-I says in its lawsuit that the reports using the term pink slim led the company to lose 75 percent of its business, forcing them to close three plants that made L-F-T-B. One of the closed plants was in Waterloo. The trial continues in Union County Circuit Court.
