Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on
"After six years, escalating legal fees and a celebrated trial in the heart of Texas cattle country, a federal judge has dismissed a lingering lawsuit accusing Oprah Winfrey of maligning the beef industry," reports the Associated Press. After Winfrey did a show in April 1996 about mad cow disease, a group of Texas cattlemen sued her and vegetarian activist Howard Lyman under the state's "agricultural product disparagement" law. Winfrey beat the cattlemen in a well-publicized federal trial, only to have a second group of cattlemen launch a second lawsuit in Texas state court, forcing her to spend an additional estimated $1 million in legal fees. Now the charade is finally over, after U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson threw out "all claims and causes of action asserted or that could have been asserted" by Cactus Feeding Club Inc. against Winfrey, her production company and Lyman.
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