{"id":504116,"date":"2026-02-25T23:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504116\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T23:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:45:11","slug":"today-in-history-february-26-chat-show-queen-sued-over-burger-remark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504116\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History &#8211; February 26: Chat show queen sued over burger remark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A\ufeffmerican chat show queen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/oprah-winfrey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Oprah Winfrey\">Oprah Winfrey<\/a> on February 26, 1998 emerged the winner in her legal battle over remarks she made about beef burgers.A jury in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Texas\">Texas<\/a>, rejected a $20 million lawsuit brought by cattle farmers who blamed Winfrey&#8217;s popular talk show for a price fall after a segment on food safety that included a discussion about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/national\/us-beef-import-bans-to-australia-lifted-amid-tariff-battles\/40996642-b0be-4352-b065-ea82ed960190\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"mad cow disease\">mad cow disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The legal stoush began in 1996 when animal rights activist Howard Lyman was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode titled Dangerous Food.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/61829923-eae4-4481-bead-4c39f4e3ac06.jpeg\"   alt=\"Oprah Winfrey at season 24 kick-off event for The Oprah Winfrey Show (Tasos Katopodis\/Getty)\"\/>Oprah Winfrey angered the powerful American cattle industry with her remarks about mad cow disease. (Tasos Katopodis\/Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Mad cow disease &#8211; Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) &#8211; was already in the headlines because a UK study showed it was linked with a human brain illness.<\/p>\n<p>Lyman predicted in front of millions of TV viewers there would be a major impact on American beef, prompting Winfrey to declare his remarks &#8220;stopped me cold from eating another burger&#8221;\ufeff.<\/p>\n<p>Within two weeks of the show&#8217;s broadcast, US beef prices collapsed to a 10-year low, with some cattle ranchers blaming Winfrey.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffIn December 1997, a group of executives sued Winfrey and the show&#8217;s producers for defamation, blaming them for lost business mounting to billions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>The beef industry cited the False Disparagement of Perishable Food Products legislation in Texas, which enabled farmers and food companies to silence critics of their products.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/666839a7-10cd-4aca-825a-24632e45b27f.jpeg\"   alt=\"\"\/>An animal rights activist protests during the 1998 defamation case between Oprah Winfrey and the American beef industry. (AP)<\/p>\n<p>But Winfrey refused to take the legal attack lying down.<\/p>\n<p>She moved her entire show to the Texas town of Amarillo where the case was being heard. While a gag order prevented Winfrey from talking about the case on her show, the media circus attracted \ufeffplenty of supporters and animal rights activists.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the court rejected the cattle industry case\ufeff.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffEmerging victorious from the courthouse, Winfrey declared: &#8220;Free speech not only lives, it rocks&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\ufeffmerican chat show queen Oprah Winfrey on February 26, 1998 emerged the winner in her legal battle over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-504116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}