THERE’S A LOT OF MONEY IN THAT PINK SLIME: Disney pays at least $177 million to settle ‘pink slime’ case.

Real news about fake news:

Walt Disney Co paid $177 million, in addition to insurance recoveries, to settle the closely watched “pink slime” defamation case against its ABC network by Beef Products Inc., a quarterly financial report shows.

Privately-held BPI sued American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 2012 for $5.7 billion, saying it and reporter Jim Avila had defamed the company by using the “pink slime” tag, and making errors and omissions in a series of reports that year.

Disney and BPI, which calls the product “lean finely textured beef,” came to an undisclosed settlement in June, 3-1/2 weeks after a trial began in South Dakota, where BPI is based.

Disney reported the settlement of the litigation in a footnote to its financial report, saying it was seeking additional insurance proceeds to recover its cash payment.

The financial tables show a charge of $177 million described as being “in connection with settlement of litigation.” The figure is not directly linked to the “pink slime” case, but the BPI litigation is the only one Disney specifies in the report.

Classical reference, as Ed likes to add, in the headline.