Cattlemen Say Oprah Incited Her Fans

Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey created a “lynch-mob mentality” in her studio audience by making false statements about the beef industry during breaks in an episode last year, lawyers for Texas cattlemen said in opening statements Wednesday.

The cattlemen are suing Winfrey, claiming she cost them millions of dollars by linking beef to mad cow disease during the April 16, 1996, episode.

Defense attorney Charles Babcock told the jury that Winfrey did not make any false statements and that her comments are not to blame for the beef industry’s woes.

Jurors watched edited and uncut versions of the episode after the attorneys’ opening statements. No witnesses were expected to be called until today.

In the episode, vegetarian activist Howard Lyman criticized the practice of feeding processed livestock to cattle, a custom believed to have spread mad cow disease in Europe.

Winfrey responded that his remarks about the cattle-to-cattle feeding “just stopped me cold from eating another burger.”

Plaintiffs’ attorney Joseph Coyne told jurors his side would prove Winfrey made false, defamatory comments about beef makers. “During breaks . . . Winfrey acted as cheerleader and created a lynch-mob mentality among spectators,” Coyne said, drawing an incredulous, wide-eyed look from Winfrey.