Amarillo, TX - Testimony in the defamation trial of television talk show host Oprah Winfrey has wrapped up for the week with vegetarian activist and co-defendant Howard Lyman taking the stand.
Winfrey is being sued by Texas cattlemen who claim false statements about the safety of beef made on a 1996 program cost them millions. Lyman, a guest on the program, is also named in the suit.
Lyman told the jury that inflammatory statements he made about the safety of beef during the show were his opinion, based on his experience as a former cattle rancher.
Plaintiffs' attorneys tried to get Lyman to admit that he had an agenda to get people to eat less beef when he appeared on the program, which was aired at the height of a "mad cow" disease scare in Great Britain.
Lyman repeatedly said the statements he made on the show were his opinion, and that he felt obligated to present them on the show and let viewers draw their own conclusions.
Other witnesses have testified that many of the claims made on the show were untrue.
Lyman, a former Montana cattle rancher and lobbyist for the beef industry, has become a vegetarian and is an outspoken critic of meat consumption.
When asked whether he felt he had an obligation to present accurate facts on the program, Lyman replied, "I felt I had an obligation to present my opinion."
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