Amarillo, TX - Talk show host Oprah Winfrey wrapped up three days of testimony Thursday saying she had no "beef with the beef industry" but was unhappy about being sued by Texas cattlemen.
Winfrey again denied any responsibility for a fall in cattle futures prices that followed her April 1996 show on mad cow disease and spawned the lawsuit now nearing the end of its third week in trial.
She completed her testimony Thursday afternoon, but was likely to take the stand again when her lawyers present their side of the case.
The cattlemen say Winfrey's show misled viewers into thinking U.S. beef could be contaminated with mad cow disease, which is blamed in the deaths of at least 20 people in Britain. As a result, cattle prices plummeted and they lost $10 million, their suit charges.
"I am not (anti-beef). I don't have such a warm and fuzzy feeling about cattlemen calling me malicious and a liar and suing me, but I have no beef with the beef industry," Winfrey told the jury.
She said her program was meant only to inform viewers about a possible danger, not to imply that it existed.
A week after the controversial show, Winfrey had a beef industry representative return to the air to reassure the public about the safety of beef. She said she got a letter from the head of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association calling the act "courageous" and therefore described herself as "incredulous" when she was sued.
"I have questioned everyone, including Jesus, about why I'm here," Winfrey said. "We didn't make any false statements."
The U.S. government has said that mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, does not exist in the United States.
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