Actress Sued Over Opposition to US Beef

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

A U.S. beef importer filed a 300-million-won ($250,000) compensation suit with a Seoul court against actress Kim Min-sun for allegedly misleading the public into a boycott of their product and damaging sales.

According to the Seoul Southern District Court, A-Meat, which specializes in U.S. beef, filed the suit against the actress, claiming that Kim's comments, along with "twisted reports and comments" made on MBC's investigative program "PD Notebook" about the beef, have caused the company to shut down 47 franchise stores nationwide, inflicting more than 2 billion won in losses.

Amid fierce debates over the Lee Myung-bak government's resumption of U.S. beef imports, Kim posted an article on her Web site in May claiming that she'd "rather drink up potassium cyanide than eat U.S. beef and bones tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy virus." Her comment caused a stir among consumers and is said to have led many other celebrities to speak up against the imports.

"Due to Kim's ignorant comments, people refused to eat U.S. beef. She damaged our business and, furthermore, the 300 billion won domestic market," Park Chang-kyu, the head of A-Meat, reportedly said.

Kim's agent declined to comment on the issue.

Source

Comments

[princess-momo.livejournal.com]

Girl can say what she pleases.

Besides, most of the rest of the world is eating your meat.

[honeebs.livejournal.com]

Deems the breaks free speech.

[albertineroom.livejournal.com]

What a load of bullsh**. Her words weren't the sole reason you lost your franchises, A-Meat, and you know it. =\

[gunsandsmoke.livejournal.com]

beef is so freaking expensive in korea, it's crazy how i kind of take it for granted here. when i was there i had to sneak around my crazy grandmother and treat my 13 and 14-yo boy cousins to meat places like bbq and shabu shabu, they had stars in their eyes lmao (they also practically emptied my wallet omg, boys skinny as hale and can pack away food like kirstie alley)

[dandycat.livejournal.com]

Hell, I'm American and I try to stick to the Australian beef as much as possible.

[nene718.livejournal.com]

Fuck off, U.S. Beef.

You bitches tried to get Oprah too.

[music3chick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought about the Oprah thing too.

[trugeminipnai.livejournal.com]

unless you can prove her wrong, then there's no way you can sue her.

[-ochre.livejournal.com]

lol just, what?

[erbalurbal.livejournal.com]

There is an e.coli recall every year so it makes me afraid to eat the beef as well.

[breathe-ai.livejournal.com]

Another Oprah?

[missklutz16.livejournal.com]

why does america sue everyone all the time? americans seem to find the stupidiest reasons to run to the courts, it's insane.

[dandycat.livejournal.com]

Because in America, nothing is more important than money. Sigh.

[finalfantasyo13.livejournal.com]

damn shame..

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

I'll always be the first to say that America has plenty of faults, but. :\ Come on.

Still lol at the video though. XD

[hater-traitor.livejournal.com]

Korea seems to have a lot of lawsuits too.

[ari-meh.livejournal.com]

what?
that's just stupid.

[chickadork.livejournal.com]

lol reminds me of Story of a Man XD

hopefully not as bad thou O_O

[wackypinkbunny.livejournal.com]

Considering that America has to recall beef sometime every year I wouldn't blame her for being suspicious in eating it.

[ladypurr.livejournal.com]

Actually they can try to get her for libel/slander if she doesn't have a basis for it to back up her words. Opinion is one thing but when she uses her position as a celebrity to cause issues like that, it really is a court case waiting to happen. :/

[spidersky.livejournal.com]

This!

There's a very thin line between free speech and slander when you're a public figure or celebrity.

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

This too.

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

This! Took the words right out of my mouth.

[hater-traitor.livejournal.com]

mte.

[spidersky.livejournal.com]

The whole beef protest (last year? was it that long ago?) was seriously ridiculous. :/

But the shitstorm started with politicians trying to get in office (in much the same way US politicians use buzz words like gay marriage, illegal immigrants, stem cell research, etc. to get people to vote for them), not this actress...though she didn't help.

[cookie-nut.livejournal.com]

Eh, wasn't there pretty good evidence that the beef being exported to South Korea was really bad?

[masturbia.livejournal.com]

FUCK HER

Anyone who paid any attention to the Korean boycott of US Beef knew it was completely bat shit crazy. It's so irresponsible for someone to say something and add fuel to the fire when they have no idea what they are talking about.

The whole boycott was about Mad Cow disease and US Beef, PD Notebook twisted claims about large numbers of Americans dying because of Mad Cow disease which was complete bullshit. Korea even banned American Beef over this shit for awhile. So yeah fuck this bitch.

Done

[finalfantasyo13.livejournal.com]

i lol'd hard irl bb.

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

IDK about other Americans here, but when I go Fridays or something, I'm not giving my hamburger any sidelong glances; I'm eating it. lol

And at home if I'm making spaghetti sauce or something..pop the ground beef into the pan and fry that shit until its a nice brown, cooked thoroughly. That's like food safety 101, right?

[hater-traitor.livejournal.com]

eating Mad Cow tainted beef is insanely rare.

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about how rare it is..I know that improving meat industry practices could make it safer. :\

[hoyah.livejournal.com]

... does freedom of speech not exist over there?

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

I think it's one thing to say he's not happy about it, as opposed to saying, "THIS MEAT IS FOR SURE INFECTED." Because, what, you have your own personal laboratory or something?

Anyway, I personally think it would be better to not import meat if they can raise the livestock on their own, because not only would it help the market from a local standpoint, it would also produce less CO2 in meat transport because it's not being shipped from halfway across the world.

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

Everyone has every right to speak out against something they feel strongly about

Yeah, but see, it becomes another thing if a bunch of celebrities say this. And if the beef companies end up proving that their beef is indeed not infected, then it's not free speech, it's slander (not protected in first amendment). Here is a simple guide..

Free speech: I'm unhappy that US beef is being imported into Korea. There have been cases of disease in their products, and it would be better for our economy if we expanded our own meat market.
Slander: THE MEAT IS INFECTED!!!!1

And I agree with you that they'll probably still make plenty of money, but profit is profit. It's called business. And if someone claims your products are harmful and ruins your sales, when in fact you can prove they aren't harmful at all, I'd say you have the right to sue their ass for slander. *shrug*

And about the lead..it is my understanding that we still import big time from China, so I say that's a weak argument at best. People are not going, "ALL STUFF FROM CHINA CONTAINS POISONOUS AMOUNTS OF LEAD!"

[maisoui.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't mean it to be taken like I was talking down to you or anything, I just felt like I needed to point out the difference for argument's sake.

Anyway, back to this comment just for a second: "Dear world, I apologize on my country's behalf. The USA is obnoxious and speaks before it thinks. I'm sorry." << The whole reason for my comments were just to point out that this isn't obnoxious, there are legitimate business reasons for US beef to take legal action.

It might just be in my area, but once something goes wrong, everything that happens afterwards must be the same.
I guess you could say the same in Korea regarding US beef: once infected, always infected, huh?

More people in my area say that everything that comes out of China is bad.
That's..really sad. :(