Federal Court Sides with TV Talk Show Host Oprah Winfrey

Wednesday, February 9th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(New Orleans-AP) -- A federal appeals court today is siding with T-V talk show host Oprah Winfrey in her 1998 lawsuit victory against Texas cattle raisers. The Fifth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans says the Oprah Winfrey show "melo-dramatized" the mad cow disease scare. But the court says the 1996 program didn't give false information about it or defame cattle producers.

A federal jury in Amarillo two years ago rejected cattlemen's claims against Winfrey, her production company and vegetarian activist Howard Lyman. The Fifth U-S Circuit upheld that decision. But the court refused to rule on the scope of Texas' "veggie libel" law, which was designed to protect food products from false disparagement