Dr. Gary Weber, a spokesman for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association was also on that show and reassured Winfrey and her audience, saying, "...we've got ten years of data, the best scientists in the world who are looking for this, over 250 trained technicians and veterinarians around the country. Everyone's watching for this. Everyone would like to, in a way, want to find this if it is there because they want to protect our industry and, of course, the public."

Stock for beef plummeted soon after the program and Texas cattlemen brought Winfrey and her guest, Lyman, to court under food disparagement laws. But in 1998 the jury acquitted them. They were taken to court again and finally acquitted in 2002.

Outside the court after the verdict of the first trial, Winfrey declared, "Free speech not only lives ... it rocks. She also added, "I have come from people who have struggled and died to have a voice in this country and I refuse to be muzzled."

Yet in 2003, when the downer cow was discovered with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "Mad Cow Disease"), Oprah Winfrey kept silent. Even as some American organizations noted that many high-ranking members of the USDA were former members of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Oprah Winfrey kept silent.

As Weber of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said in 1996, the US does have safeguards. Americans do have the assurance of the USDA. And in 2004, we have the National Cattlemen's Beef Association looking after the USDA.

Alternative news Web sites such as BushGreenWatch.org point out the USDA has a number of people working in high positions who were formerly members of the NCBA. Among them are USDA Press Secretary Alisa Harrison, who was formerly NCBA's director of public relations, and USDA Chief of Staff Dale Moore, formerly the NCBA's executive director for legislative affairs in Washington, DC. CommonDreams.org claims that NCBA gave $389,170 to the GOP in 1999-2000. The Democrats only received $68,677.

The USDA has increased surveillance since the December discovery. According to them, American beef is safe, even though the USA hasn't found all the suspect cattle belonging to the same herd as that Canada-born infected cow, even though the USDA hasn't identified the source of the contaminated feed (thus making it unclear if other Canadian or US Canadian-imported cows might be infected from the same feed), even though 58 countries still effectively ban American beef.

Internationally, the USDA argues, that it was only one cow. Why the ban? Forget that when one Canadian BSE-infected cow was discovered in May of 2003, the US closed our borders to Canadian beef, the USDA feels the same shouldn't be true for those 58 countries.