Amarillo - The talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, has branded as "absurd" the idea that she persuaded people to stop eating beef by swearing off hamburgers on a show about mad cow disease.
She also said a lawsuit filed by Texas cattlemen saying she had cost them $10 million by scaring consumers about beef was "the most painful thing I have experienced".
"I recognise I have a lot of influence, like when I go on the air and say, `Please read this [book].' I don't believe in any way 2 1/2 seconds of me on the air saying, `It stopped me cold,' made people stop eating beef. That's absurd," she said.
The lawsuit, filed by Texas cattlemen and now in its third week of trial, alleges Winfrey deliberately misled consumers into thinking beef was unsafe, causing a drop in the price of cattle futures.