WPIX settles libel claim over dog meat expose

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

NEW YORK, N.Y.–The Tribune Co., owner of both WPIX-TV
Channel 11 in New York city and the Long Island Newsday newspaper,
announced in Newsday on January 11 that it had “reached a settlement
over a series of controversial stories that examined if dog meat was
popular in New York,” aired by Channel 11 reporter Polly Kreisman on
November 19-20, 2001.
“The agreement said that WPIX-TV aired the stories in 2001
along with footage of Ju Ho Kim and his wife Roslyn Kim, selling
what a WPIX-TV spokesman said was a mix of canine and coyote meat to
a Humane Society of the U.S. investigator,” Newsday continued. “The
Kims said in a civil lawsuit that the stories by reporter Polly
Kreisman hurt their business and harmed the Korean American
community. ”

Channel 11 said through a spokesperson that it “stands behind
its story,” but also said that it and Kreisman “have assured the
Kims that it was not their intention to accuse them of selling
domesticated dogs for food. In fact, neither Kreisman nor the
station is aware of evidence supporting a contention that the Kims
have sold domestic dog for food.”
ANIMAL PEOPLE and New York Post reporter Don Kaplan found in
separate follow-up investigations that the only sale of recognizable
canine meat that Kreisman showed taking place was solicited by people
involved in producing her reports-and the source was a coyote, shot
by a local hunter.
ANIMAL PEOPLE asked Kreis-man repeatedly, soon after her
reports were broadcast, if she could better support her claims, but
received from her only several curt retorts.