BPI puppet, Iowa GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, at pink slime dog-and-pony show, gets testy at ABC reporter who asks about the $150,000 he got from Big Beef

Most of the video of this event (last week) seen around the country was from KCCI, but this clip, from the Sioux City Journal, is a bit more illustrative of the tension between Branstad and ABC senior correspondent Jim Avila. Branstad successfully pressured Hy-Vee to reverse its decision to stop selling the finely textured "beef product." Branstad, a beneficiary of BPI's largesse, appeared indignant that a reporter might raise doubts about his impartiality, saying "I will always fight for what's right and I will never be intimidated by anybody in the press."
     Branstad's spokesman, Tim Albrecht, said that the governor has received $150,000 in the last two years from people tied to BPI, whose employees (mostly top executives) have given all but $28,400 of $820,750 to congressional and presidential candidates over the last decade.
     At his weekly press conference, Branstad called for a congressional investigation into how what he called "a smear campaign" against finely textured beef product (aka "pink slime") originated.
     Food safety advocate Nancy Donley, whose son died from 3-coli poisoning, was livid when Avila asked her why acknowledgement of BPI's $250,000 donation to her organization, half its budget, was recently removed from her website. Here's more from Radio Iowa.
     The Omaha World-Herald was uncharacteristically more skeptical about the proceedings in its reporting than was the Des Moines Register.

Branstad, who on Wednesday helped persuade West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee Inc. to reverse its decision to scrap products containing the beef additive, turned combative during the event after he was questioned about a $150,000 campaign donation by BPI. He said it had no impact on his support for the company.

     After the press conference, Branstad told The World-Herald that he would support other grocery chains doing as Hy-Vee is and using signs to show what products contain the additive and which do not.

     "Instead of using these charged words . if you describe what it is — it is really lean beef, and people want lean beef — I don't think (signage) hurts it," he said.

     Asked why the product isn't sold as a stand-alone product, a BPI spokesman said consumers would not respond positively to the fine texture of the product.