THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9701310028
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Perry Morgan
LENGTH: 69 lines
When a North Carolina jury found ABC guilty of damaging Food Lion by resorting to low tricks, the usual media yelpings ensued. The jury had ``shot the messenger,'' chilled investigative journalism and, probably, violated the Constitution.
But in addition to the kneejerk response, there was a good bit of fudging on the truth by people who should know better. The result tends to mix up what's good for journalism with what's good for the show business side of television.
The jurors awarded Food Lion stores $5.5 million in punitive damages against ABC. The network was punished for using fraud to infiltrate Food Lion's work force with ABC ``PrimeTime Live'' producers posing as new employees and carrying hidden cameras.
The story alleging that Food Lion doctored and sold bad meat, and rotten produce as well, was not at issue in the trial. The sole question was whether ABC was justified in deceiving Food Lion and trespassing with the hidden cameras.
Bruce Sanford, a First Amendment lawyer in Washington, argues that ``ABC's only choice was not to do the story,'' and goes on to say that cowed journalists will now concentrate on ``stories about Dennis Rodman and Madonna'' while ignoring important matters.
This is childish. ABC already had the story. It got it, said ``PrimeTime'' anchor Diane Sawyer, from 70 on-the-record interviews with current and former employees of Food Lion. Recalling that point in a New York Times article, Paul Starobin of the National Journal concluded that ABC deceived Food Lion for commercial rather than journalistic reasons.
One understands, of course, that television is pictures and that being there - at the war, the scene of a crime or Food Lion's backshop - adds drama and builds audience. The needs of the medium, however, should not be confused with the needs of journalism or of the public. Putting a weatherman out in the rain adds nothing to the accuracy of his forecast.
If the aim is to warn the public about bad food, a talking head will suffice - particularly a head like Sawyer's. As for journalism, it is ill served by insiders like Tom Rosenstiel who described ABC's hidden-camera stunt as being in pursuit of ``a noble journalistic goal.'' Rosenstiel, ironically enough, is director of something called ``the Project for Excellence in Journalism,'' and is reputedly concerned with media ethics. Or ``whatever,'' as Bob Dole might say.
The argument that journalists should have an unlimited right of deception ignores the fact that anyone so licensed must himself be viewed with suspicion. Reporting a story is one thing. Getting it believed goes to credibility which, in turn, is geared to the practices of the individual and the outfit doing the reporting. Ambush journalism and undercover tricks.
The record of undercover journalism is far from unblemished; the effort and risks required tends to sharpen the self-interest of those involved and put temptation in their way. Now the masquerading ``PrimeTime'' producers may have been saints in shoe leather, but being faceless, and being intent on finding what they were looking for, their reliability was open to question.
Food Lion is a big operator in the Carolinas, and a friendly verdict by a local jury is not a matter beyond surmise. But the chain, which asked for at least $52 million, got less than $6 million, small potatoes compared with the $233 million in lost profits Food Lion attributed to the ABC report. The jurors were deadlocked twice and struggled for six days before reconciling differing views of the case.
One juror, Tony Kinton of Reidsville, N.C., said he was reluctant to award punitive damages but thought ABC needed to examine its resort to impersonation and fraudulent representation. That makes sense and may offer a bit of deterrence to tabloid journalism dressed up as a ``noble'' pursuit. MEMO: Mr. Morgan is a former publisher of The Virginian-Pilot.