TV's Hidden-Camera Ethics On Trial -- Meat Expose A Hatchet Job, Grocery Says

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The meat wrapper wore a hidden camera in her wig and a microphone tucked inside her bra. So did the deli clerk at another store.

The two women were hardly routine $5-an-hour employees at Food Lion, then the nation's fastest-growing supermarket chain. They were producers for ABC's "PrimeTime Live," and the results of their undercover investigation - showing workers doctoring spoiled meat and bleaching fish to remove unpleasant odors - are now being aired once again in U.S. District Court here.

Food Lion, a Salisbury, N.C.-based chain with 1,100 stores and 73,000 employees in 14 states, is suing ABC, charging that the network used fraud, trespassing and other illegal means to obtain the damaging report that was broadcast Nov. 5, 1992. But beyond the chain's contention that it lost $1.7 billion in profits and plunging stock value after the show's airing is a broader journalistic issue: How far can television news go to ferret out ratings-grabbing exclusives?

Also on trial in this small courtroom are ABC's editing techniques. Food Lion officials charge that editing of the tapes helped falsely suggest dirty conditions at its Hickory, N.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., stores. In one example, they say, footage was aired showing an employee recalling an incident in which she was hesitant to cook chicken she believed to be spoiled; edited out of the segment was her statement that after consulting with her manager, she discarded the chicken. ABC has strongly defended the report.

Ethical distinctions

The use of miniature hidden cameras has increased markedly in recent years, recording everything from nannies cruelly punishing young children in their care to "60 Minutes" correspondent Leslie Stahl in a black wig, haggling with an adoption broker in Romania over the price of a baby. The dramatic value of such tapes is obvious, but the ethics of the techniques involved - from misrepresentation to the use of false identities - is hotly debated, making even some of its practitioners uncomfortable.

"The principle of a hidden camera is not one that would be repugnant," said Ken Auletta, media columnist for the New Yorker. "If we had hidden pictures of a mayor, governor or president accepting cash payments, everybody would welcome those hidden pictures. The question is whether they were achieved in an unethical manner. If you receive them by paying a bribe or doctoring evidence or if you lied to get them, those are certainly three strictures that shouldn't be violated. ... Did ABC do something unethical, or did they properly expose something that should've been exposed?"

While Food Lion officials have always contested the accuracy of the "PrimeTime Live" segment, their lawsuit against ABC, seeking up to $2.5 billion in damages, does not involve libel. In opening arguments Tuesday, lawyers for the supermarket chain said ABC had engaged in a pattern of deception "like pages in a book," charging that the producers, Lynne Neufer Dale and Susan Barnett, lied about their work histories and references, treated the stores as their personal sound stages and simply broke the law in pursuit of the story.

Trying to influence the outcome?

Food Lion attorney Andrew Copenhaver also said there is evidence - included in more than 45 hours of hidden-camera footage, most of which never aired - showing that Dale and Barnett tried to persuade co-workers to sell old meat and created other unflattering conditions highlighted in the expose.

According to brief written excerpts of those tapes released by the company, Dale deliberately misdated turkey parts, in contradiction of another worker's instructions; re-wrapped flounder and placed a three-day sell date on the package, despite a co-worker's instructions to put a one-day sell date; and ignored orders to clean the meat room.

As courtroom monitors showed the hidden-camera footage yesterday, Dale was seen looking up computer records of other employees and being told by a co-worker that "cleaning should be your top priority." Under questioning, she admitted much of the information on her resume was false.

Food Lion officials said it is no coincidence that the expose came at a time when union organizers were targeting the chain, saying ABC was aided in its investigation by frustrated organizers. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union has acknowledged putting ABC in touch with 20 to 25 employees.