Word: lions
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Food Lion promptly sued the network--but not for libel, which would be appropriate if the story were false. Instead, the chain blamed its losses on the false job applications the reporters filed and their breach of loyalty to their "employer." A jury originally awarded Food Lion more than $5 million in damages; the excessive figure was reduced by the district court to about $300,000. Yet in a 2-1 decision on Oct. 20, a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out all but $2 of the damages, affirming the principle that the press cannot...
...Food Lion had sued the reporters individually for trespass and disloyalty to employers, both valid grounds for damages under North and South Carolina laws, and the appeals court upheld the jury's awards of $1 on each of these counts. However, the court also ruled that Food Lion had not claimed any specific damages a result of the fraudulent applications filed by the reporters. Food Lion could identify no problems with the reporters' work; indeed, they both received positive reports from their supervisors, one of whom recommended that the reporter be rehired. Because North and South Carolina laws on fraud...
More importantly, the court did not allow Food Lion to request compensation for the damages ABC caused to its reputation. The truth of the PrimeTime Live story was not contested before the court, regardless of the way in which that truth was exposed. As the district court ruled, it was Food Lion's food handling practices themselves, not the method by which they were recorded and published, which caused the chain's losses in sales and stock price. Some might find this distinction tenuous, but the First Amendment places strict requirements on libel suits that challenge a story's truth...
However, the Food Lion case represents at best a Pyrrhic victory for the American press. Public confidence in the news media, as evidenced by the multi-million-dollar jury verdict, is lower than any newspaper or television network would like to admit. Tactics that skirt or violate the law will buy no friends among a public already quick to identify bias in reporters and dismiss their reports. The press occupies too important a position in the democratic process to be complacent towards this ambient distrust; perceptions of a biased, unethical or irresponsible press will only encourage the public...
...young crowd roars through Brown-Eyed Girl, The Lion Sleeps Tonight and other oldies that seem suspended in amber. "Yeah, they seem corny," says a sophomore. "But everybody's singing them, and that makes it fun, even though it's corny...