Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 194 F.3d 505 (4th Cir. 1999), was a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that two PrimeTime Live journalists had trespassed and breached their duty of loyalty, but had not committed fraud, when they secured jobs at Food Lion under fake identities and secretly took video and audio recordings. The journalists were acting on a tip that Food Lion was engaging in deceptive practices in selling meat, including grinding expired and fresh beef together and bleaching meat to mask its smell.
Background
In early 1992 producers of ABC's news program PrimeTime Live received a tip that Food Lion stores were handling meat in unsanitary ways. The tip said employees mixed expired beef with fresh beef, bleached meat to hide the smell, and put new dates on expired products.
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