Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.

Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Full case name	Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., et al.
Decided	October 20, 1999 (1999-10-20)
Case history
Appealed from	United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
Court membership
Judges sitting	Paul V. Niemeyer M. Blane Michael Diana Gribbon Motz
Case opinions
Majority	Michael, joined by Motz
Concur/dissent	Niemeyer

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.

References and further reading

Academic sources

• Scheim, Charles C. (1998). "Trash tort or trash TV?: Food Lion, Inc. v. ABC, Inc., and tort liability of the media for newsgathering". St. John's Law Review . 72 (1): 185–218. Retrieved November 22, 2025.
• Carmody, Cris (1999). "Applying a persona test for newsgathering privilege to Food Lion v. Capital Cities/ABC". Northwestern University Law Review . 93 (4): 1287–1328.
• Levin, Daniel A.; Roline, Alan C. (2001). "Undercover reporters, tort law, and the First Amendment: Food Lion v. ABC and the future of surreptitious newsgathering". Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy . 11 (3): 575–628.
• Chen, Alan K. (May 31, 2024). "The long shadow of Food Lion". Knight First Amendment Institute . Retrieved November 22, 2025.

Other sources

• Lynch, Timothy (1997). "The Food Lion case: Are journalists above the law?". Cato Institute . Retrieved November 22, 2025.
• Pratt, Cornelius B. (1997). "Food Lion Inc. v. ABC News Inc.: Invasive deception for the public interest?". Public Relations Quarterly . 42 (1): 18–20.

Legal sources

• Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.,194F.3d505(4th Cir. 1999).

External links

• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 194 F.3d 305 (4th Cir. 1999) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 984 F. Supp. 923 (M.D.N.C. 1997) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 964 F. Supp. 956 (M.D.N.C. 1997) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 951 F. Supp. 1233 (M.D.N.C. 1996) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 951 F. Supp. 1224 (M.D.N.C. 1996) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 951 F. Supp. 1217 (M.D.N.C. 1996) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 951 F. Supp. 1211 (M.D.N.C. 1996) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 946 F. Supp. 420 (M.D.N.C. 1996) is available from: Google Scholar
• Text of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 887 F. Supp. 811 (M.D.N.C. 1995) is available from: Google Scholar