KCRA & the Safeway Meat Scandal (14)
My previous experience with Tom Allen had led me to think of him as affable and cooperative, but on the meat issue, he'd been curt and evasive from the beginning. And he'd gotten off the line before I'd had a chance to ask him to repeat the statement for a radio news tape. I also needed his clearance to film a Safeway meat counter. And I wanted to at least try to get a response to the more specific charges--although I could see that his freedom to speak on the record was limited.
I called him back and was told that he was "out." He wouldn't be back until the following Monday.
I was able to get another "Safeway voice" to read the statement for radio, though. I also got clearance to film a store interior. As for a television comment, that was out of the question. No one would be permitted to speak before our cameras.
What I got from Safeway wasn't a lot, but it was at least enough to do a legitimate story. I went back to Pete. Could we at least send a cameraman over to the market to shoot a hundred feet of silent film?
"Better ask Paul," he said. We both trooped over to Thompson's glassed-in office.
