KCRA & the Safeway Meat Scandal (20)
The producer was informed that Russ Ward's story was the one we would use. I was to write the anchorman's "live lead" and a "live tag" for him to add at the end of the story.
The live lead was no problem, but the tag got a bit sticky. Paul Thompson had told me earlier that he wanted the United Farmworkers' confirmation of the link between meat and lettuce. I wasn't about to write it in language, though, that might make KCRA News appear to be saying, "Look, folks, it's obvious these are bogus charges put together just to roast Safeway." It took several writings, rewritings, and consultations with other reporters and the producer before I felt I had something that filled the bill.
The quintuplicate scripts had already been separated and arranged in looseleaf notebooks for the producer, director, and anchormen when Paul decided he wanted to check the Safeway tag.
His face tightened in nervous anger as he read it. This wasn't a Safeway rebuttal, he said--only more comment from the United Farmworkers! How could I have written a thing like that?
