One, a lawyer, deflected questions to the corners with nary a rebound. His companion, Maple Leaf general manager Cliff Fletcher, gave a wobblier if more entertaining performance. Reporters covering the Gardens story are doing their level best to proclaim, without actually crossing into outright libel, that the old men who run the Gardens are morally, if not legally, responsible for the odious behavior of their employees. No one would suggest for a moment that those pointing the finger are saints. But they needn't be, to cover the story.
Some stories are harder to cover.
Back in 1992 ABC's news magazine show PrimeTime Live aired a report on the Food Lion supermarket chain. After hearing from ex-employees that the large southwestern U.S. concern engaged in unsanitary practices, ABC employees got jobs at the chain and used hidden cameras to record what went on. Not that it denied the veracity of the report. It's fair to say, as reporters assume in their coverage of the Maple Leaf Gardens scandal, that the media have largely usurped the role of defining and enforcing public morality. But the ABC case suggests that civilians are open to the idea that, given the media's power to punish a target through public humiliation, the media should operate under due-process constraints similar to those that govern the behavior of police.