The High Court defamation lawsuit is listed as Talley’s vs TVNZ and Thomas Albert Mead, but journalists and newsmakers around the country will be watching warily as sources, scripts, drafts, texts, and WhatsApp messages are dissected
The legal pushback by food processing company Talley’s against TVNZ’s investigation into its factory hygiene and safety standards extends to examining text chats within the newsroom and how interviews are transcribed.
Talley’s High Court defamation case against the broadcaster and its journalist Thomas Mead has been four years in the making and the depth of its legal discovery of TVNZ’s inner workings is becoming clear as Mead faces cross examination.
The Christchurch-based journalist has been in the witness stand over two days, challenged by Brian Dickey, KC, for Talley’s, over everything from his verification of sources, selection of quotes, deadline for responses, composition of graphics and messages with colleagues.
Talley’s seeks a declaration from Justice Pheroze Jagose that it was defamed in six stories from July 2021 to May 2022 that it says contained false allegations and misled the public. It also claims pecuniary disadvantage, or financial consequences, from the reporting.
TVNZ says its reports were based on information from up to 50 sources and were accurate and in the public interest.
In a series of ‘exclusive’ stories, TVNZ had reported on allegations of unsafe and unclean machinery, fears of anonymised workers and contractors at Talley’s Ashburton plant and later issues over its handling of ACC payments for staff.
On Wednesday, Dickey continued to take Mead story by story through what he had reported and how he had conducted the investigation both ahead of and during its series of broadcasts.
Mead stood by the truth of what TVNZ reported from its sources but conceded regret at how one quote about Talley’s had been positioned in his summary of one story.
Dickey alleged Mead had taken a comment from a contractor about issues of food hygiene related to machinery and applied it instead to a part of his story where the Talley’s chief executive Tony Hazlett had just addressed workplace safety.
The contractor had said: “Managers, supervisors, everyone knows it’s there, they know the condition .. they just walk away … it’s disgusting.”
TVNZ used part of that quote juxtaposed at the end of a story after Hazlett responded to issues of health and safety at the Ashburton plant.
Dickey: “This is a really terrific quote to say that managers and supervisors don’t care about worker safety. It’s neat and natty and effective to convey that isn’t it?”
Mead: “There were a number of quotes I could have used.”
Dickey: “But you didn’t use other quotes did you?”
Mead explained his contractor source had said similar things about safety off camera and previously. “I don’t think it’s inconsistent with his general views.”
But he conceded between transcribing the answers from that interview and then selecting them weeks later for broadcast he might have seen “that quote and thought he was talking about safety at the time.
“If that’s the case, I regret that because I was not trying intentionally to change the context.”
Dickey: “What have you done about your regret?”
Mead: “You’ve just suggested that to me and I’m trying to think that through… Hindsight is useful Mr Dickey. I’m not a proud person, I’m not afraid to admit if there are areas I could improve. There definitely has been no intention to take things out of context.”
He agreed the story using the quote in the way it had been broadcast was still available on TVNZ’s website.
“I do not think it’s fair to call it a misquote… it’s a fair representation of what he said.”
Dickey: “It gives the view, the meaning, that the quote is attached to health and safety. It does.”
Mead: “Yes.”
Dickey asked again if Mead or TVNZ would take steps to correct the item online but Mead said it would need to check back with the contractor to see that he was happy he had not been taken out of context.
“I do not accept it’s a mis-attribution. I accept it’s slightly out of context in the section.”
Dickey: “You chose this one because it’s the best one to cast the Talley’s people in the worst possible light.. You’ve selected this quote because it is the most damaging that you had from your menu of quotes.
“Is this how we will measure your professionalism?”
The exchange was representative of the Talley’s lawyer trying to establish vulnerabilities in each of the TVNZ stories – he had gone through three by the end of day two of Mead’s time in the stand and with three to come the reporter could remain under examination for a while yet.
In legal discovery processes ahead of the trial TVNZ has had to provide Talley’s with not only interview transcripts but drafts of stories, staff email and text exchanges and material from messaging apps and beyond.
Dickey examined one text exchange between Mead and a source to double-check a number he’d been given for emergency stop buttons at the Ashburton plant.
As part of the text discussion, Mead had told the source the stories had showed “Talley’s have pissed off a lot of people over the years, by the looks.”
Dickey highlighted that line: “Were you enjoying these exchanges?”
Mead: “That’s just how I was texting. I didn’t put a lot of thought into those exchanges.”
Dickey queried the use of an exclamation mark by Mead.
“That’s just how I tend to text, especially back then.”
When Mead texted that he’d been told there were only about 10 to 15 stops at the site, his source replied: “That’s about right.”
Dickey was incredulous that that could be judged verification for such a claim, and said it had been shown by Talley’s in earlier evidence that there were many more.
“That’s about right’ is enough for your verification process?”
Mead said he was checking a specific point with an experienced machine engineer and the text was just getting straight to the point, after previous discussions around the number of emergency stops.
Dickey: “But he’s hopelessly wrong. Isn’t he a poor source? You could have put him under a bit of pressure to determine if he’s telling the truth or accurate, could you not?”
Mead: “We had previously discussed in at length, on many occasions.”
Dickey: “With that verification you are going to go on the 6 o’clock news in front of the nation, with 850,000 people watching and say that there are only 10 to 15 e-stops at the Ashburton plant?”
Mead: “I’m checking one specific fact with him as a background source.”
Other text exchanges examined included one in which Mead told that same source he was “keen to expose management” of Talley’s over the safety issues.
Mead told Dickey it was “part of my role as a reporter to hold people in positions of power to account, fairly. He was telling me that what Talley’s was saying publicly was not fair to what he had seen. I’m keen to challenge management where I can. I’ve used the word ‘expose’ to expose the truth.”
As the forensic examination of communications and scripts stretched through the day, Dickey had challenged Mead on messages with his producer, in which they discussed Facebook comments attached to one of their Talley’s stories.
The producer, Andrew Hallberg, tells Mead: “I reckon Talley’s have infiltrated that Facebook comments section somehow … accounts that seem legit but like bagging the story.”
Mead replied: “I reckon you are on to it.. an intentional strategy. They are all saying the same thing, that it’s a hit job.”
Dickey referred back to notes of an interview with a ventilation engineer TVNZ had gone to for comment on the Talley’s machinery but who was reticent to be too specific and made a passing comment about the investigation. “He didn’t work for Talley’s and he used the words ‘hit-job.”
Mead: “Yes, he did. It’s possible people have that point of view.”
In court, Mead said the Facebook comments were unusual. “There were a lot of people who did not like Talley’s and a lot of people making quite similar comments in support of Talley’s.”
Dickey: “You preferred the veracity of people who didn’t like Talley’s over people who did like Talley’s?”
The court also examined an email from Mead internally requesting a graphic be made for a story. He mocked up a drawing and suggested it have two shadowy, dark and genderless figures (to protect source identity), but also used the words “mysterious looking” to describe the graphic’s vibe.
Dickey seized on that last phrase: “Help me with the ‘mysterious looking’, how’s that in the pursuit of fairness?”
Mead: “I’ve used the word mysterious looking to try and explain how I want to put in real people that would be anonymous.”
The journalist was also asked about an online version of his July 2, 2021 story, headlined “Former Talley’s employee feared he would die on the job”, a quote that did not appear in the broadcast version.
Mead said while the online piece carried his byline “I think this is not written by me” and it was likely taken from the 6 pm news item’s script but had also called on unpublished information.
Dickey: “It’s a big statement, isn’t it? How do we strip away malice, bias, rhetoric or hyperbole? How do we satisfy ourselves that it’s objective reality and not hyperbole. How do we do that?”
Mead could not detail his discussions with the source, to protect their anonymity. But he said: “I was confident that they were telling the truth. I make an assessment of them and was confident that they were genuine and genuinely afraid of being hurt and described it in some detail.”
