A federal jury in North Carolina has ordered ABC to pay Food Lion, a supermarket chain, more than $5.5 million in punitive damages because of an undercover report.

The jury found ABC guilty of fraud and trespassing for the way two producers of a 1992 “PrimeTime Live” broadcast lied to get jobs as Food Lion clerks and then shot footage with miniature cameras hidden in their wigs.

What the producers found, however, was in the public interest to correct: bleaching and doctoring spoiled fish and meat for sale. Food Lion sued ABC because the producers lied to Food Lion to get jobs as clerks.

ABC plans to to appeal, and we hope so.

The media should have the same access to places that ordinary citizens do. If John Q. Citizen lies his way into a job, the company merely fires him. But if the media do the same thing, according to this jury, they are $5.5-million wrong. This is a double standard.

ABC did not lie necessarily, it just didn’t tell the whole truth. Who has put down every single job he had in his life on a job application? It’s impossible. There is no law that requires one to divulge past or current employers when getting a job.

John Q. Citizen may have been wrong for lying, and he only had his own interest in mind. ABC did something in the public interest.

This type of journalism keeps government and business in line.

This type of journalism has helped bring about reform for mental hospitals, prisons, meat packing plants, cosmetic companies and many other areas of our society, making life in these United States safer.

This jury, which supposedly represents the people, is sending the message that it doesn’t want the media to act in the interest of the people. Let’s hope an appellate court finds otherwise.