Recently, the state broadcaster made a big deal out of one of their own reporters, who has been vegetarian for over 30 years, allegedly receiving a meat burger instead of his veggie burger during a visit to Max in Gävle. The reporter, affected by the mistake, later returned to the restaurant accompanied by a TV crew to confront the manager responsible – all at the taxpayers’ expense. But when citizen journalist Joakim Lamotte later confronts the SVT reporter, it turns out he doesn’t even have a receipt to prove he actually ordered a veggie burger.
It is SVT Gävleborg that has gone all-in after reporter Rikard Berglin, who reportedly hasn’t eaten meat since the mid-1990s, allegedly ended up eating half of a meat burger by mistake.
READ ALSO: SVT report: Our vegetarian reporter was served meat at Max
– I haven’t eaten meat since 1995 and was extremely disgusted, the SVT reporter told SVT.
SVT reporter: “Incredible bad luck for you”
Maria Lindstedt is the district manager for Max in southern Norrland. She says that in her 24 years with the company, she has never before seen anyone served meat instead of a veggie burger. But that’s not an explanation the state reporter accepts.
– It was simply incredibly bad luck for you that I, who am a reporter for Swedish Television, received this meat burger instead of a veggie burger. That sounds very unlikely to me, says the SVT reporter in the feature.
SVT reporter offended: “What’s the problem”
On Monday, citizen journalist Joakim Lamotte – who himself previously worked at SVT – contacted the offended vegetarian reporter in Gävleborg.
READ ALSO: Receives billions of taxpayer kronor every year – now SVT’s CEO wants even more
Among other things, Lamotte requested to see a receipt showing that the reporter had indeed ordered a veggie burger, after he had made a big deal of the incident and criticized the Max restaurant for the mistake.
Lamotte: Do you have any receipt so one can see that you ordered a veggie burger?
SVT reporter: No, I don’t have the receipt anymore.
Lamotte: But I’m thinking, if you’re doing a report about this… and you don’t even have a receipt showing you ordered a veggie burger. Isn’t that rather remarkable?
SVT reporter: No, not really.
Lamotte: If you’re pressing Max on this, surely you need to have a receipt showing you ordered a veggie burger?
SVT reporter: “What do you mean by pressing them quite hard?”
The state reporter then says he has thrown away the receipt and does not want to continue the conversation over the phone. Instead, he wants the questions sent by email – despite the fact that they are already speaking directly by phone and he could respond immediately. But he doesn’t want to and says, “what’s the problem.”
Listen to the call here:
@joakimlamotte SVT reporter got the wrong burger. Went back with TV crew.