If you’ve been watching TV over the past few days, perhaps you’ve seen them: promos for an upcoming segment on KSDK (Channel 5), in which the station promises to expose tasteless spending at Anheuser-Busch, contrasting it sharply with local layoffs.

“Forget AIG,” we are told one promo intones. “This one hits home.”

That’s strongly worded. Does reporter Leisa Zigman back it up? We can’t answer that, not having seen the segment. (It airs tonight at 10:00.) But the controversy has already begun.

Anheuser-Busch is none too happy about what it calls “insensitive” treatment at the hands of KSDK. Not happy. At. All. It has told KSDK management thus.

Two top executives - president Dave Peacock and Jim Brickey, vice president of people - also sent out a long, tart memo to A-B employees, in which they accused KSDK and Zigman of exploiting “the misfortune of others for their own gain.” Oh, but A-B wasn’t done: A-B, now a division of Anheuser-Busch InBev, said the station “took the low road in distorting facts while relying on sources with questionable motives” while airing a “sensationalized” and “hyped” story.

Good night, Sally. That is rough. Rarely have we seen Anheuser-Busch hit back so hard against a news piece. We wonder…is this part of the company’s stated commitment to “communicate in a thorough and timely manner”? If so, reporters might want to gird up their loins for battle. Or at least for criticism.

The crux of the issue, so far as we can tell, is a trip by 14 A-B managers to meetings and training events at Anheuser-Busch’s property at Lake of the Ozarks. The trips, it seems, are cast in the KSDK piece as an example of especially ill-timed corporate greed. A-B strongly objects to that characterization.

According to Anheuser-Busch, the group car‑pooled to the lake to reduce costs and used one of the company-owned boats to visit local restaurants. The boat was actually the least-expensive option for a night of visiting customers, according to A-B. The group bought Anheuser-Busch beers for other patrons at the restaurants, but that was for a good cause, A-B argued in the memo: building goodwill among customers.

On the other side, one source told Lager Heads the memo was an exercise in “spin.” The trips to the lake were indeed pretty lavish back in the day, we are told - replete with golf, massages and outings on the boats. High-level folks, as well as any special presenters, would get helicopter rides to and from the place.

But A-B, for its part, said the meeting in question was cost-effective and authorized - not a shameworthy exercise in self-indulgence. The total cost of the two-day meetings was about $100 per person, excluding the costs people incurred to drive to the lake, A-B said. Some of the staffers stayed in their personal homes, so the company incurred no lodging costs.

No matter who is right, the times are changing. Anheuser-Busch, which has owned the Lake of the Ozarks facility for 25 years, is assessing the need for the property. It is looking to sell all or most of the assets. The watercraft is already on the market.