Determination
129
Minnesota
News Council
In the matter of the complaint of the Winona County
Board of Commissioners against the Winona Post
Background
The Winona Post ran an editorial critical of the practices
of the Winona County Board of Commissioners following a committee
of the board meeting on January 9, 2001. After reading an incorrect
report in the Winona Daily News that said the board had decided to
buy a former school building in an effort to recover lost office space
after a courthouse flood, the Post's editor called the board and obtained
a denial of the report. The editor concluded that if such a decision
had been made, it would have to have been at an illegal meeting.
The County Board had, in fact, authorized exploration
of the school purchase, and not the purchase itself. The Board then
complained about what it saw as an accusation of wrongdoing that could
cost its members re-election, fines or removal from office.
The editor wrote another editorial the following week
in which he said he still didn't know if an illegal meeting had been
held. That further angered the board, which said that he should have
checked the facts and had plenty of time to do so.
Complaint
The County Board of Commissioners contended that:
1 The two editorials unfairly said or implied that
the January 9 meeting was illegal.
2 The newspaper's response to the board's objection
to the editorials was inadequate.
Response
The Winona Post responded that the editorials never
said anything about a specific meeting, but instead called into question
how the county board was doing business. The editor and owner, John
Edstrom, said the second editorial, titled "Stoltman [county
chairman] has a right to be annoyed," was a clarification in
response to the Board's complaint that should have satisfied the Board.
He said that the editorial's question, "If this transaction seems
crazy to you" was within the Post's right to ask in an editorial.
He said that he did not make a direct accusation of illegality, but
instead surmised that any such meeting that would have produced the
decision he read about in the Winona Daily News would have been illegal.
Q&A
In News Council questioning, media member Benno Groeneveld
asked if the Board had considered sending a letter to the editor to
straighten out the confusion. Dave Stoltman, county board chairman,
said that they had tried letters to the editor in the past, but they
had been discredited on the same page in an editor's note. So, they
did not submit a letter.
Media member Pia Lopez asked if the Post was incorrect
to say a decision to buy the school would have been illegal. County
Administrator Bob Reinert said, "The insinuation was there. That
is what I consider to be the most egregious." He said the average
reader would have made the assumption that some wrongdoing was involved.
Deliberation
Media member Kathleen Stauffer suggested that if there
was a complaint, it should have been against the Winona Daily News,
which ran the initial incorrect report. Public member Tom Keller said
that the editorial's statement that Stoltman had denied that a decision
had been made, and the words, "and well he should," left
the clear implication that he was covering up and lying. "This
is a personal liability on the board members," Keller said.
Media member Jay Furst suggested that Editor Edstrom
was trying to say that the meeting would have been illegal, not was
illegal, but that he didn't phrase things as clearly or carefully
as he thought he did. Media member Don Shelby said that Edstrom was
bound in his follow-up editorial to clear up the misunderstanding,
and he didn't.
Media member Pia Lopez said that she didn't see any
factual errors, and that the editor was within his rights to state
his opinion in an editorial. Public member Jon Austin asked if editors
have a responsibility to write clearly. "I don't think I can
make that leap," he said.
Vote
Complaint 1: upheld (10-9 one abstention)
Complaint 2: upheld (12-7 one abstention)
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Determination 130
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