Determination 149
Minnesota News Council
In the Matter of the Complaint of
Citizens for Truth in Government v. the Bemidji Pioneer
News Council denies complaint that Bemidji Pioneer was unfair in running news story about a full-page ad the same day it appeared, but upholds complaint that the story on Red Lake Reservation was unfair to those who ran the ad
Minneapolis (April 19, 2007) — The Minnesota News Council denied a complaint today that the Bemidji Pioneer newspaper was unfair in running a news story about a same-day, full-page ad that said DFL politicians were buying votes from Red Lake Reservation residents by funneling state financial support to them. The vote was 10-3.
The News Council upheld a complaint that the page-one news story was unfair in not including views of those whom opponents of DFLers who were interviewed about the ad and who said, among other things, that critics of the relationship between the state and the reservation were racist. The vote was 9-4.
The complaints came from a group calling itself Citizens for Truth in Government. The group said it was non-partisan. The ad and news story ran on October 25, 2006, two weeks before the last election. The group said the newspaper was unfair charging it for ad space and then giving free expression in the news story to those the ad criticized.
The News Council strongly backed the newspaper’s right to exercise its judgment in doing a same-day story on an ongoing controversy. The Council also criticized the newspaper’s failure to do a balanced story. Several members said that the news story included a gratuitous editorial opinion that the ad’s indictment of DFL candidates “undermines its statement” that the group is non-partisan.
The Pioneer’s editor, Molly Miron, who wrote the news story, acknowledged that she “should have” allowed the placers of the ad to respond to accusations that they were racist. She said she called the head of the group but was not able to reach him.
Public member Tom Forsythe, a communications executive at General Mills, said the newspaper could have delayed publishing both the ad and the news story until the reporter could gather material that would provide balance.
Media member Dave Beal, retired business columnist of the Pioneer Press, said the news story served readers well by appearing on the same day as the ad: “It functions as an ad for the ad.” Several members said the news story stated the ad’s main points more clearly and briefly than the ad did. But public member Tom Peterson, a Minneapolis attorney, said that people who read the news story before reading the ad could come to the ad thinking it was filled with errors.
The News Council’s determinations carry no sanctions; they are advisory, and the hearing process is voluntary. The Council was founded in 1970 and is an independent nonprofit organization with 24 voting members, half of them journalists, half laypersons. All members represent only themselves.
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