Determination
32
Minnesota
News Council
In the Matter of the Complaint of
Patricia Reilly against the Catholic Bulletin
Patricia Reilly complained that the newspaper denied
her fair access to its letters-to-the-editor column, "Voice of
the People of God."
Background: The Catholic Bulletin, the official
weekly newspaper of the archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, printed
an article on a "feud over birth control" at the College
of St. Thomas in St. Paul. The paper reported that the dispute was
a major factor in Reilly's dismissal from her position as a mental
health and academic counselor at the college; according to the paper,
Reilly claimed she was fired because of her views on birth control.
The college's dean of counseling subsequently wrote a letter to the
editor charging the paper with inaccurate reporting and asserting
that Reilly was not fired for the reasons she gave. He did not offer
other reasons for her dismissal.
Reilly submitted a letter disputing the dean's letter.
The editor of the paper refused to print Reilly's letter because,
she said, it was too long, too pejorative and too one-sided. The editor
argued that Reilly had not been denied fair access because the paper
had fairly and accurately covered her dispute in the news story. The
editor offered to consider publishing a shorter letter that was more
general than the one submitted.
After Council mediation, Reilly submitted a somewhat
shorter letter. The paper again refused to publish it because of its
pejorative and one-sided nature, the editor said.
Reilly complained she had unfairly been denied access.
She asserted that she should be allowed to tell her side of the story
because her reputation was at stake.
Determination of the Council: Newspapers have
the right and responsibility to control such things as repetition
of topics, length of letters, publication of potentially libelous
material, etc., with regard to letters columns; but controls should
be applied in a fair and consistent manner. The controls the paper
attempted to place on Reilly's letter were unreasonable and resulted
in a denial of fair access.
Although the first letter printed was primarily an
attack on the accuracy of the paper's earlier article, Reilly should
have been allowed to respond to the letter because it contained several
direct statements regarding her dismissal.
The argument that Reilly's letter was too one-sided
for publication is disputed. Letters columns are forums for opinion;
letters to the editor are usually one-sided because they are written
to persuade. The complaint against the newspaper is upheld.
April 5, 1978
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