Determination
53
Minnesota
News Council
In the Matter of the Complaint of
The City of Mahnomen
against the Fargo Forum
Mahnomen City officials complained that the paper
published an inaccurate story that was damaging to the city's reputation,
then failed to adequately correct the error. The officials contend
the correction should have appeared on the front page and that the
newspaper should also have made a public apology.
Background:
The morning edition of the June 21, 1984 edition contained a front-page
story under the headline "Mahnomen police abuse probe sought."
The article stated that a complaint of law-enforcement harassment
by a man and his son had been discussed at a county board meeting
and that this complaint involved the sheriff's office, a state trooper,
and "a city police officer." The Mahnomen city police were
not involved in the incident, which the paper discovered later the
same day. In its evening edition, it changed the headline on the story
to read "Mahnomen board seeks abuse probe" and deleted the
reference to any city police officer. The next day, the paper also
published a correction stating it had been given incorrect information
about city police involvement and that "No police officers were
involved." The correction appeared, in accordance with the paper's
long-standing policy, on the jump page, page 14, the back of the newspaper's
first section.
Response of the News Organization:
The paper's news editor responded in a July 3 letter to the Mahnomen
mayor that, "The error was not intentional nor was it malicious
in any way," stressing that the paper did strive to be fair and
accurate.
Determination of the News Council:
The newspaper admits its mistake. It also acted swiftly to correct
the error. The only issue is whether the correction that was published
on the jump page the next day was adequate. We believe it was. It
was not necessary that the correction appear on the front page. As
we stated in our recent Spectrum decision, it is important that a
newspaper have an established, prominent location for news corrections,
a place where the readers can expect corrections to appear. Here we
think the location on the jump page is a good one.
The complaint against the newspaper is not upheld.
It is unfortunate the mistake was made, and it is clear that proper
reporting practice could have avoided it. The erroneous headline only
compounded the problem. We understand and appreciate the concern of
the Mahnomen City Council and its police chief over the false accusation
of "police abuse." We think the published correction was
in itself an apology, as was the news editor's letter to the mayor.
We can only add that in news stories so sensitive to a community,
where the hurt is never really completely undone, it would not be
inappropriate for the paper to take some additional steps, depending
on the circumstances.
Concurring: Ashmore, Bednar, Brooks, Casey,
Chucker, Falkman, Forsythe, Gilson, Graven, Higgins, Peek, Persons,
Ryan, Selby, Simonett, Staples
Special Concurrence: Bednar - I agree with
the News Council determination involving the correction, I would only
add that the City of Mahnomen might be more persuaded of the sincerity
of the newspaper's apology if a representative of the newspaper, notwithstanding
the inconvenience involved, had attended the News Council hearing.
July 18, 1984
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Determination 54
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