Determination
9
Minnesota
News Council
In the Matter of the Complaint of
Joseph Connors against the St. Paul Pioneer Press
State Representative Joseph Connors complained that
the newspaper was unfair and misleading when it portrayed him as advocating
the election of Roman Catholics to the city school board as the sole
way to achieve constructive change.
Background: The paper used an indirect quote
to summarize one of Connors' main points in a speech he gave in February
1974 to the Catholic Archdiocesan Board of Education on the subject
of "Management and Power." Throughout the prepared text of the speech
there were numerous references to "Catholic school system," the "Catholic
Church," "Catholic school students," "your goals," "politics is power,"
"power is expressed through the ballot box." The prepared text contained
the following statements:
"Through your schools, your home and school associations,
your parishes and your various parish organizations there exists a
great capacity for power. Your ability to control elections, particularly
at the school board level, is enormous."
"Electing school boards that will work for the best
interests of all school children should become one of your prime objectives.
Once you control a school board, particularly the St. Paul School
Board, there is only one way to go and that is up."
Connors complained that nowhere did he mention electing
Catholics, per se. He did not complain about a similar story published
in the Catholic Bulletin, which reported him as saying (again in an
indirect quote) that Catholics also should work to elect themselves
to public school boards. Connors claimed the paper continued to mislead
unfairly when it subsequently printed an editorial castigating Connors
for advocating a line of action that Connors said he did not recommend.
Response of the News Organization: The paper
did not believe a correction was called for, but was willing to print
a letter of protest from Connors.
Determination of the Council: Regarding the
use of indirect quotes, the lack of quotation marks is a clear indication
that the attributed matter in the story is not a verbatim quotation
but a paraphrased summation of the speaker's remarks. Such indirect
quotes are an acceptable, non-misleading journalistic technique as
long as they convey what the speaker said.
In the absence of any statement in the text to the
contrary, the Council may only conclude that a competent reporter
might properly have interpreted a call for control of elections, and
control of a school board by a religious denomination, as calling
for the election to office of members of the denomination. Thus, the
story in question was a fair and non-misleading report of Connors'
speech. The complaint against the newspaper is not upheld.
Dissenting opinion: James Bormann - The written
evidence clearly supports Connors' contention that he did not say
"Catholics" in the context attributed to him and rather urged the
election of "those who support us." The countervailing evidence is
simply the reporter's statement that Connors meant "Catholics." The
reporter's conclusion was an error, though one made in good faith.
The Council should find in favor of Connors.
March 11, 1974
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