Determination
95
Minnesota
News Council
In the Matter of the Complaint of
Sally Evert against the Stillwater Evening Gazette
Appearing at the hearing was candidate Sally Evert. Stillwater
Evening Gazette publisher Mike Mahoney submitted a written response.
Former Washington County commissioner Sally Evert
complained that the Gazette was unfair to her re-election campaign
in the following ways:
- It ran a front-page article under a four-column
headline promoting her opponent's candidacy, with a byline of a
writer who was a campaign worker for him, but who was not so identified;
- It ran her opponent's thank-you to his supporters
as a guest column, with his picture, but ran her thank-you as a
letter to the editor with no picture;
- It ran a critical letter to the editor without
saying that the writer was her opponent's campaign manager.
News outlet's response: The publisher, Mike
Mahoney, says that he addressed Evert's complaints adequately and
admitted error when it occurred:
- The paper has changed its policy so that campaign-generated
material no longer appears on the front page.
- Evert's letter was treated differently, but that
that did not constitute unfairness.
- A clerical error caused the omission of the letter
writer's affiliation.
Discussion and Determination Complaint 1 -
News Story: The Council unanimously upheld the complaint about the
unfairness of a campaign-generated article appearing as a news story
and lacking identification of the writer as a campaign worker. While
the newspaper has changed its policies and no longer allows campaign-generated
material on the front page, Council member Mollie Hoben, editor and
publisher of the Minnesota Women's Press, found it poor journalistic
practice to publish stories written by campaign workers anywhere in
the paper, and certainly unacceptable to omit identification of the
writer as such. Council member Don Smith, editor and publisher of
the Monticello Times, noted that bylined articles are usually written
by staff writers, with others getting a tag line. This is evidently
not the practice at the Stillwater Gazette.
Concurring: Dornfeld, Graham, Handberg, Hilger,
Hoben, Kostouros, Orwoll, Parker, Parrish, Pennock, Peterson, Simonett,
Smith, Stanley
Complaint 2 - Guest column: The Council acknowledged
the difficulty in judging overall fairness of campaign coverage in
a busy election year. The Gazette had encouraged robust debate, and
for this the Council strongly affirmed the paper. By an 8-7 vote the
Council upheld the complaint that it was unfair for the paper, after
giving her opponent a guest column with a photo, to offer Evert only
a letter to the editor, with no photo and less space. Council members
noted that there appeared to be no clear rules as to what constitutes
a guest column. Smith said that such columns usually do not benefit
a person, but reflect some public issue, clearly not the case here.
Council member Laverne Orwoll, long active in politics, said that
items such as this are usually paid advertisements or appear after
the election.
Concurring: Dornfeld, Hilger, Hoben, Kostouros,
Orwoll, Pennock, Peterson, Smith
Dissenting: Graham, Handberg, Larson, Parker,
Parrish, Simonett, Stanley
Complaint 3 - Unidentified letter writer: The Council
finds it an unacceptable journalistic practice to publish a critical
letter to the editor without identifying the writer's affiliation,
when it is known. Council member Smith noted that some papers do not
allow letters to the editor from campaign managers.
Concurring: Dornfeld, Graham, Handberg, Hilger,
Hoben, Kostouros, Larson, Orwoll, Parrish, Pennock, Peterson, Smith,
Simonett, Stanley
Abstaining: Parker
December 10, 1992
Read
Determination 96
Back
to Main Determination Index
Want
to comment? Send a message
to the News Council.
