During this hearing, Coyle brought up complaints on two issues. First, that an item under the headline “Police Report” inaccurately stated that her job status had been discussed at a city/county Law Enforcement Commission meeting, when it had not. Second, that the paper treated her unfairly by running 10 items in its editorial-page feature “Anonymous Comments,” criticizing her and calling for her dismissal from her job.
Former Washington County commissioner Sally Evert complained that the Gazette was unfair to her re-election campaign by running 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 also 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. FInally, it ran a critical letter to the editor without saying that the writer was her opponent’s campaign manager.
A Mankato orthopedist complained that the newspaper ran a story, with a display headline and photograph on the front page of the local section, in which a woman who had picketed his office called him a liar, but in which he did not receive an opportunity to reply. He said the Free Press’s display made it a big story in a small town and did not adhere to the least standard of ethical fair play: “It can take years to build up a reputation that can be destroyed (by the press) in seconds.”
A Mankato State University professor complains that the Star Tribune failed to contact him for a story on problems in the Indian Studies program that quoted a student accusing him of arbitrarily changing her grade.
The complainant claims the television station acted contrary to “accepted journalistic conventions” in ignoring an embargo placed on a news release by the complainant.