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