News Council Denies Two Complaints Against the Morrison County Record
The Minnesota News Council denied two complaints against the Morrison County Record by state legislator Al Doty (DFL-Royalton).
Rep. Doty complained to the News Council after the paper published a March 2 story, “Local GOP objects to Doty’s support of gas tax hike.” The Record’s editor and general manager, Tom West, approached Doty for comment “on the gas tax,” but did not tell him it would be used in a news story about Doty’s support of a transportation bill. In an effort to balance a press release issued by Republican leaders in the district, West rewrote the press release to include comments from Doty and the county engineer, as well as additional background information.
Doty complained he was misled by the paper because he did not know the context in which his comments would be used. West argued that he did not have a responsibility to tell Doty what the story was about in advance. Doty “gave good answers to the questions I asked him,” said West, “and they were reported accurately in the printed article.”
The News Council affirmed the paper’s position, voting 12-4 that the paper’s actions were appropriate.
“[If I were in West's position], in hindsight I would have told Rep. Doty that I was calling for a response to the Republican press release,” said media member Jim Pumarlo. “Having said that, I’m fine with the story, I think it’s balanced. Readers were clearly aware that Republicans were leveling this charge and Doty was responding to that.”
News Council members agreed that the information added by West was accurate, and added to the overall balance of the story. “Rep. Doty came off as the real good guy of that story, he seemed well informed and statesman-like,” said public member Heather Harden.
Media member Jeremy Iggers disagreed. “[The press release] was a partisan attack on Doty,” said Iggers. “How could you not tell him what he was responding to?”
Doty also complained that an editorial written by West was inaccurate to commend both Doty and a Republican colleague for work on a zoo funding bill. Doty said he was “on his own” this past year in seeking funding for the Pine Grove Zoo in Little Falls, Minn. and felt it was unfair to include Sen. Paul Koering (R-Fort Ripley) in the praise. West said that before publishing the editorial, he called Koering, who acknowledged less involvement in the bill, but said he helped get it through the state Senate.
The News Council denied Doty’s complaint, and voted 12-4 that the paper had an appropriate basis for giving both politicians praise in the editorial.
“In order to uphold this complaint,” said media member Dave Beal, “you would have to prove that Sen. Koering played absolutely no role in the passage of this bill, and I don’t think there is evidence to prove that.”
A majority of Council members agreed. “I am satisfied Mr. West fulfilled his responsibility to check the facts in his editorial when he called the senator,” said public member Harden. “After the editorial appeared, those who disagreed with Mr. West’s editorial wrote great letters to the editor explaining their viewpoints.”
The following news outlets ran the above news release or cited an Associated Press summary: Morrison County Record, Hometownsource.com (ECM Publishers), KSTP-TV, WKBT-TV, WCCO-TV, and Grand Forks Herald.
Tags: Al Doty, Complaint Denied, Hearings, Morrison County Record