Vance Opperman and William McDonough, staff members for Gerald Sikorski’s 1976 state senate campaign, complained that the publisher manipulated the newspaper’s letters-to-the-editor policy in order to oppose Sikorski’s candidacy and support his opponent.
Citizens for Community Action (CCA), an anti-life group, complained that the two papers used arbitrary standards when they refused to print as submitted to them a paid advertisement that opposed construction of an abortion clinic in a St. Paul neighborhood. The ad listed the clinic’s officers and sponsors, their home addresses and phone numbers, but the papers insisted that only business addresses be used for the clinic’s officers.
Ray Kempe, state representative from District 53A running for re-election, complained that an editorial was deliberately designed to malign him and misrepresent his comments made in a recent interview with the writer.
Michael McKee of St. Paul complained that the paper arbitrarily denied him fair access to its letters-to-the-editor column. He also charged the paper with refusal to print divergent viewpoints on controversial subjects or letters not in sympathy with the editor’s viewpoint.
Doug Elwood, et al., acting on behalf of 14 area gay rights groups, complained that an entertainment column contained inaccuracies and descriptive words offensive to local gay rights groups. Even though a second column by the same writer admitted and corrected the errors, Elwood complained that it didn’t sufficiently remedy the original inaccuracies and that defamatory language was used in both columns.