McCauley, a county commissioner in Winona, complains that the newspaper was unfair by not asking for his comment when it printed a story in which another commissioner quoted a constituent who asked if McCauley was “on the take” or was just stupid, and a second story in which the other commissioner said he believed McCauley had cut a deal with a private company seeking a waste-disposal contract.
The health department alleges that KSTP presented an inaccurate and unfair picture of activities at a department retreat at Ruttger’s Bay Lake Lodge, near Brainerd, in the fall of 1993. The TV report implied that workers were playing, at taxpayer’s expense, when they should have been working and that the retreat could have been held elsewhere for less expense. Additionally, they say a hidden camera was used under circumstances where such use violated ethical journalistic practices.
This grievance concerned two issues. First, that the Globe’s story violated reasonable journalistic standards by portraying anonymous comments from fewer than 250 persons as a statistically valid survey (the paper’s circulation is 14,000). Second, that the Globe unfairly denied letter writers an opportunity to criticize the newspaper.