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. More »

The Minnesota News Council voted Thursday to deny three complaints against the Duluth Budgeteer News, affirming the paper’s decision to run a Nov. 4, 2007 opinion column critical of Duluth School Board candidate Gary Glass.

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A complaint against the Ely Echo by two Ely school officials over a Halloween party photo was denied by the Minnesota News Council.

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A complaint against the Star Tribune by the former mayor of Roseville, John Kysylyczyn, was denied today by the Minnesota News Council.  The vote was 11-to-0 with one abstention. Kysylyczyn, mayor of Roseville from 2000 to 2003, said that the Star Tribune unfairly editorialized in a July 23, 2006 news story when it used the word “antics” to characterize his administration. 

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A complaint against the Roseau Times-Region newspaper by a city official was denied by the Minnesota News Council. The vote was 8 to 4 with one abstention.

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The News Council denied three complaints by Prior Lake’s former mayor and two city council colleagues against the Prior Lake American newspaper.

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The Minnesota News Council voted to deny complaints by Rep. Arlon Lindner (R-Corcoran) that the Star Tribune and the Associated Press had unfairly covered the controversy about his bill to remove sexual orientation as a protected class under the state’s human rights act.

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On March 15, 2002, the Star Tribune published a news story about Department of Administration officials who questioned MnDOT’s legal and ethical behavior in awarding contracts for work on the intersection of Hwys. 55 and 62, associated with the light-rail project. An Administration official, Kent Allin, was quoted as saying, “The culture of MnDOT is to act the bully, throw one’s weight around, villainize anybody who stands in your way and not worry about wasting tax dollars.”

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The Ely City Council held a closed meeting in April to discuss its ongoing negotiations with the EPA over violations for which city was being fined. The City Council closed the meeting citing the need for a discussion of potential litigation strategy, currently an exception under Minnesota’s open meeting law. The City Council said it was protecting the concerns of the citizens by keeping the discussion of strategy confidential. The Ely Echo, one of the two newspaper’s in town, published an account of the meeting in the following week’s paper. The paper declined to respond to the city’s inquiry about the source of the article. The paper also said it was protecting the taxpayers’ interests by keeping them informed about the actions of the City Council.

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Participants included the complainant, Dave Bredenberg, administrator of St. Therese Nursing Home, and Jim Williams, Director of Communication for the Minnesota Health & Housing Alliance. WCCO-TV chose not to attend the hearing, but sent a written response to the complaint. 

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