The Minnesota Citizens Party complains about the lack of coverage by the television and print media of the election returns of its candidates in the November 1984 general election. The complaint is directed against the media generally, and not against any particular television station or newspaper. Consequently, the News Council has elected to hear this matter as a general discussion item and not as a grievance requiring adjudication.

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Chester J. Mirocha, a plant pathology professor at the University of Minnesota, complained that the newspaper unfairly damaged his reputation and caused him personal grief by falsely implying that he knowingly conducted secret biological warfare research for the State Department despite a University ban on such research.

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A man named Burtrand, high priest of the Church of Wicca (a religion known also as witchcraft), complained that the newspaper was unfair when it associated witchcraft with satanic activities in two articles published on its religion page, headlined “Occult.” Burtrand claimed that the layout, taken as a whole – including artwork, photographs and articles – perpetuated negative and erroneous stereotypes about the occult.

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Minnesotans Against the Downtown Dome (MADD), a coalition including neighborhood activists and sports fans opposed to construction of a sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, complained that the Star’s and Tribune’s treatment of the long-standing stadium issue revealed a broad pattern of biased and inadequate coverage.

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Dave Locey, lobbyist for the Minnesota Soft Drink Association, complained that the newspaper deliberately slanted its coverage of a litter tax bill and mandatory deposit bill under consideration by the state legislature in its 1977 session.

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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.

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Miles Aakhus, editor and publisher of the Ely Echo, complained that an editorial carried in the Ely Miner in response to an editorial written by him and charging him with unprofessional journalistic conduct contained inaccuracies and unfair comments.

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State Representatives Verne E. Long and Wendell O. Erickson complained that the paper ran an inaccurate and unfair headline stating the two had voted continued support for the Vietnam war. Their complaint included a subsequent editorial that identified the two as “warhawks” who “wanted more war.”

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