Participants included the complainant, candidate Roy Carlson, and his campaign adviser, Doug Friedline, and responding for the Savage Pacer, Laurie Hartmann, publisher, and Nancy Huddleston, editor.
A 17-year-old incest victim attended the hearing to press her complaint. Accompanying her were her mother and her therapist, Sandy Garry of Winona. Representing the Wabasha County Herald were Michael Smith, editor, and Gary Stumpf, publisher.
Attending the hearing was Minneapolis Police Chief John Laux. KARE-TV declined to attend, or to respond in writing. This hearing was televised on Minneapolis Telecommunications Network. Chairman John Simonett did not attend or participate in the hearing because two complaints relating to the homicide case could lead to appeals before the Minnesota Supreme Court, of which he is a member. Vice Chairman Ron Graham chaired the hearing.
Chief Laux brought three complaints before the Council:
On June 15, 1987, on its late afternoon television program, “Newsday,” WCCO-TV presented the story of a local business executive who spends his recreational time riding freight trains. Burlington Northern (BN) filed a grievance with the Council claiming the presentation was irresponsible journalism because it glamorized an illegal, highly dangerous activity. The Council viewed a video replay of the report and had available a written transcript of the accompanying dialogue.
Appearing for the school district was its superintendent, Roger Doucet, accompanied by two of the concerned parents. Don Casey, executive editor, appeared for the newspaper.
This matter raises consideration of whether, and under what circumstances, the news media should disclose the identity of a witness to a crime. We set forth what we regard as the general considerations for making this determination and decide, on balance, that the newspaper here inappropriately published the name of a witness to a violent crime.
Mark S. Rubin, assistant county attorney for St. Louis County, complained that the newspaper unfairly and improperly published the name and city of residence of a complaining witness in a criminal proceeding for swindling when the witness, suffering great personal embarrassment, objected. Rubin brought the grievance on his own behalf and on behalf of one of the victims of the swindle, a 55-year-old woman from Brooklyn Center.
Elizabeth S. Guthrie of Orono complained that the paper’s aggressive reporting about a local kidnapping endangered the life of the victim when it assigned a reporter to follow the course of ransom-drop attempts. She claimed that the paper acted illegally when it monitored and reported on police-band radio broadcasts about the kidnapping because a federal statute prohibits such reporting without permission from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.