The Minnesota News Council received 20 complaints during September, November and the beginning of December.  The majority of those complaints were general complaints, commenting on issues of fairness, accuracy and balance in regards to political coverage.

A sample of the issues encountered follows (the complaint record number is parentheses):

Election-related:
                (1) One complainant felt a local newspaper was biased in printing photos of candidates and their biographies, complainant felt some candidates may have been left out. (1823)
                (2) Another complainant was concerned about the “lipstick on a pig” controversy and the representation of the issue by the local broadcast media. (1825)
                (3) Two individuals complained about inaccuracies and misrepresentation in a local newspaper’s coverage of events during the Republican National Convention. (1827)(1828)            
                (4) One complainant voiced concern about a fee to print letters to the editor which included commentary on political issues. (1831)
                (5) Another individual complained about coverage of Michele Bachmann in an opinion column, alleging the column was “inappropriate” and lacking balance. (1834)
                (6) One reader questioned the fairness of a local paper’s policy of not printing election material a certain number of days before the election. (1835)
                (7) In a complaint about a local news blog, one complainant alleged that a comment made in the “comment” section by the blogger was “inappropriate.” (1836)

School/University-related:
                (1) One complainant felt that a letter to the editor unfairly criticized the views of a local professor. (1826)

“Business as usual”:

(1)    One individual complained about an anonymous column in a small-town newspaper. (1830)

(2)    Another complainant alleged that a local journalist had been “inaccurate” and “misleading” regarding coverage of an important local issue of healthcare. (1833)

(3)    One individual complained about a local broadcast news station’s prediction regarding the drop in price of gasoline throughout the Metro area.  (1837)

(4)    An anonymous individual complained about the conflict of interest of reporter covering a trial in which the reporter had a special interest. (1839)

(5)    Another individual complained about a news story written by the newspaper’s managing editor which, the individual alleges, the editor was biased. (1840)

(6)    One individual complained that a local news paper had printed the names of two individuals accused of performing “illicit acts.” The individual stated that it was inappropriate for the newspaper to release the names.

To date, the Minnesota News Council has received 34 complaints in 2008. Four complaints were filed by people who had been mentioned by name in the news; the rest of the complaints were of a more general nature (click on images to enlarge).