James Keating was city treasurer in Grant, MN when $120,000 worth of assessment checks went missing. The Pioneer Press ran a story on November 15, 2001, when the Grant City Council instituted a deadline for finding the checks. The story stated that Keating would pick up the checks or have them delivered. It also quoted a City Council member saying that Keating was instructed to turn over deposit slips to the clerk, but he didn’t. Keating thought that the article should have explained that the acting city clerk, who was supposed to give him the checks, was an untrained temporary employee who never delivered them. The reporter did not contact Keating for that story. Another story ran on November 17th. For this story the reporter tried to contact Keating at his home, leaving a message with her pager number on his home machine. She said she thought he was out of the office looking for the checks, and so did not try to contact him there. Keating didn’t get back to the reporter, thinking it was too late. 

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The Catholic Defense League contends that the St. Paul Pioneer Press news coverage distorted its position on the public schools’ “Out for Equity” program, and the opinion page editor arbitrarily rejected commentary pieces by two League board members seeking to explain the League’s position: one because he didn’t live in St. Paul and one because the editor disputed the writer’s portrayal of the facts. The League believes the denials were based on an unfair standard.

The League says distorted coverage and lack of access to the opinion page served both readers and voters poorly. It also believes that the coverage inflamed some members of the public, who later vandalized the organization’s office and phoned in death threats.

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Present at the hearing were Bill Batcher, the grievant, and Douglas Hennes, Metro Editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch.

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Grievant claims the newspaper improperly refused to accept two of her campaign advertisements.

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Mary Peek, a longtime DFL activist, complained that the newspaper was irresponsible and unfair when it used her for publicity purposes without prior permission, and when it reneged on commitments made to her without first consulting with her.

Michael McKee of St. Paul complained that the paper arbitrarily denied him fair access to its letters-to-the-editor column. He also charged the paper with refusal to print divergent viewpoints on controversial subjects or letters not in sympathy with the editor’s viewpoint.

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The Minnesota Federation of Teachers complained that the newspaper was irresponsible and misleading when it published a facsimile edition of the paper and substituted another organization’s advertising and publicity materials for some of the newspaper’s own material.

State Representative Joseph Connors complained that the newspaper was unfair and misleading when it portrayed him as advocating the election of Roman Catholics to the city school board as the sole way to achieve constructive change.

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