MINNEAPOLIS (Nov. 1, 2007) – The Minnesota News
Council announced today the appointment of Sarah Bauer as its executive
director. Bauer has served as the
organization’s interim director following the retirement of Gary Gilson as
executive director in December 2006.

“Sarah has clearly demonstrated the management skills and
leadership qualities we were looking for in a permanent director, and she has a
thorough knowledge of the Council’s mission and operation,” said Ron Graham,
chair of the organization’s board of directors.

Bauer has led the News Council through a 10-month transition
period, during which she oversaw the expansion of News Council staff to include
a Development Director. She has also
worked to update and refine the News Council’s complaint procedures and led an
effort that has resulted in a significant reduction in the organization’s
operating costs.

Bauer first joined the Minnesota News Council in 2004 as an
intern and soon became its operations manager. In 2005, Bauer helped institute a more structured complaint process
within the organization and played a key role in establishing the Council’s
online complaint submission process. She
was named Interim Director in December 2006.

“It’s a great honor to be able to lead this organization,
which is the oldest independent News Council in the U.S.,” Bauer said. “In particular, I am looking forward to
reaching out to media organizations and communities throughout the state,
developing new programs and working to maintain the organization’s relevance in
a time of great change in our industry.”

Bauer graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota
with degrees in journalism and philosophy. She also serves on the board of directors for the Minnesota Professional
chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and was recently appointed
to its national membership committee.

About the News
Council

The Minnesota News Council was created in 1970 to promote
fair, vigorous and trusted journalism. It is a nonprofit organization supported
entirely by voluntary annual contributions from media organizations, businesses
and individuals. The News Council
presents complaints about accuracy and fairness to news organizations, holds
public hearings to consider unresolved complaints and conducts public forums
aimed at fostering trust in journalism. The
News Council has 24 voting members, half of them journalists, half
laypersons. The hearing process is
voluntary; the Council’s determinations are advisory and carry no sanctions.

Minneapolis
(September 12, 2007) - The Minnesota News Council has elected Star Tribune
Photo Editor Deb Pastner and Colin Sokolowski, the public relations director
for Mounds View Public Schools to serve three-year terms on its hearing
panel.

Pastner, who will serve as a media member and the only
visual journalist on the News Council, is currently the Star Tribune’s photo
editor in charge of projects and Sundays. During her eight years in the paper’s photo department, Pastner has
worked as the sports, night desk and features photo editor. She is a 1993 graduate of Wellesley College,
and has begun work on a master’s degree in photojournalism at the Missouri
School of Journalism.

Joining the News Council as a public member, Sokolowski is
beginning his seventh year as public relations director and district
spokesperson for Mounds View Public Schools, a K-12 school district serving
students in seven north metro communities. During his 16-year career, Sokolowski has specialized in marketing,
communication and public relations issues related to education. He holds a bachelor’s degree in media
communication from Saint Mary’s University
of Minnesota and a master’s degree in
mass communication from the University
of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.

The News Council hearing panel considers unresolved
complaints about news coverage from the public and is comprised of 24 voting
members; half are current or former journalists, half are laypersons.

About the Minnesota News Council

The Minnesota News Council was created in 1970 to promote
fair, vigorous and trusted journalism. It presents complaints about accuracy and fairness to news
organizations, holds public hearings to consider unresolved complaints and
conducts public forums aimed at fostering trust in journalism. The News Council has 24 voting members, half
of them journalists, half laypersons. The hearing process is voluntary; the CouncilÂ’s determinations are
advisory and carry no sanctions.

MINNEAPOLIS (February 2, 2007) - The Minnesota News Council Board of Directors has elected former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer and three others to three-year terms. They are: Carolyn Brookter, former KSTP-TV reporter and now media relations director for Target Corporation; Tom Bartel, publisher of The Rake magazine and former publisher of City Pages; and Nancy Conner, former St. Paul Pioneer Press reader advocate and now Director of Publications and Media Relations for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

Named chairman of the News Council’s hearing panel is Jim Gilbert, who served on the Minneosta Supreme Court from 1998 to 2004. He now leads a law practice that specializes in mediation and arbitration. Gilbert is the seventh Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, either sitting or retired, to occupy the hearing chair.

Previous chairpersons included Justices C. Donald Peterson; Doublas Amdahl; John Simonett; Paul Anderson; Esther Tomljanovich, and Ed Stringer.

Latimer served as mayor of St. Paul from 1976 to 1990. He is a professor of urban studies at Macalester College, was dean of Hamline University Law School, and was an adviser to Secretary Henry Cisneros at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

MINNEAPOLIS - Gary Gilson, Executive Director of the Minnesota News Council for 14 years, will retire effective December 1, 2006.

The Minnesota News Council was created in 1970 to promote fair, vigorous and trusted journalism. It presents complaints about accuracy and fairness to news organizations, holds public hearings to consider unresolved complaints, and conducts public forums aimed at fostering trust in journalism.

Gilson joined the Minnesota News Council in 1992 as its Executive Director. During his years of service with the non-profit organization, the News Council experienced unparalleled growth in public recognition of its mission and in development of financial resources to support its programs through annual donations from news organizations, businesses, foundations and the public.

He joined the News Council with 31 years experience as a print and broadcast journalist, starting at the Minneapolis Star. He moved on to television in New York and Los Angeles, where his work in magazine broadcasts and documentaries earned him five Emmy awards. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and has taught at Columbia, Yale, the Universities of Minnesota and St. Thomas, Macalester College and Colorado College. At Columbia, he directed the faculty of the Summer Program in Broadcast Journalism for Members of Minority Groups, one of the nation’s most successful job-training and -placement efforts in any industry.

In serving as the public spokesperson for the Minnesota News Council, Gilson is widely recognized for engaging the news media in discussions of ethical issues. He created "Newsworthy," a TV interview program that has aired regularly on public television. When broad issues of journalistic ethics were raised as public issues, Gilson sought out interested parties and journalists to discuss standards at News Council public forums.

Last January the Minnesota Newspaper Association expressed its confidence in the News Council by giving Gilson its highest honor, the Distinguished Service to Journalism Award. He has conducted seminars on ethics, reporting and writing for newspapers and broadcasters across the nation. He plans to continue coaching news people, to speak on journalism issues and to pursue his own writing.

During his tenure, he led the organization through a restructuring of its governance, resulting in the formation of a new Board of Directors to oversee the News Council’s finances and administration and to support the role of a separate News Council hearing body, which conducts public hearings on unresolved complaints. The hearing body is divided evenly between journalists and public members. Its decisions, while not binding on the parties, are made public. Half the complaints heard since 1971 have been upheld and half denied.

Gilson also has been instrumental in the recent creation of two news councils, in Southern California and New England. He said, "A new spirit of openness is spreading through the news media, and it promises to increase public trust. Almost all news organizations in Minnesota see the value of participating in the News Council’s programs, from public hearings on unresolved complaints to public forums. Our work tends to influence journalism for the better and to instruct the public on the vital role of a free press in a democracy."

John Finnegan, chairman of the Minnesota News Council Board of Directors said, "Gary Gilson has been an articulate and very effective voice for the mission of this organization. His passion for the cause of ethics in journalism has been witnessed here and nationally. Gary Gilson is Mr. News Council. In the years ahead, the organization will be pleased to have access to his expertise as Executive Director Emeritus of this organization."

Finnegan said the Board of Directors has developed a six-month transition plan leading to the selection of Gilson’s successor. He said an Interim Director will be named to lead the organization effective December 1, with the objective of moving forward with current program initiatives and positioning the organization for its new permanent leader.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press has disposed of a complaint about a June 15 news story by publishing a clarification approved by the complainant, Ramsey District Court Judge Ed Cleary, who said that the story unfairly made him and the court systerm look bad. The newspaper distinguished itself with a remarkably open acknowledgment of the story’s shortcomings.

The story’s headline said, "Two former prosecutors avoid prison in drug case" and a sub-headline said, "Married couple sentenced, but their prosecutor calls judge lenient." Cleary said the story unfairly made it appear he had acted improperly. He pointed out in his complaint that the newspaper had confused prison time (at least one year and a day in a state institution) with jail time (one year or less in a local lockup) and that state law and sentencing guidelines precluded a prison sentence. He said that the prosecution and defense had agreed on no jail time for Julius Nolen and his wife.

Nolen was placed on probation for up to five years and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, undergo random drug testing, abstain from alcohol and drugs and pay $100 in court costs.

Cleary said that the public was left with the false impressions that: 1) the judge could have sent either or both defendants to prison; 2) the prosecutor thought the judge was lenient for not doing so; 3) the prosecutor wanted jail time for one or both of the defendants.

Cleary complained that such inaccuracies unfairly produce public backlash against judges and the court system.

During exchanges with Cleary leading to the clarification, the Pioneer Press acknowleged Cleary’s assertion that the prosecutor had objected to the judge’s giving the defendant Julius Nolen a Stay of Adjudication (resulting in dismissal of the charges and a clean record upon completion of his sentence). The prosecutor wanted a Stay of Imposition (resulting in a misdemeanor record upon completion). Here is the text of the published clarification:

"Penalties meted out to former prosecutor Julius Nolen could have included jail time, but not prison time, as was incorrectly reported in a June 15 story due to revisions in the editing process. The article also should have made clear that the prosecutor in the case did not ask Ramsey District Court Judge Edward Cleary to impose jail time on Julius Nolen, and that the prosecutor suspended Laura Nolen’s prosecution on condition she complete certain court-ordered obligations."

The newspaper’s use of the phrase "should have made clear" represents a significant departure from the practice of many news outlets, who obscure their responsibility in language that does not state a standard. Now that the Pioneer Press is on record, both its staff and the public know what the newspaper expects of itself, and it can be held accountable.

Cleary’s filing of a complaint illuminated inaccuracies and prompted the newspaper to examine itself. His dropping of the complaint avoids a public hearing. The outcome was win-win.

NEWS COUNCIL DIRECTOR A PANELIST
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18TH AT THE ASIAN
AMERICAN JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION
NATIONAL CONVENTION IN MINNEAPOLIS

Gary Gilson joins New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame and Pioneer Press Editor Vicki Gowler (a News Council member) on a panel discussing

TROUBLED TIMES FOR JOURNALISM:
WHY CAN’T WE STOP THE ETHICAL BLEEDING?

The program, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, runs from 8:30–10 a.m.

JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, MINNESOTA NEWS COUNCIL AND WASHINGTON NEWS COUNCIL TO AWARD GRANTS

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has named the Minnesota News Council in Minneapolis and Washington News Council in Seattle to conduct a national contest for two $75,000 seed grants to form new news councils. The seed money will come from a $250,000 Knight Foundation grant awarded jointly to the Minnesota and Washington News Councils to administer the nationwide competition.

The mission of the Minnesota and Washington News Councils is to promote fair, accurate, vigorous and trusted journalism. They do this by engaging news organizations and the public in open conversations about standards of fairness. News councils are often mistakenly referred to as watchdog groups. They are not; the news media are, and should be, the watchdogs of all institutions in a society.

But the news media — also a societal institution — historically have resisted scrutiny from outside the newsroom. In today’s climate, in which news organizations seeking to rebuild trust are recognizing the value of openness, news councils offer another way to achieve it.

The Minnesota and Washington News Councils encourage parties in dispute to resolve their differences. If they cannot agree, the council will conduct a hearing in public at which a dozen journalists and a dozen laypersons consider the complaint and issue a determination that is widely publicized. The determination carries no sanctions but is meant to generate a conversation that can lead to improved media performance and increased public trust.

Both existing news councils also engage in other activities to help maintain public trust and confidence in the news media – holding public forums and panels, speaking to community and civic groups, and sponsoring educational activities including student mock hearings, internships, and scholarships.

The Minnesota News Council was formed in 1970 by the Minnesota Newspaper Association, and soon became an independent organization. The Washington News Council was formed in 1998 by a group of concerned citizens, including many journalists, and is also an independent non-profit organization.

CONTACTS:

Gary Gilson, Minnesota News Council, gary@news-council.org, 612-341-9357

John Hamer, Washington News Council, jhamer@wanewscouncil.org, 206-262-9793