The Minnesota News Council: The Story Behind the Creation

Abstract

Invasion of privacy. Failure to present minority views. Defamation. Inaccuracy. Bias. Checkbook journalism. Failure to respect individuals. Endangering lives to get stories. Sexism. Character assignations. Callousness. Using unnamed sources. Sensationalism. Serving special interests. The list of news media sins proclaimed by American readers and viewers is long, often overshadowing media strengths. In earlier days, competition among newspapers allowed publishers to criticize each other, and the public received several versions of a story to compare for accuracy and completeness. But today, few cities have competing daily newspapers, and publishers and broadcasters depend on the Associated Press for national and international news. Large publishing chains own newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting stations throughout the country, and the contents are filtered through a common corporate philosophy. Today monopolistic media frequently provide the only information about government and general news events an individual citizen receives. In such a context, how can the media be rendered accountable to the public they serve? Professional accountability requires a consistent means for making practitioners answerable to the pubic for allegedly irresponsible actions. The medical profession has ethics boards with the power to evaluate and make often subjective decisions about questionable actions by doctors. The legal profession has bar associations that serve the same purposes. These examples involve some form of licensing or prior approval of practitioners. But there are no such powers attached to journalistic organizations, largely be-