News-Council.org
Title
Minnesota News Council | Home Page
Description
Members
The News Council's membership consists of 24 volunteer members and a hearing chairperson. Twelve of the members are from the public at large, and 12 are from the media. Members do not represent the news outlets or organizations they work for; they participate as independent professionals.
Members serve a three-year term, which can be renewed once. Anyone can apply for membership. Members are chosen through an application and interview process by sitting members on a membership committee.
In the late 1960s the Minnesota Newspaper Association recognized that public trust in the news media was declining. The association, which represents the interests of about 385 papers across the state (25 or so of them dailies, most of the rest weeklies), dispatched a University of Minnesota journalism professor, Ed Gerald, to study the work of the British Press Council in London. He was impressed with its ability to resolve complaints and to restore public trust, and he came back urging the association to start a news council here.
