Journalism at UMD

News councils can be simply defined as an alternative means of settling disputes with the media. In regions that do not have a news council, a person who feels they have been libeled by the media only has one path to retribution: a lengthy and expensive fight in the court system. If the person who feels wronged happens to be a public figure, it has become extremely him/her difficult win such a case. News councils offer a solution.

John Hamer is the Executive Director of the WNC. Before his work for the council, Hamer received a Masters in journalism from Stanford University, and worked as a journalist for many years. He also worked on the editorial board for the Seattle Times for 13 years. He said that the media needs an outside organization, such as a news council, to hold them to ethical models, such as honesty and transparency; the same models that the media expects from institutions they cover everyday.

"I continue to believe that there needs to be fundamental standards of ethics that are encouraged," Hamer said.

While news councils do not have any legal authority, Hamer said they can instill change through the power of publicity. Since its creation in 1998, the WNC has received 24 formal complaints and held a total of four official hearings.

"The people we have helped say that we have helped them hugely," Hamer said.

The main advocates against news councils, at least in the State of Washington, seem to be the media. Out of the four official hearings held by the WNC, the media organizations involved did not attend one.

"None have had the guts to show up in person," Hamer said. "They are shooting themselves in the foot."

Hamer said that the media organizations did partake in the hearings indirectly, through written statements or on the pages of their own editorial sections. Still, Hamer said he has received input from the Washington public expressing dismay at the lack of media participation in the WNC's hearings.

Recently, WNC/media relations heated up once again. Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO-TV aired two reports: one a few weeks prior to the 2008 Election, then another the night before Election Day. These reports alleged that Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed's office was negligent in preventing voter fraud. The first newscast reported that thousands of felons in the State of Washington were being allowed to vote and that the Secretary of State was not working to correct the problem. The second report alleged that the names of deceased voters names were being used to cast ballots in the state. Both of the reports can be viewed online through the WNC's Web site, www.wanewscouncil.org.

According to Secretary of State's Communications Director David Ammons, these reports were inaccurate.

"We were quite stunned when the stories came out," he said.

According to Ammons, the information in the videos was wrong. The video about felon voters contained an interview of a woman, Tracy Wilkinson, who was said to be a felon, and was still being permitted to cast ballots. Ammons said that the woman was, in reality, a misdemeanant who had never lost her right to vote.

The video alleging that the deceased were "voting from beyond the grave" contained an interview of an elderly widow of one of the alleged "dead voters." Ammons said that the reporter simply confused the name of the dead man with that of his living son, who had the same name and address. He said that KIRO was contacted to notify them of the inaccuracies on Election Day, but that the news station did not initially reply.

Having been a political writer in the State of Washington for the Associate Press for 37 years, Ammons said that he is familiar to the ethical standards journalists work under, and that he understands that news organizations will normally post some sort of correction when notified of inaccurate reports.

"It was like they didn't care," Ammons said of KIRO.

Secretary of State Reed said that he was "appalled" when he learned of the incorrect stories.

"In this day and age [the stories were] put up on other websites and blogs. We got a lot of feedback from disenchanted voters," Reed said.

Reed said that the reports were damaging to his office in that they unduly tarnished the trust between him and the voters that he represents. He also said that the damage control over the reports interfered with his work during a busy legislative session.

Both Reed and Ammons said that after KIRO could not be contacted about the inaccuracies, they filed a complaint with the WNC. They provided the evidence against KIRO, and also made sure that KIRO received the same information.

Despite the allegations against his stories, KIRO investigative reporter Chris Halsne said that he stands by what he reported.

"I wasn't confused in any way shape or form," Halsne said. "We take all complaints seriously, but we didn't get anything wrong."

According to Halsne, the allegation that Tracy Wilkinson is not a felon, but a misdemeanant, is incorrect.

"We talked to a judge about it; Wilkinson said she's was a felon. They [Reed's Office and the WNC] are absolutely dead wrong on that," he said.

Halsne stands by his report of the deceased man's name being used to cast a ballot saying that he found the dead man's name, and 1920 birthday, on the active voter roll. According to Halsne the name was removed from the roll when KIRO pointed it out.

According to David Ammons, KIRO did eventually contact Reed's office offering to pull the reports in question off of the TV station's Web site, but only if the office would agree not to notify the WNC about the deal. Reed's office declined. Eventually, Ammons said the reports were pulled off of the Web site.

Halsne admits that there was discussion between KIRO and Reed's office about removing the stories, but that the deal that was offered has been blown out of proportion. He said that KIRO simply told Reed's office that they simply did not wish to work through the WNC.

"The organization [WNC] is not interested in making media fare, it is run by people who are out to make the media look bad," Halsne said. "We will not work with the news council."

Halsne said that the fact that no other media organizations have participated in the official hearings conducted by the WNC is a justification for KIRO's refusal to work with the news council.

According to Halsne the stories were never actually pulled off KIRO's Web site. He said that since KIRO produces dozens of stories a day, the voter fraud reports were simply allowed, like all KIRO stories, to be pushed off of the site's archive. He also said the viewership of the stories had become extremely low, so there was really no reason keep them on the site. Letting the reports disappear was seen by KIRO as a compromise.

"We thought, 'if we can make a politician happy, we'll let them drop off,'" Halsne said.

Even though the Secretary of State's office did file a complaint with the WNC, the office decided not to pursue an official hearing for the case.

"A hearing would have involved more time," said Ammons. "It had already been several months."

Despite the decision not to hold a formal hearing, Reed thinks that working with the WNC has been a good decision.

"The WNC has done a great job at getting the information out," he said.

John Hamer said that, while there will be no formal hearing, the WNC has decided to hold a "virtual hearing" on the internet. Anyone can go to the WNC's Web site, look over the complaints submitted by the Secretary of State, and vote on whether or not the complaints filed are justified.

Hamer said that this virtual hearing is part of an effort by the WNC "reinvent" itself for the internet, and to get the public involved and educated on the issues that the news council deals with. Although he is unsure if the WNC will continue to exist in the coming years, he said that the organization has recently begun to make use of civic networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. According to Hamer, these tools will allow the organization to survive in the rapidly changing environment of electronic media.

According to the WNC's Web site, there are three other councils in the United States: The Honolulu Community Media Council, the Minnesota News Council (MNC), and the New England News Forum. Members of these councils consist of people from a variety of different backgrounds including business, politics, and the media.

The WNC was based on the structure of the Minnesota News Council. According to its Web site, the MNC has been around since 1970.