The First Amendment protects the press from overt Government intervention, and journalists enjoy rigorous self-criticism about as much as other mortals. Who then should systematically keep the news media honest? One proposed answer is press councils—voluntary bodies with both press and public representation that would hear specific complaints and judge them. Last year the Minnesota Press Association organized the first statewide council in the country. That body last week made its first finding, one that went against the press, and was accepted with good grace.
The St. Paul Union Advocate, a labor weekly, had charged that Minnesota House Majority Leader Ernest Lindstrom...
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