The Minnesota News Council: Developing Standards for Press Ethics

The legitimacy and moral authority of the National News Council (USA)

“…In a study on the MNC, Schafer (1981) examined all of the Council's decisions and found that in several areas -access, accuracy and privacy -they provided significant ethical guidance. Although many see this as a useful role for councils, others say it raises the specter of council rulings being used to establish legal standards -something Farrar (1986) later warned against.…”

Minnesota News Council: Principles, Precedent, and Moral Authority

“…(Gerald, 1980, #217) 5 In a 1981 speech to the Council, Gerald said the Council had established "an ability to follow principles" and that "Cases already decided are rich sources of ethical principle and accepted journalistic practice" (Gerald, 1980, #172). That same year in an article in the Journalism Quarterly, Robert Schafer (1981) concluded, "The accessed by following the link in the citation at the bottom of the page. Ethics, Vol.…”