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KSTP: Newscast should have disclosed corporate ties to pro-Emmer ad

By David Brauer | 07/20/10

KSTP-TV News Director Lindsay Radford isn't mincing any words: her newsroom "should have disclosed" owner Hubbard Broadcasting Inc.'s ties in stories about MnForward's pro-Tom Emmer ads.

HBI has contributed $100,000 to MnForward, a business group that released a TV ads supporting Emmer, out of the $450,000 the group has raised so far. Initially, a KSTP web story did not include the link; now it does.

Radford notes the TV side did a roughly 15-second story on the campaign's debut that also didn't mention the connection. That, too, was a mistake, she says, and all future stories involving MnForward will include the HBI-donation disclaimer.

While HBI patriarch Stanley Hubbard is a longtime GOP donor, the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United decision gave corporations the right to directly advocate for a candidate's election. Radford says HBI officials did not tell her they'd made the donation. Asked if corporate will tell the newsroom the next time they pony up, Radford says, "Yes." 

Because of the Hubbard family's frequent donations, she says KSTP "gets painted with a broad brush" as being a GOP station; however, if the station wants to be perceived as presenting "unbiased news, we have to set the bar higher. We have to disclose [donor ties]."

Radford says the MnForward ad will undergo a "Truth Test," a regular fact-checking segment by political reporter Tom Hauser, and the HBI-MnForward link will definitely be included.

Comments (6)

Submitted by Aaron Landry on July 20, 2010 - 12:25pm.

That's going to be interesting. The already-biased "Truth Test" segment doing an analysis of a political ad they (and Target and Polaris) paid for.

Not having a disclaimer is one thing, but critiquing an ad that you fund is another. Whether they give it an F or an A+, it doesn't matter: they're drawing attention to messaging for a cause they're bankrolling. Totally inappropriate.

Submitted by Hiram Foster on July 20, 2010 - 1:00pm.

KSTP needs to report that they are financial supporters of the Emmer campaign as part of each story they do about the governor's race.

Submitted by David Galitz on July 20, 2010 - 1:07pm.

That corporate didn't disclose their contribution to the newsroom isn't an excuse.

That's basic information that should have been discovered during the reporter's investigation of the story.

Submitted by Matt Steele on July 20, 2010 - 1:26pm.

Agreed with Hiram - Where does it lead us when media companies can back a campaign financially, then obscure that with their reporting? HBI should be ashamed.

Submitted by Eric Ferguson on July 20, 2010 - 1:56pm.

I'll go one further than Hiram, and say they should repeat the disclosure not just when reporting on Emmer, but on anything regarding the governor race. Even at that though, KSTP is hopelessly compromised as a news source.

Submitted by Rob Levine on July 20, 2010 - 3:48pm.

This episode just points up the futility of TV news' self-presentation as "objective." KSTP should just acknowledge reality and declare its Republican partisanship, then we call all move on. There is literally NOTHING they can do to resolve the inherent conflicts of a highly partisan and involved owner of a large media company. All the "declarations" of contributions, etc., are just window dressings.