(Credit: Washington News Council)

The Washington News Council (WNC) responded to American Journalism Review’s article about news councils in the US — including the Washington News Council, the only state news council still running in the U.S.

The AJR story is a web exclusive for March and April 2011 and takes on the topic of news councils in the U.S.  As iMediaEthics previously reported, the Minnesota News Council recently closed, leaving the Washington News Council as the only state news council.  The AJR article also tracked the history of news councils in the U.S. including reporting that there “once was a National News Council, but it survived little more than a decade, from 1973 to 1984.”

The WNC’s John Hamer summarized his reaction to the article as “Overall, it’s not bad. Well-written, accurate and reasonably balanced, with several different perspectives and lively quotes. To his credit, the reporter called me back twice to double-check facts and run my quotes by me to make sure that’s what I said. Not enough reporters do that, so kudos to AJR.”

Hamer went on to highlight correct statements made throughout the AJR article, but also brought attention to several issues he had with the article.

Besides the AJR’s headline (“Fading Away,” which Hamer called applicable for the Minnesota News Council, but not the WNC), Hamer also criticized AJR for not including “the WNC’s latest really cool projects” and some of the other sources AJR used.  “AJR quotes some folks whose comments are debatable.”

See the AJR story (here) and the WNC’s full response (here). Hat Tip: Romenesko