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As a young producer at KSTP-TV Minneapolis, I worked on a promo that posed the question: Does raw milk cause cancer? As you might imagine, the series was controversial. Before the piece was aired, the station’s lawyer reviewed both the news reports and the promo to ensure accuracy and fairness. Despite happening some 45 years ago, I remember this particular assignment because I was asked to bring the edited promo to the station owner and show it to him.
At that point in my nascent career, I had never spoken to him, and I am certain he had no idea who I was. After playing the tape, he asked me if the lawyer had seen it and told me not to worry about anything — we were running the series and the promo as is. If the Dairy Association wanted to complain, it certainly was free to do so.
This was my first experience with station management standing their ground, and it left an indelible impression on me. Decades later, I would find myself taking calls from irate Illinois governors and Chicago mayors as well as numerous aldermen and other influential individuals upset with a story we were working on or had recently aired.
We went to great pains to make sure our facts were indisputable and our coverage fair. I never enjoyed those phone calls or encounters, but I wore them like a badge of honor because I knew we were doing our job and sometimes that meant upsetting powerful people in