Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman has released a statement Friday afternoon regarding a verbal altercation between a House DFL communications staffer and a political reporter from MinnPost.
A coalition of media organizations had sent a letter to House DFL leadership complaining about the treatment reporter Peter Callaghan received by House DFL spokesman Matt Rosznowski during a February press conference.
Hortman speaking with WCCO's Chad Hartman last hour said the entire story hasn’t been told yet.
“It is a very strange place where we find ourselves,” said Hortman. “But I will tell you Chad, that the entire story has not been told.”
House leadership told MinnPost at the time that Callaghan’s behavior raised ‘serious concerns’ under the House policy on discrimination and harassment.
Several other news organizations have joined in the complaint, including the Minnesota Reformer. Reformer Editor Patrick Coolican joined WCCO’s Vineeta Sawkar and explained why they were also concerned. He explains that reporters were trying to get more questions answered at a press conference.
“He (Callaghan) kind of sardonically said, ‘no, we can take lots more questions, we need to understand this bill’ and for whatever reason, this really set off this DFL spokesperson, and after the press conference concluded, he really got up into Peter’s face and was being really aggressive, and threatening to call his editor and so forth,” explains Coolican. “Peter responded, and if you know Peter you wouldn’t be surprised, with a profanity.
Maybe not the best behavior, but also kind of understandable given the circumstances.”
Coolican goes on to say that this sort of contentious relationship between journalist and political players is not unusual, adding that it can at times be adversarial.
The statement from Hortman in its entirety reads:
“The Minnesota House of Representatives and Minnesota House DFL have always been open and accessible with Minnesota reporters, with staff who work tirelessly to be responsive and helpful. Minnesota is fortunate to have many dedicated journalists, and we fully support the free press and their First Amendment rights.
“Following a press conference in February, the House Director of Human Resources responded to concerns regarding Peter Callaghan’s behavior at the press conference.
“In the past, the House policy on workplace conduct was inadequate to protect employees. In 2018, at my insistence, the policy was updated and revised in response to a series of sexual harassment incidents in the Minnesota House of Representatives. The policy now requires that when there is an allegation of conduct that violates the House Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment, the House must take action whether or not the conduct meets a statutory definition of harassment or discrimination. The policy requires that whether the alleged actor is a third party or is internal, the House must take prompt action to address the behavior. We are obligated to take action, and we did.
“As Speaker, I will continue to follow the policies of the House and work to provide a safe and respectful workplace for members, staff, press, lobbyists, and the public.”
MinnPost Excutive Director Tanner Curl wrote that the reasons they sent the letter to the DFL is because they were concerned over the treatment of Peter Callaghan.
“Following our core value of transparency, we’re sharing that letter below, which details the situation and why we, along with our coalition partners, were disturbed by this episode.”
You can read the letter sent to the House DFL here.