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Jon Collins
St. Paul, Minn.

Community group demands on-air apology for #pointergate

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Mayor Betsy Hodges
Mayor Betsy Hodges poses for a photo in a screengrab from a KSTP news report. The report claims that she is flashing a gang sign in this photo.
KSTP

A community group at the heart of the "pointergate" uproar is asking KSTP to apologize for the story aired by the television station on Thursday night, which alleged that Mayor Betsy Hodges made a gang sign while posing in a photograph with a convicted felon.

The photo of the two pointing at one another was taken while the mayor was working to get out the vote in north Minneapolis with the group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC). The man Hodges was pictured with, Navell Gordon, has a criminal record, and has been an organizer with the community group for about two years. A spokesperson for Hodges has said that the two were merely pointing.

Criticisms of the story coalesced around the hashtag #pointergate following its broadcast, leading to thousands of posts that included satire, commentary and articles in national media.

• NewsCut: A question of racism remains
 • Related: The missing context

As criticism of the story mounted, Gordon said his friends and family urged Gordon to keep doing his work as an organizer and stay away from trouble.

"We do good work, and you can see that in a couple of the videos," Gordon said. "A lot of people said, 'This is wrong.'"

NOC Executive Director Anthony Newby said his organization and Gordon are asking KSTP for a formal, on-air apology to Gordon. He said the story, which didn't name Gordon and blurred his face, reduced him to a stand-in for a scary African-American criminal.

The group intentionally hires people with criminal backgrounds who have served their time.

"He's a human being, he's a valued member of our community," Newby said. "We have our own facts, our stories to tell, and KSTP will not be the broker of Navell Gordon's story."

About 3,000 people have signed an online petition launched by the organization in the last 36 hours.

"The response from the community at large has been powerful, and folks have pushed back on the piece," Newby said. "We want to get as many people as possible looped in on this message of media accountability."

Newby said neither his organization nor Gordon have heard from any editors or reporters at KSTP about their concerns.

KSTP, owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, issued a statement standing by the story on Friday. Other online groups are asking for a boycott of the station's advertisers. KSTP's news director did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Neither Hodges' office nor the president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis responded to requests for comment on Monday.