Reporter charged in Minnesota

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/22/2000

KMSP-TV Minneapolis reporter Tom Lyden was charged in criminal court last week for lifting a videotape of dogfighting from a car at the scene of a police investigation (B & C, May 15).

Lyden said he could not comment last week, but is expected to fight the charges. He told B & C prior to being charged that, while some of his peers believe that he pushed the envelope, he was an aggressive reporter whose responsibility was to the story he was doing on dogfighting. Prosecutors are unlikely to seek jail time.

Earlier last week, the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists condemned Lyden's act as unethical and in violation of SPJ's ethics code.