By Michael J. McCarthy
The Wall Street Journal

MINNEAPOLIS -- Lou Gelfand, 80 years old, has had the longest run in one of the least desirable jobs in publishing: 22 years as the one-man complaint department for the Star Tribune.

Whenever a reader has a complaint about anything ‹ the size of a headline, biased reporting, a wrong high-school sports score ‹ Mr. Gelfand fields the calls and e-mails. His weekly column, called "If You Ran the Newspaper," deals with everything from charges that the paper slants the news with a liberal bias, to complaints about misquotation, to whether a reporter¹s use of the word "kerfuffle" to denote an uproar was too highfalutin.

Officially, Mr. Gelfand is an ombudsman, a term borrowed from a word of Scandinavian origin for an independent investigator of citizen complaints against the government. As such, Mr. Gelfand is a rarity ‹ one of only about two dozen ombudsmen who write columns at the nation¹s 1,400-odd daily newspapers. The Star Tribune, part of the McClatchy Co. chain, has a daily circulation of about 375,000 and 669,000 on Sundays.

Among the 10 largest papers in the U.S., only Washington Post Co.¹s Washington Post and Tribune Co.¹s Chicago Tribune have ombudsmen. However, the recent uproar over credibility at the New York Times Co.¹s New York Times has sparked new interest in the position. "The New York Times said they didn¹t have many complaints" about inaccuracies in stories by now-discredited reporter Jayson Blair, says the plainspoken Mr. Gelfand. "Of course -- if people don¹t know who the hell to complain to."

In fact, the New York Times, which has long resisted calls for an ombudsman, has said internally that a committee reviewing newsroom practices after the Blair episode will consider whether to appoint one. Asked about an ombudsman at The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., Paul E. Steiger, managing editor, said, "I¹m thinking about it."

In a newsroom, the ombudsman is often like an internal-affairs officer in the police department, he or she must essentially pick apart the work of colleagues ‹ then print the details. "We say people never ask us to lunch," says Gina Lubrano, ombudsman for the past 11 years at the San Diego Union-Tribune, owned by Copley Press Inc., La Jolla, Calif.

A white-haired man with a slight frame and impish smile, Mr. Gelfand is an imposing presence at the newspaper. "Sometimes when he walks in the newsroom, like the grim reaper, people want to jump under their desks," says Curt Brown, a reporter who has been rapped in Mr. Gelfand¹s column.

Many newspaper editors and executives are cold on the ombudsman role. When a reader complaint comes in, says Anthony Ridder, chief executive officer of Knight Ridder Inc., the large newspaper chain, "instead of an ombudsman, the editor ought to be held accountable."

Like several other papers, Tribune Co.¹s Los Angeles Times has a reader representative, or advocate, who deals with people about routine news-coverage complaints, oversees corrections and issues a weekly report to the staff. But, unlike Mr. Gelfand, she doesn¹t publish her findings.

In Mr. Gelfand¹s weekly column, he lists his phone number and e-mail address, adding that he "catches bouquets and brickbats" Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mostly, though, it¹s brickbats. He got several calls from readers upset over the paper¹s recent four-page section on the Dixie Chicks, the country-music singers who caused a national dustup in March after one of them said she was ashamed President Bush was from Texas.

"I hate to see so much paper wasted on them," said one caller, adding that the Star Tribune had a "hidden agenda" in giving the band such prominence. Mr. Gelfand promised to pass her comment along to the editors, as he does daily an afternoon news meeting ‹ the "4 p.m. huddle." Mr. Gelfand also recommends corrections based on errors brought to his attention.

Editors may say they can fill the role of an ombudsman, but Mr. Gelfand calls that "ludicrous." "On an average day, I get 30 to 35 calls," he says. "Can an editor answer that many reader calls?" The real reason so few editors have ombudsmen, he says: "They don¹t want somebody writing something negative that reflects back on them."

Scott Gillespie, the Star Tribune¹s managing editor, says he doesn¹t always agree with Mr. Gelfand¹s columns but finds him fair overall.

Mr. Gelfand arrived at the Star Tribune in 1981, after 17 years in public relations at Pillsbury Co. He currently makes $72,800 a year. While it¹s his job to pass judgment, Mr. Gelfand is sometimes humbled, too. In a column last year, he questioned his paper¹s choice of a headline and quoted an editor as part of the paper¹s response. In the following week¹s column, he conceded he had put the quotation in the wrong editor¹s mouth.

This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal on June 16, 2003.