The AG spread misinformation on NPR’s airwaves

A Morning Edition host missed several chances to get listeners accurate information. [View this email online]( [NPR Public Editor by Poynter's Kelly McBride]( This Week's Column Perhaps the least exciting thing in our world is that Kelly finally finished the column looking at Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep's interview with U.S. Attorney General William Barr. (We know, that interview happened three weeks ago, and we forgive you if you’ve forgotten about it.) Among the many things Inskeep and Barr discussed was mail-in voting, which gave Barr the opportunity to perpetuate the dubious theory that foreign agents will infiltrate the presidential election with counterfeit mail-in ballots. While some of our listeners immediately saw Barr’s statements as false, we had to get up to speed with what the experts know, and then listen carefully to the interview over and over. Which is the exact reason that citizens rely on journalists to help us sort through what’s true and what’s false. [Attorney General Bill Barr in the Oval Office]( Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images [NPR Let The US Attorney General Tell A Falsehood On The Air]( [Read the column]( On My Mind There’s so much content worthy of praise, criticism or just a bit of conversation. Here's what caught your attention or mine. The letters [Thomas Chatterton Williams portrait]( Thomas Chatterton Williams AMERICA RECKONS WITH RACE [Thomas Chatterton Williams On Debate, Criticism And The Letter In 'Harper's Magazine']( You might have noticed, journalism is in the middle of its own revolution, and NPR is definitely a part of that. A week ago, more than 150 noted authors, thought-leaders and academics signed what has come to be known as [“the Harper’s letter,”]( a short note scolding some of the media’s reformers for “ideological conformity,” which the authors believe is constricting a free exchange of ideas. Three days later, [a response]( was posted on a brand-new startup media criticism site, [The Objective.]( That letter faults the Harper’s crowd for dismissing angry voices as conformists without acknowledging that many of those who are demanding reforms come from diverse communities and have been let in the door but denied any real decision-making power. The Objective letter was supported by more than 160 people, including two dozen who listed their organization or profession, but not their name. Four were from NPR and two others listed public radio as their affiliation. Over the weekend, NPR asked the organizer of the Harper’s letter, Thomas Chatterton Williams, [to respond]( to the criticisms in The Objective letter. Kelly's NPR podcast debut [Latino USA's Maria Hinojosa holds her Peobody award]( Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Peabody Awards IT'S BEEN A MINUTE [Reckoning With Race in Journalism]( While all this was happening, Sam Sanders and his team at It’s Been a Minute were working on an episode that came out this week, [“Journalism’s Reckoning with Race.”]( Sanders talks with Soraya Nadia McDonald of The Undefeated about her experiences and dreams for newsrooms, with Futuro Media President Maria Hinojosa, about how she built the Latino USA show and podcast, and why she switched from NPR to PRX as her distributor. The third guest was me, Kelly. I shared some of my theories about the evolution of certain journalism values, like the objective pursuit of the truth and political neutrality. And I offered some advice for newsroom leaders on how our ethics might be changing. The magic of Dolly TED TALKS [How Dolly Parton led me to an epiphany]( All of this and more was making our heads spin. And then we found a small amount of peace listening to a recent [Ted Talk delivered by Jad Abumrad]( the host of WNYC’s Radiolab. Abumrad shared an epiphany about storytelling, something he discovered working on a podcast series about Dolly Parton (which was delightful). Rather than simply telling a story, Abumrad now looks for a path that allows his stories to create a new understanding or experience for his audience. It’s not a simple task, but that seems to be what we are searching for in journalism ethics, a new understanding of roles and responsibilities in democracy. There’s a little comfort in that idea. Happy things I know, I know. NPR wins a lot of awards for its thoughtful, informative journalism. But I don’t get tired of talking about it. Plus, this is the [Radio Hall of Fame.]( Nominees include the late Cokie Roberts, who [dedicated]( her life to covering politics and helped pave the way for women broadcasters. She died last fall after winning three Emmys and the Edward R. Murrow award during her career. Saturday-morning comedic treat Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me also got a nod. Inductees will officially be announced next month. From the Inbox Here are a few quotes from the Public Editor's inbox that resonated with us. You can share your questions and concerns with us through the [NPR Contact page](. Tough interview skills Mark Wilding writes: I wish you guys had gone after Bill Barr with the same relentlessness that [Scott Simon went after Juliette Binoche](. He kept pressing her on Roman Polanski, which seemed a little ridiculous, given that she was just there to talk about her movie. She was clearly ready to move on from the topic but Scott wasn't having it. He kept returning to Polanski and yet I've heard him interview absolutely rancid politicians and let them off with barely a follow-up question. … You guys need to do your job and get in the face of politicians. Your British counterparts absolutely GRILL politicians in their interviews. They actually make them answer for their failures or ridiculous positions on issues. Frankly, they put you to shame. I agree that the Bill Barr interview should have been tougher, that’s what accountability journalism is for. Given the legitimate and ongoing concerns of the #MeToo movement, I didn’t find Simon’s three questions about Polanski inappropriate. And Binoche handled them in a thoughtful way. Behind the Scenes This is how the news gets made. We want your ideas for how we can do it better. How to tell stories about the arts when everything is closed By Meredith Roaten No more movie theaters. No more awards ceremonies. No more music festivals. But for arts reporter Mandalit del Barco, the show must go on. Del Barco and her 8-year-old daughter Amaya started working and homeschooling at adjacent desks in early March. Because she doesn’t have a set meeting time, del Barco calls and emails back and forth with her editor throughout the day and sends a note every morning about what she is working on. There’s not much of a routine in her typical day. When she isn’t writing stories, she’s recording narration in her closet turned studio. When she isn’t doing interviews, she’s trying to brainstorm the subject of her next feature on the world of Hollywood, up-and-coming artists — the “fun stuff,” she calls it. Here’s how she works from her home in Marina Del Rey, Calif. This interview has been edited for clarity. What do you miss most about reporting from the field? Just meeting people and being there when things are happening. The kind of reporting I do, it's not just facts and figures and analysis. I have that in it, but it's more like scenes. You go to a place and recreate the scene of what is happening with a lot of sound, whether it's music or the birds or the traffic or the ocean or any kind of sound that's happening to create like a soundscape for my story. There's a lot of things that I put into my stories that aren't just what they call action tracks and, in other words, kind of straight ahead. I do feature stories. So it's really important to be there. It's sort of like being a photographer. You can't take pictures when you're not there. It's a similar challenge for me now to not be in a place where I can record all the sounds. You have to be really creative in different ways to do the work. How have your stories changed during the work-from-home transition? I'm still trying to come up with creative ways of using sounds. I can continue to use movie and TV clips, music. I'm always thinking of how to find the sounds that I'm going to use. And I'm still doing that. It's just that I'm not being able to go out and record that stuff. The last story that I did, I used from recordings that were done by these[artists who were skywriting pro-immigration messages]( all across the country. And one of them was the phone number that you call that and you can listen to these recordings of these people reading letters from inside a detention center. What has been your biggest challenge filing and finding stories from home? Working and taking care of my daughter was nearly impossible because, first of all, I'm a single mom. So it's just me, as the reporter and teacher and mom and housekeeper and everything else. Half the time her Zoom meetings wouldn't work, and I have to go and spend all this time doing that. As a consequence, I would just help her with her school when I was finished at work. I'd be working and pretty much work all day and all night because I had to work when I could. How do you de-stress while working from home? I bought my daughter a bicycle at the beginning of this, and I dusted off my old bicycle. And so we ride around. I thought I’d spend the summer teaching her to ride her bike, but she just didn’t need to be taught. She just kind of did it. She's a natural. We live in Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful around here. And there's a wonderful bike trail that's like two blocks from here. It goes along the marina, which is the beach up and down the Pacific Ocean. You can ride your bike to Venice Beach, Santa Monica Beach and further south, so we go on long bike rides. Favorite story during quarantine? There was one story that I did that was super fun. It was about a [children's music album called Go Banana Go.]( I interviewed the two musicians who made this album. They told me how their children inspired their lyrics sometimes. It's just a fun thing to get kids to not think about the coronavirus for a little while. So I was interviewing them and, of course, my daughter is there. She interrupted the interview to say, “Mommy, Mommy, I'm going to give the cat a bath.” And I said, “Oh, guys, sorry. My daughter just told me she's gonna give the cat a bath.” They said, “That’s a great idea for a song: Cat bath! Yeah, that would be a disaster, cat bath!” That wouldn't have happened if I just did a story on the album. Because my daughter was there, then I just incorporated it in. What big trends do you think the Public Editor should address? What behind-the-scenes views would you like to see of the NPR team at work? All of our good ideas come from you, the audience. Kelly McBride NPR Public Editor Chair, [Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute]( The Public Editor stands as a source of independent accountability. Created by NPR's board of directors, the Public Editor serves as a bridge between the newsroom and the audience, striving to both listen to the audience's concerns and explain the newsroom's work and ambitions. The office ensures NPR remains steadfast in its mission to present fair, accurate and comprehensive information in service of democracy. [Read more]( from the NPR Public Editor, [contact us]( or follow us on [Twitter](. You received this message because you're subscribed to Public Editor emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy](