Voter polls + COVID comparisons

Selective math can result in misinformation [View this email online]( [NPR Public Editor by Poynter's Kelly McBride]( It’s Monday not Thursday, so why is this letter in your inbox? Our plan had been to do a column with an in-depth analysis of NPR’s coverage of the debate. And when we didn’t get that turned around in 24 hours, we thought, “Let’s just hold this newsletter one day and send it out on Friday as we post the column.” And then President Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, and suddenly it felt unreasonable to be asking NPR senior editors to keep looking back at the debate, while they were scrambling to cover the president’s health. So here’s our plan: We are expanding our analysis of the debate coverage into a broader look at some of the themes that emerged. When that column is ready, we will ship it to you. If you have suggestions for stories or topics we should include in this exam, send us an email or a tweet. In the meantime, we received some great audience questions that merit some scrutiny. 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](. Reporting on polls Andrew Schemetow writes: Should Domenico Montanaro have [mentioned]( that the Marist poll showed Trump up 50-46 with Latino voters in FL? He [called out]( Monmouth's result showing a Biden lead but left out important context. He alluded to the result when calling it contradictory to Monmouth, but that could include any Marist result from a narrow Biden lead to a double digit Trump lead. NPR’s coverage of polls is a small part of its election coverage, Domenico Montanaro told us in an email. This [story]( from Franco Ordoñez provides additional context on Latino voters leaning toward Trump in Florida. Even the best polls can be misinterpreted. And the margin of error matters. In the Marist/NBC poll, Trump’s lead with Latino voters isn’t as conclusive, once the 4.5 percent margin of error is factored in. “The surveys showed contradictory findings when it came to Latinos,” Montenaro wrote in the article. “Monmouth had Biden with a large lead among Latinos but still underperforming what Hillary Clinton got with the group in 2016.” Look out for more on this topic in the coming weeks. Kelly is putting together a more complete analysis of NPR’s use of polls in election coverage. —Meredith Roaten A Deutsche Bank study, really? Muriel Nelson writes: I am a long-time NPR supporter and listener, but this morning I was surprised to hear David Brancaccio, on Marketplace Morning Report, [present a study]( from Deutsche Bank as his only source for a story. Red flag: only one source! Worse: a much-discredited source! As NPR and others have reported, Deutsche Bank has been involved in questionable dealings with Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and others. It is incumbent on the journalist to select studies that reveal a new and interesting insight and that also stand up to scrutiny. For a more complete examination of NPR’s standards for selecting which studies to highlight, see former Public Editor Elizabeth Jensen’s [previous column](. In this case, Brancaccio told us this data-driven study passed that test. (Marketplace Morning Report is distributed by NPR, but created by Marketplace, which is owned by APM.) The lead author, Deutsche Bank’s global head of technology and investment strategy, is a credible authority. Brancaccio added that more stories are needed on racial inequities, and the study being from Deutsche Bank should not be a disqualifier. “Had it been a Deutsche Bank report about money laundering or Jeffrey Epstein, I think that would have been a different matter,” he said in an email. Controversy about one part of an organization isn’t necessarily cause to dismiss other divisions. We did wonder why Deutsche Bank was even interested in this topic, and found the answer deep in the study. “We believe that regardless of who wins the elections in November, scrutiny is going to turn away from China and onto Big Tech & Digital Inequality, especially Digital Racial inequality. Our study shows that only 1 in 3 Americans now hold a positive view of Big Tech.” So the bank is prodding big tech to get its house in order before government regulators take aim. Good to know. — Meredith Roaten 'Dismissing' Trump's taxes Richard Sackett writes: The use of the word "[dismisses]( [in a headline about a New York Times report on President Trump’s taxes gives] Trump power to ignore or discard this news. It would be more accurate to say "denied" or "calls it 'fake news'" rather than imply he has powers he seeks to usurp that he does not have. The bigger problem was leading with Trump’s reaction to the news, rather than the actual news. But NPR had many, many approaches to this big, exclusive investigation by the New York Times. And most of them summarized the Times’ journalism, explained the context and delved into the political ramification in a way that answered questions for the audience. It’s a big story. The coverage is still unfolding. I’m watching. But I like what I see so far. — Kelly McBride Percentages matter when it comes to COVID deaths Shyam Sunder writes: The news bulletin [on Tuesday] repeated scary, but misleading [information] about Covid in India, using a comparison of absolute numbers for a country 4.5 times the population of the US whose infections are declining in absolute numbers as well as per capita rate. The actual data [per capita] on Covid infections and deaths in India, US, and every other country in the world are readily available. Raw numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths absolutely do distort country-to-country comparisons especially when comparing the U.S. and India. We’ve seen raw numbers used on several NPR platforms, like in Tuesday’s edition of [Up First]( and in Monday’s [installment of Goats and Soda](. This is a disservice to news consumers who are awash in incomplete and contradictory data about the pandemic. Last week NPR reported that the U.S. led the world in both infections (7.1 million) and in deaths (200,000+). We also heard that India was overtaking the U.S. in infections. Your point that India has a much larger population is important. This [chart]( from Johns Hopkins shows that the U.S. has 64 deaths per 100,000 people, while India only has 7.5. Global health correspondent Nurith Aizenman, noted that she did tell the audience that India’s death toll per capita is less significant than the raw number in the Goats and Soda piece as well as during interviews on [Morning Edition]( and [All Things Considered.]( “Our mentions of this point were brief given the usual time and space constraints, of course,” she said in an email. Vikki Valentine, the deputy senior supervising science editor, said that it’s impossible to focus on cases per capita, because many of the countries at that top of that list are relatively small. While the suffering in those countries is significant, it’s important to convey the “sheer scale of human suffering” in the countries that top the raw data list. “We do in fact enable readers of [our world map]( to toggle between looking at cases per capita vs. numerically,” Valentine said. “Internally, we have kept, and will continue to keep, an eye on the deaths-per-capita rankings so as to identify and inform our audience about countries that rank highly and also have a substantial number of cases -- even if that number doesn’t put them in, say, the top 10 numerically. A current example is Argentina.” NPR’s science desk is respected and robust. Their newsroom-wide guidance on when to use raw data and when to use per capita data is thoughtful. Perhaps one additional caution could be added, whenever using one number, the context of the other is always important and should not be given short shrift. — Kelly McBride Spotlight on The Public Editor spends a lot of time examining moments where NPR fell short. Yet we also learn a lot about NPR by looking at work that we find to be compelling and excellent journalism. Here we share a line or two about the pieces where NPR shines. A painful death [illustration of inmate receiving lethal injection]( Nicole Xu for NPR INVESTIGATIONS [Gasping For Air: Autopsies Reveal Troubling Effects Of Lethal Injection]( What happens to inmates after they are injected with the drug cocktail intended to execute them? This NPR [investigation on the effects of lethal injection]( on the human body is a great example of NPR’s enterprise journalism. A team from All Things Considered worked on this investigation for two years, using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain more than 300 autospies for inmates executed by lethal injection over the past 30 years in nine states. Asking questions about how we mete out our harshest judicial punishment isn’t for the journalistically faint of heart. Host Ailsa Chang and producer Noah Caldwell wade through the medical terminology and legal jargon and make the science and legal processes behind the controversial execution method easy to understand. Takeaway: More than 80 percent of inmates showed signs of pulmonary edema, a condition that would have caused them to feel as if they were drowning before they died. The storytellers don’t leave it there. Chang interviews a man who has been waiting for 35 years for his wife’s murderer to be executed by lethal injection. His story is heartbreaking and crystalizes just how complicated the scientific and legal battles are. — Meredith Roaten Desus & Mero bring laughs to Weekend Edition Sunday Weekend Edition Sunday ['The Bodega Boys' Desus And Mero Offer Life Advice In New Book]( When I saw Lulu Garcia-Navarro had an interview with Desus Nice and The Kid Mero from Showtime’s late-night comedy series Desus & Mero, I got ready to laugh. For the unfamiliar, the quick-witted Bronx-bred duo rose to fame with their podcast, Bodega Boys. They talk about pop culture, music and politics and have celebrities and politicians on as guests. Now they’ve got a book out. You can say that I’m a member of their fanbase, aptly called the Bodega Hive. Recently on Weekend Edition Sunday, Desus & Mero [talked about their new book]( [God-Level Knowledge Darts](. The advice book covers everything from relationships to children and sports. Garcia-Navarro burst out laughing a minute into the interview after she asked them to explain their relationship advice on finding a partner who matches your gastrointestinal issues. This interview does double duty, introducing NPR’s audience to new options and maybe introducing Desus & Mero’s audience to NPR. — Amaris Castillo Are we there yet? [surgical mask]( Malorny/Getty Images POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR [Predictions Of How COVID-19 Will Impact Pop Culture]( This [episode]( of Pop Culture Happy Hour asks the question everyone wants to know: What is really going to happen after all of this is over? The answer isn’t exactly satisfying, because, of course, no one knows, but listening to these four pals debate back and forth will make you smarter. Will live theater defy purists with a funding model that relies on an on-demand streaming service? Will television shows figure out how to film during a pandemic? Will a new medium emerge using Zoom meetings or online dating? Will filmmakers and writers delay creating content about quarantine because of how sick everyone is of it? Or will fiction eagerly embrace the universal experience of social isolation? This episode finds clever reminders that there will be a time after this moment and just like any historical turning point, there’s a lot of great art to look forward to. Also Pop Culture Happy Hour’s new host Aisha Harris came up with the idea for this episode. It’s not her first appearance on the show, but it’s exciting to see the creativity she is already bringing to the team. — Meredith Roaten Behind the Scenes This is how the news gets made. We want your ideas for how we can do it better. The Business Desk finds faces of the pandemic By Meredith Roaten Business Correspondent Alina Selyukh became an American citizen the same week most employees NPR were sent home. The celebratory American bunting, flags and snacks that her team used to decorate her desk are still sitting up at NPR HQ. She now sets up shop at her kitchen table, and uses her coat closet to record stories and two-ways for the magazine shows. Selyukh said NPR’s business desk has been able to tell business stories through a variety of viewpoints throughout the pandemic, in part because of direct call-outs on social media and NPR’s website. Here’s how she works from her home in Washington, D.C. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.) [Alina Selyukh at her desk]( Selyukh works from home. What does your work station look like? I spent the first two months working on my couch, after which I realized that was not sustainable. My back was unhappy and I finally made the decision that I would convert our dining table, which is this foldout table, into my workspace. So now I work at the dining table and we eat on the couch. I’ve got a monitor that's mounted on the wall and a nice office chair. What’s a typical day? I'm sure there's no such thing as a typical day. Some days are really heavy on interviews, some days are really heavy on research, some days are really heavy on breaking news. Physically, 90 percent of my day [is] spent at the kitchen table, staring at the screen. I have been terrible at reminding myself to go outside, especially early on, when all the reporting was just very emotional and very intense. People were losing jobs en masse and we were covering that day in and day out. I found myself realizing that I had not gone outside in a week and a half. So now I’m better about forcing myself to leave the apartment. Has your work slowed down any since the pandemic started? Our desk is really good about finding space to do both the very serious and very emotional stories as well as the lighthearted, fun features. I have been able to do a couple of those and they take your mind elsewhere. I got to do a [story about house dresses](. I treated that as my creative outpouring in an ode to minor comforts in life or a major comfort in life. There have been stories like that and even some economic stories, I try to make them more accessible and more fun. There's still millions of people unemployed, thousands of people facing eviction, unable to pay rent, and we continue to do those stories. I feel proud of the work that I'm contributing to and the coverage that I contribute to, but it's also very nice to sometimes do a story about house dresses or [refrigerator shortages](. How has the business desk adapted content for this time? We’re in a historic recession, and that’s been a driving force. It's just ingrained in our team that we tell these big economic stories and financial stories through the lens of people who are living through them. We did a series of call-outs which helped us hear from hundreds of people sharing their stories of living through the changes that the pandemic wreaked on their budgets and their households. We've done three or four call-outs like that, and they've led to dozens of stories about the real impact of the recession, evictions, PPP access, access to funding and childcare, access to protective gear, the whole wave of essential workers kind of raising red flags about the circumstances in which they were working, all of these different stories we've been able to tell. It was very illuminating to read responses to our call-outs early on as people were laying out the biggest problems they were facing:, these are our concerns, these are our fears and worries. One of the early stories that stands out to me had to do with very unexpected concentric circles of the [headwinds against the tourism industry](. We did a series of stories about hotels and airlines, and then reading these answers, I realized how many people depend on the tourism industry. For example, people who run museums and galleries. or a woman who dog sits who used to depend on people traveling for spring break and suddenly found herself unable to afford the repairs for a leaky roof, and even the roofer she couldn’t afford to hire was out of work because of the tourism industry. Have you picked up any hobbies or activities during the pandemic for de-stressing? I bake, but it’s not particularly new. It's just now I don't have a communal kitchen to drop off my baked goods. The first few months I was extremely diligent about working out, but I kind of pulled back on that lately because the weather is nice. So I just go on walks and watch a lot of mindless TV. My family's in Russia, and in a weird way, because they were also home all day long during the pandemic, we stayed more connected than usual. The time difference makes it difficult, but now everyone’s constantly online and it’s easier to find moments to chat. I was supposed to go visit my family and we had to cancel that trip, so I haven’t seen them in a year. But now I can video chat for five minutes in between interviews, which would have been much weirder in the office. What’s your favorite story you’ve worked on? I was able to co-report and co-write a [story]( about essential workers working for the gig economy as well as the food industry with my colleague Shannon Bond. Being able to elevate the voices of the workers who at the time were front and center saying that people were thanking them, but they were either in the process of losing the extra little extra pay that the companies were paying or they never even received extra pay. Many of them have concerns about their inability to get access to masks, to get access to shields, to get access to hand sanitizer. It was a very important story and it was a very big story in the sense that we really took a step back and pointed out this important moment in labor. The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Researchers Amaris Castillo and Meredith Roaten make this newsletter possible. We are still reading all of your messages on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [from our inbox](. As always, keep them coming. Kelly McBride NPR Public Editor Chair, [Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute]( Meredith Roaten, National Public Radio [Kelly McBride, Public Editor ]( Kelly McBride, Public Editor [Amaris Castillo, Poynter Institute]( Amaris Castillo, 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. 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