Whose voice do you hear, Derek Chauvin’s or George Floyd’s?

Who’s at the center of this trial? [View this email online]( [NPR Public Editor by Poynter's Kelly McBride]( Covering an ongoing courtroom trial has historically presented journalists with a number of ethical challenges. It’s reassuring to see the issues that might be taught in a journalism ethics class embedded in the genuine questions that listeners and readers are asking about NPR’s coverage of the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. These questions start with, what do you call it? Is it “Chauvin’s murder trial” or “the trial over George Floyd’s killing”? In covering past dramatic criminal trials, the press has occasionally elevated the name of the alleged criminal so much that the victim is forgotten. At other times, journalists put the victim on trial, as with [Rodney King](. Even though the victims are not on trial, their reputations are often called into question by the lawyers who are defending the accused. That’s certainly the case with Floyd, as the defense tries to convince the jury that he really died from drug usage, in spite of what the video shows. And then there’s the question of what evidence and testimony even makes it into a news story. Criminal trials routinely run four hours to six hours a day, sometimes longer, during which the details of a case are examined in excruciating, sometimes tedious, detail. The courthouse reporter must select the most compelling and significant parts of the day to include in the daily update, without distorting or sensationalizing the facts. If you are watching the trial, you know that on many days lawyers and witnesses looked at that video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd over and over (also on police body cam videos), starting and stopping the recording, turning up the volume and blowing up the frame. It’s traumatic. The trial is in week three. The defense has started calling witnesses. We delve into the ethics of all of this, because it’s clear from our inbox that listeners and readers are interested in how NPR makes these choices. [People march near the Minnesota State Capitol to honor George Floyd last month in St. Paul, Minn.]( People march near the Minnesota State Capitol to honor George Floyd last month in St. Paul, Minn. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images 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](. Who’s on trial? Karen Peterson writes: You call this event the "Trial Over George Floyd's Killing" … Derek Chauvin is charged with murder. Doesn't that make it a murder trial? … Please consider the message you are sending the country by not considering the murder charges in this trial. Derek Chauvin is on trial for murder and manslaughter. But it’s also appropriate to keep George Floyd’s death at the center of this conversation. NPR is using both framing devices, depending on the story. On the website, the [section page for the trial]( is titled, “Live Updates: Trial Over George Floyd’s Killing.” The subhead reads: “The Latest From The Murder Trial Of Derek Chauvin In Minnesota.” NPR has also issued guidance to the staff to be clear in their language choices that Chauvin is on trial, not Floyd, and to avoid inaccurately conflating the two frames into “the George Floyd trial.” Justin Bank, senior director for digital news and strategy, told us in an email that NPR is using both language constructions, “trial” and “killing,” depending on the focus of the story. A good number of [headlines]( on Web stories use Chauvin’s name. For example, a story [published on Monday]( was titled “Floyd’s Death ‘Absolutely Preventable,’ Doctor Says In Chauvin Trial.” The lead paragraph of that same story references the trial of Chauvin on murder charges. And on Monday, All Things Considered [aired a segment]( titled “Medical Experts Continued To Testify In Derek Chauvin’s Murder Trial.” The framing will continue to change to reflect the developments in the trial. That’s a reasonable approach, rather than insisting on one lens or the other. — Kelly McBride and Amaris Castillo George Floyd’s dying words, over and over Abby Figueroa writes: I don't know if you're the best person to email about this, but I am so disturbed by the last two days of Chauvin trial coverage on NPR, I have to say something. Please stop airing the recording of Mr. Floyd's last gasping words. It dishonors him and his memory, it's traumatic to listen to, and it is absolutely not necessary to tell the story about what is happening at the Chauvin trial. I heard it again this morning on NPR and I had to turn off the radio. While the jury decides what justice will be served, the rest of us in this country do not need to continue gaping at this poor man's horrific murder. Please let him rest in peace. Every time you replay it I think more and more that you're doing it for entertainment purposes not news. Sometimes as citizens we have to bear witness to horrible things. This is why Emmett Till’s [mother insisted]( on an open casket for her son’s funeral. It’s why she called journalists to take pictures of it. It is painful to listen to George Floyd’s last words again, over and over. Prosecutors have entered the video as evidence in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial and are dissecting portions of it to make their case. This will certainly be one of the most important trials in modern history. NPR has an obligation to give you a clear and accurate sense of what is happening in that courtroom. I’ve listened closely to NPR’s coverage of the trial, and I’ve also watched much of the trial live. I find NPR’s use of the audio to be judicious and in proper proportion to the courtroom. The audio appears in stories in which it is crucial to understand a critical development in the testimony. For instance, this story uses one very short clip where witnesses [debate]( whether Floyd said, “I ate too many drugs,” or “I ain’t do no drugs” — one short clip, when the audio was played over and over in court. I asked Marcia Davis, supervising editor of the Race and Identity Team, if they had discussed boundaries around using the material that is played over and over in court. She told me they had not had an explicit conversation. But I know that sort of sensibility toward how much suffering to impose on the audience is embedded throughout NPR’s news sense. Davis said, “We aren’t doing it for sport.” A healthy news diet definitely involves turning off the news sometimes to protect your own mental health. We all have a different capacity on different days to absorb the pain of the world. NPR in particular spends a great deal of energy delivering stories with a wide variety of emotional weight, so that if you listen to an entire episode of Morning Edition or All Things Considered, you will often experience joy, charm and wonder, as well as anger, shock and disgust. When it comes to using the audio of Floyd’s last moments in a report from the Chauvin trial, NPR consistently does so with clear journalistic purpose. — Kelly McBride Whose side are you on? Natalie Zavoral writes: I am growing extremely concerned with the way you are covering the housing crisis. More than anything you are interviewing landlords and giving landlords a platform to share their stories. I believe this is unethical. Focus must be on renters. Over the moratorium landlords have changed locks on tenants, taken doors off of units, and even have thrown tenants belongings outside. I would love to see more coverage of CERA and the $300 million that is going to be used for Minnesotan renters to access funds to cover rent or utilities. The work that SMRLS, Housing Link, and nonprofits are doing to help folks access resources. Things like that. Please stop centering landlords and start centering renters and tenants On the day you wrote to us, March 17, NPR did publish a story [focused on landlords](. But NPR has done many stories centering renters’ and tenants’ issues, particularly about [evictions]( over the past year during the pandemic, including [recently](. Some stories do feature both the landlord and renter perspectives, but looking at NPR’s 2021 housing coverage overall, it doesn’t appear that it overly favors landlords. NPR has given [renters the platform]( to [share their stories]( and to talk about all the hardships they’ve faced during the pandemic with landlords filing eviction cases against them. We’ll keep monitoring the coverage to see if it tilts too much in one direction. But right now, we are not detecting a pro-landlord bias. — Kayla Randall A map and more stories would be great John Baum writes: [This story]( has been reported numerous times over the weekend [editor's note: weekend of 4/3/2021]. I clearly recall being told that the Manatee County reservoir is one of seventy abandoned waste ponds. NPR could do us all a service by finding and publishing a link to a map of these reservoirs. A quick search told me that there are other states with similar problems. All this suggests an in-depth story of the kind that is NPR's forte, not just the immediate calamity to which we are reacting, but a grand picture of how big a mess has been swept under the rug. Yes, I'm asking because I have a family member who resides in Florida. Your ideas about maps and in-depth stories with broader context about these reservoirs would benefit news consumers. Maps are powerful journalistic tools for delivering information, when the dataset behind them is solid. In order to show you every similar abandoned waste pond in the country, the NPR Visuals team would need reliable information, likely collected by a federal authority, or each of the 50 states, or maintained by a trustworthy third party, like a research university. When NPR creates such a map, it has to be searchable and usable across devices. And to be truly useful, it has to be regularly updated. It doesn’t look like any journalism organization has created this map, although we do know that there are many other “[toxic disasters-in-waiting]( in America to be paying attention to. For more in-depth reporting on the environmental trouble in Florida, we direct you to WUSF’s [ongoing coverage](. Along with the Morning Edition piece you reference, there have been [other]( [NPR stories]( covering the situation. On stories like these, local reporting is going to be your best resource to keep informed of the latest developments. Last week, WUSF Public Media News Director Mary Shedden told me via email how the station is continuing its coverage. WUSF started reporting on the leak [two weeks ago]( kept updating digital stories throughout that time and shared information on social media and NPR newscasts. Shedden said the updates in national newscasts and on [Morning Edition Monday]( were critical, and that WUSF also shared its digital and broadcast coverage with partner stations across Florida. “Our reporting focused first on public safety, especially when there was a risk of a 20-foot high wall of polluted water collapsing and flooding an area where several hundred people lived,” she said. “As that risk reduced, we knew we immediately needed to add [context]( specifically to the water quality of Tampa Bay. When the crisis subsides some more, we’ll increase the questions we’re asking about the long-term consequences about who should be held accountable. This is the kind of story that doesn’t end in a week, or a month, or even a year.” — Kayla Randall 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. Seasonal allergies [Image of pollen]( Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty SHORT WAVE [Micro Wave: Are Seasonal Allergies Getting Worse?]( Allergies are the worst. But are they getting worse? Short Wave [asked allergy expert]( Dr. Juanita Mora if seasonal allergies are actually getting worse every year. Turns out, allergy seasons are getting longer and pollen levels are getting higher, said Mora — and climate change is a big factor. As is Short Wave’s specialty, the factors are succinctly broken down, and those of us who deal with allergies get some coping tips in this episode. — Kayla Randall How YouTube distorts reality Disinformation and misinformation are huge problems that not only destabilize democracies, but also cause strain in families and friendships. This week, [Morning Edition delivered]( an 11-minute segment about the surge of conspiracy theories found in videos that start on the Google-owned YouTube platform, and are then spread widely on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. We hear an alarming and heartbreaking story of one woman who became estranged from her father after he became consumed by videos of everything from flat-earth conspiracy theories to the false theory that the coronavirus pandemic is a government plot. The story is resonant and delves into the difficulty of finding out the real scope of the problem because, according to one expert, YouTube is one of the hardest platforms from which to collect data, because Google won’t allow it. — Amaris Castillo One question We ask NPR journalists one question about how their work came together. What makes the NPR Interns Twitter account such a delight? [This account]( is pretty much perfect. And wonderfully random. It’s full of [distinct]( [heart]( [charm]( and commendable [music taste]( and showcases the work of NPR interns. Also, it brings a lot of people joy, which is no small thing on Twitter. The person behind these gems is [Jaden Amos]( 22, who’s been running the account as an audience engagement intern with NPR’s 2021 [winter cohort](. Her last day is this Friday. So how does she delight 26,000 followers? “I try to think about what I needed when I was wanting to be an intern at NPR,” she said. “I tweet about a variety of topics because I think that's what people my age want to talk about. There is already a place for NPR lovers to get music news or politics updates, but this is a space for people, especially other young journalists, to just discuss their interests and get some help with NPR applications.” She also wants to get them to laugh: “It's a space where a lot of young people can get an introduction to NPR that they might not get another way.” — Kayla Randall The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Researchers Amaris Castillo and Kayla Randall 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]( Kelly McBride, Public Editor Kayla Randall, NPR 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. [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]( [NPR logo]