| | | | Illustration by Carlos Carmonamedina
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Here are a few quotes from the Public Editor's inbox that resonated with us. Letters are edited for length and clarity. You can share your questions and concerns with us through the NPR Contact page. |
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A mistake embedded in the past |
Katie Grzesiak wrote on Feb. 28: I was extremely disappointed in a story I heard today about Watson and Crick and DNA's structure. … While I love the science bits and it was a treat to hear clips from an interview with Watson and Crick themselves, I was shocked that there was not a single mention of the incredibly crucial contributions of Rosalind Franklin (and Maurice Wilkins). … Failing to include Dr. Franklin on the eve of Women’s History Month doesn’t look great. … Hoping for a more inclusive edition for the 75th anniversary! |
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On the 70th anniversary of the discovery of DNA, All Things Considered staff reached into NPR’s archives for an old interview with two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, who were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work. As NPR librarians digitized the archive of old material that was on tape, they made a list of notable stories that might be valuable in the future and this interview was on it. Events like this milestone are the perfect moments to resurrect old material.
The interview was conducted in 1993 by science correspondent Joe Palca to commemorate an earlier milestone, the 40th anniversary of the discovery. At that time, Palca was a new reporter at NPR. He retired last October after 30 years.
Rosalind Franklin’s contribution was widely known by the 1990s, but rarely acknowledged by the scientific community. Watson and Crick relied on measurements calculated by Franklin, based on a photo taken by one of her researchers. Watson even wrote about Franklin (at times disparagingly, although he eventually redeemed himself in the epilogue) in his 1968 memoir The Double Helix.
In the early 2000s and 2010, a paper, biography and play began the work of insisting that Franklin’s contribution be acknowledged. Journalism followed.
As a result of those efforts, Franklin is now commonly identified as a significant contributor to the discovery of DNA. All of this was knowable by looking in NPR’s own archives beyond that 1993 interview.
Upon hearing his old interview on ATC, Palca was one of the first people to let NPR know that an important part of the story was missing. NPR listeners followed.
ATC ran a rare on-air correction the next day and appended a correction to the digital story.
This important omission revealed a flaw in NPR’s process of pulling old material from the archive, said Eric Marrapodi, vice president for news programming. From now on, the standard procedure when pulling an old story to re-air will include contacting the original person who produced the story, or the equivalent expert on staff, he said.
That’s a sound remedy to a predictable problem. Even the best stories from 30 years ago may not hold up today. It’s crucial to insert a step where a knowledgeable person asks the question: What more have we learned about this topic since the story was first reported?
It’s also good to see the on-air correction. When a mistake is broadcast on All Things Considered or Morning Edition, it’s usually caught and fixed by the time the show cycles around the next hour or in later time zones. The correction is noted in the digital copy of the story that lives on the NPR website, but no on-air correction is made.
That goes against the best journalistic practices of correcting mistakes in the same space where the audience most likely heard or saw the mistake. Granted, the audience is not always the same from one day to the next. If a mistake is made in the first hour of ATC, that’s the most likely place to correct the record with listeners who heard it.
On Feb. 28, the old interview ran twice on ATC before the staff was alerted that the story was incomplete. Then it was pulled out of the lineup without being fixed. That left ATC with only one choice — own the mistake on the air, which they did.
It’s a practice I will continue to advocate for. If an error goes out over the airwaves, it should be corrected on the airwaves, in as close to the same space as the mistake originally occurred. — Kelly McBride |
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| The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Editor Kayla Randall, reporters Amaris Castillo and Emily Barske, and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. 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 |
| | Amaris Castillo
Poynter Institute |
| Emily Barske
Poynter Institute |
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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. |
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