We in the Public Editor's office love NPR's philosophy when it comes to corrections. NPR aspires to a thorough and healthy approach to fixing mistakes. In correcting inaccuracies, NPR names the error, includes a note on the story, and maintains a list of all the corrections in one place.
Fixing mistakes is a critical step to establishing a robust culture of accuracy. No newsroom on the planet gets things right 100% of the time. But when newsrooms make a habit of correcting their mistakes, individual journalists develop a deeper understanding of how to prevent errors in the future.
While no one takes corrections lightly, a healthy newsroom avoids layering on so much negative baggage to the process that journalists are enticed to hide their mistakes by making stealth corrections (just fixing the error without noting it) or simply ignoring inaccuracies.
Today we respond to an NPR audience member who is dismayed by the nature of the errors on NPR's corrections page. Although it may be tempting to see this list as a black mark on NPR's journalism, we see the exact opposite: a newsroom that owns its mistakes and is constantly striving to improve its methods of getting the facts right.
It seems fitting to end the year by discussing this healthy and humbling process of correcting errors.
We also spotlight a story about the future of a warmer planet and a story about tipping your Amazon driver.
FROM THE INBOX
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.
The NPR corrections page
Robert Morin wrote on Nov. 30: While reading some of the mistakes you have posted in your "corrections" section, I was surprised at how many there were and how frequently they are showing up. Not only that but the type of corrections needed. Do you have a proof reader for your stories? How did the 16 ounce turkey for 30 dollars get by him or her? In the "Over 23,000 brain scientists" story, how did you name the completely wrong person? Some other math mistakes: Mixing up millions with thousands in the Adnan Syed story. Why? ... And in the Nichelle Nichols remains story , two numerical errors in the same story? What's up? ... I like the fact that you publish corrections to the mistakes, but good journalists are more careful. If I can't trust NPR, who can I trust?
We appreciate NPR's corrections page, which is an excellent example of transparency and accountability. It lists and describes errors in both broadcast and digital stories. Journalists at NPR employ a multitude of systems to check and double-check content. And still mistakes happen. It's important that NPR's journalists correct their mistakes, and that NPR has a corrections page where the audience can see them.
Earlier this year, our team spoke with Tony Cavin, NPR's managing editor for standards and practices, about the newsroom's approach to corrections. He told us NPR's staff strives to be as transparent about corrections as possible.
"Our goal is, if in fact we made a mistake, let's fix it," he said. "Let's say we made a mistake. Let's say we fixed it, and let's get it right."
We tracked down one of the examples raised in this audience letter, to help demonstrate how a mistake happens and how it is corrected. NPR science correspondent Jon Hamilton described the reporting process behind his Weekend Edition Sunday story about brain scientists. The correction to that story reads: "The speaker in this story identified as Tamara Markovic should have been identified as Mary Phillips of Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience."
In an email, Hamilton said he mistook the voice of one scientist for another. He included in his report an audio cut from a noisy bar. In that audio, Nicolai Urban, head of the Light Microscopy Core at the Max Planck Institute, is describing the benefits of having an in-person meeting this year after going virtual for 2020 and 2021. With enthusiasm, he lists a number of spontaneous things that happen during an in-person conference that don't happen during an online gathering. At the end of his declaration, another voice adds, "You don't walk into a bar and see everyone, do you?" It was a charming and spontaneous interruption that perfectly illustrated the point.
"I incorrectly identified that off-mic voice as belonging to Tamara Markovic of Mount Sinai, who was sitting at the same table and taking part in the same conversation," Hamilton said. "In fact, the voice belonged to Mary Phillips of Max Planck. The error was pointed out by Leanne Holt, yet another brain scientist at the table."
Hamilton said he had obtained the audio identification of every person at the table, but mistook one voice for another when he put the story together. "Perhaps, had I listened to the cut a few more times, I would have got it right," he said.
Corrections are a sign of integrity in the journalistic process. They help journalists develop methods for improving accuracy. It's good for NPR to show its work in this way on its corrections page, even for small mistakes. — Amaris Castillo
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 look into the future of a warmer world
Weekend Edition Sunday aired an eye-opening climate story that explored what our future will be like in a new normal of hotter, drier and longer droughts. Harvest Public Media's Elizabeth Rembert interviewed experts on the ways a warmer Earth can change everything from our diets to our air quality. This story educates NPR's audience on possible solutions that could help them prepare. — Amaris Castillo
Amazon driver tipping
In a digital story, Newshub editor Emily Olson reported that tech giant Amazon started a driver-tipping promotion on the same day the company was sued over accusations of stealing tips from its drivers and tricking customers along the way during a company campaign started in 2015. The report explains the recent promotion encouraging customers to tip their drivers, which NPR took the time to try for the story, and provides information about the recent lawsuit and working conditions at Amazon. — Emily Barske
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
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
