Last week, music producers at NPR posted the crown jewel of this year's El Tiny, the annual Hispanic Heritage Month takeover of Tiny Desk. Los Tigres del Norte played a celebratory set at NPR's Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Absolute stars among their millions of fans in both Mexico and the U.S., Los Tigres' corridos triumphantly celebrate the immigrant, give voice to the everyman and reject the notion that the United States is superior to or separate from the Mexican experience.
The recording of the concert exudes with joy and defiance.
And yet, a clumsy series of decisions on NPR's part distracted from that celebration. Read on to hear from a disappointed listener, as well as my analysis.
But before we get to that, I have a short announcement: At the end of this year, I will vacate this role as NPR's Public Editor. It's been a long run, almost seven years. I stepped into the office just as the pandemic lockdowns were taking hold in March 2020, at the invitation of the then-new CEO John Lansing. I served as NPR's independent critic and audience advocate through COVID, the George Floyd protests, the 2020 election, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, the entire Joe Biden presidency, the second election of Trump, and the congressional clawback of $535 million a year from the public media network. I'm grateful that I was here to witness the incredible public response to that ripping away of federal support. And I will continue to support my colleagues on an initiative to explore the Future of Public Media.
NPR's current CEO, Katherine Maher, is moving the Public Editor partnership to the University of Maryland. I'm glad NPR will continue the role, and I'm relieved that it will be in partnership with another reputable journalism institution. — Kelly McBride
Why did NPR briefly censor an important expression of humanity?
Jose Aparicio wrote on Oct. 17: Recently NPR music uploaded a video that was supposed to be a joyful celebration of one of Mexico’s greatest bands, Los Tigres Del Norte. The original video included introductions by two NPR staff, in particular Felix Contreras. Felix gave a beautiful and powerful speech about the humanity of the Mexican people. NPR chose to edit this part of the video out, but not other portions of the introduction. In their pin comment NPR says: “As our longtime fans of Tiny Desk know, we don’t typically publish introductions for our concerts. We’ve restored the full introduction on NPR.org after temporarily removing it for editorial review, acknowledging the topic shared is emotional and complex and something many listeners and newsroom staff are grappling with. We hope to have this YouTube video updated soon.” How absolutely disingenuous! If having introductions was the issue then NPR should have removed the whole intro. Instead NPR chose to censor a 100% unproblematic expression of humanity. … We are not stupid. Like much of the rest of our audience, we are intelligent educated individuals, and we understand perfectly what you mean to say with this kind of censorship. It’s incredibly sad and pathetic that NPR would ruin what was meant to be a celebration. I, for one, am not “grappling” with “the topic” of people’s humanity.
Some Tiny Desk concerts have more energy than others. Even from the recording, it's clear that Los Tigres del Norte connected with the people in the crowd, who can be heard singing along. The Mexican norteño band is legendary. Their songs give voice to immigrants and tell the history of U.S.-Mexico relations from the Mexican point of view.
Before the Aug. 27 performance, Alt.Latino hosts Anamaria Artemisa Sayre and Felix Contreras stood before the crowd to introduce the band. Most of the time, these introductions do not make it into the final edit. Instead, most Tiny Desk videos start with audio of the performers over a black screen. The NPR logo pops up, then the Tiny Desk illustrated microphone and logo appear. Right as the first words of the song are sung, viewers see a wide shot of the band.
The Los Tigres edit is different. After the logos, Sayre and Contreras appear on screen, addressing their NPR colleagues and guests. In Spanish, Sayre says, "I know many of you came here with your parents and your family, because you are like family to millions of people. So I understand how all of you feel because I feel the same way. I am thinking about my pride for my family in this moment."
In English, Contreras says, "Our community is under attack and it's not the first time. You can go back to 1848 when they changed the border. You can go back to after the Second World War and the so-called 'Operation Wetback.' It takes away our humanity, OK. For as long as I can remember these gentlemen have been giving us back our humanity."
With both of them crying and Contreras' voice cracking with emotion, he says, "It's a really big honor for us. Por favor, Los Tigres del Norte."
When NPR released the segment a week ago, on Oct. 15, the introduction was included. The next day, Contreras' remarks were removed. The decision to restore the remarks was made on Friday. By Sunday, the full introduction was restored on YouTube.
Internally, some people at NPR questioned whether Contreras' statement was approved by the team that reviews all content. It was not. Newsroom leadership then had to determine if the emotional speech was political and violated NPR's impartiality standards. NPR journalists are prohibited from taking political or activist stances, because doing so can cause news consumers to doubt public radio's commitment to documenting all viewpoints. However, in the wake of the social reckoning that followed George Floyd's murder in 2020, NPR did open the door for personal expressions and demonstrations of identity and solidarity.
NPR is balancing two important values. As a news organization, NPR wants its diverse staff of journalists to show up at work as their complete selves. This makes the newsroom better and it makes the journalism better. The more perspectives in the newsroom, the better NPR is able to reflect the diverse experiences of the American audience it serves.
Journalists should not have to leave a part of themselves behind as they walk into the newsroom. This is true for everybody.
So it can't possibly present a conflict of interest when a journalist brings his or her experiences to work. Those experiences might include being stopped for driving while Black, being sexually assaulted or being marginalized for embracing a faith other than Christianity.
NPR also bears the responsibility of reassuring its audience that its staff can fairly and accurately cover the most controversial and painful issues, including immigration. This promise is best articulated in the stories and conversations that appear across all of public radio. By reporting the many narratives and representing all perspectives, listeners hear people share a wide variety of experiences and opinions. There is no shortage of this coverage.
NPR listeners have heard the voices of people suffering under the crackdown on immigrants almost daily. And listeners have heard from both government officials and regular people who support the administration's actions to push immigrants out of our country and prevent them from crossing our borders without legal authorization.
Contreras' statement, "Our community is under attack," was an authentic expression of a real experience. He said it as he was introducing performers who represent and advocate for that same community. His community.
"The obvious emotional connection that Felix feels for the music made by Los Tigres del Norte is an enormous part of what made his comments connect with the audience," chief music editor Jacob Ganz told me in an email. "Not to overly romanticize our work, but the richness of human emotional response to music is often a complex mix of history and personal experience that does involve politics. We don't want to shy away from that reality, and the standards process at NPR is one that's designed to help us navigate it. I think it's clear that we didn't engage in that process actively enough before the Tiny Desk was published."
Given how much time and money NPR has poured into bolstering the number of people who review content before it is posted, it's a bit of a mystery why Contreras' introduction was not flagged for review. Ganz was not involved in the editing process for the video, and he didn't want to speculate why those who were didn't involve the standards team. "There are elements of Felix's statement that I wish we'd had a chance to discuss before they were published," Ganz told me.
It's possible the statement did not seem that controversial to the people making the decision. It's also possible that the video editors believed the emotional power of the introduction outweighed the controversy.
After the Tiny Desk video was posted, Contreras' statement was internally flagged and NPR newsroom leadership, including the standards team, started to discuss whether it should be approved retroactively. While that unfolded, a new edit was ordered by NPR leadership. That temporary measure was misguided, penalizing the audience so NPR could go back and make up for missed steps.
People immediately noticed and spoke up. More that 15,000 comments appeared below the YouTube video. More were posted to other social media sites. They conversation was clever, and will make you grateful for Google Translate if you don't speak Spanish.
As the video was restored to its original edit, Contreras posted an update to his Instagram account. "My introduction for the band wasn't meant for publication. But when we included it in the concert video it resonated in ways we couldn't have imagined," he said. "You know I've got to say I've never felt so much support and encouragement for my work here at NPR. But it's not about me. It's about the sense of familia that happens when we get together to share music here at the Tiny Desk."
If there's a silver lining, it's that the NPR brass got to experience the collective power of their worldwide Latino audience. Alt.Latino has nurtured those listeners since 2010. And the public radio network's powerful coverage of the plight of immigrants in America these past two years shares their suffering with the rest of the world.
Contreras wasn't wrong when he said that his community is under attack. His comments gave historical perspective. Los Tigres del Norte further highlighted his point with their opening number, "Somos Más Americanos." — "We're More American."
The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on social media 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 2026 NPR
