Happy New Year! Now, to close the books on the year just past, a few issues that listeners raised in the dying days of 2004.
Tsunami Coverage: Where Was NPR?
More than a week after the event, the horrors of the tsunami are being explored with care and context on NPR.
But on the day the story broke, many listeners wrote in to ask why NPR was giving the story minimal airtime. Listener Barrie Pribyl wrote:
As a major fan and supporter, I want to say how disappointed I am in your coverage of this world crisis. Your coverage is no different than the commercial stations'. We know that the story is always the same: crisis; increasing number of fatalities; people without water, food or housing; disarray of the NGOs' getting help to ground zero, etc., etc. These... stories are not helpful, nor illuminating. I would prefer more background stories about the geography of all of the countries affected: their economies, their governmental infrastructure, the depth of their resources (money, medical, technical), what's the role of their religious institutions to provide aid. I heard a very interesting piece on the "News Hour" about the Maldives and remote ethnic tribes. Tell us more about what we don't know...
Come on… I know you can do better. Is everyone on holiday?!
Breaking News on a Holiday Weekend
First reports of the disaster began to filter out of South and Southeast Asia on Sunday, Dec. 26. Weekend Edition Sunday and All Things Considered were able to air some reports that day. But telephone access was limited, and many NPR journalists indeed were away for the holiday.
As a listener, I thought the weekend newsmagazines were struggling to report anything of substance. NPR newscasts over the weekend, in contrast, did an extraordinary job.
Unprepared on Monday?
However, the next day Morning Edition sounded remarkably unprepared for the scale of the story.
While correspondent Michael Sullivan reported effectively from the scene, and Christopher Joyce looked at the science of tsunamis, the important secondary stories from other perspectives were missing and did not begin to air on NPR until Day To Day broadcast a strong interview with Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs, who had been swimming in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. Talk of the Nation picked up the pace, and by Monday afternoon All Things Considered was able to broadcast a number of very strong background reports. NPR regained its editorial footing, but it took far too long.
On the day when many listeners expected more, Morning Edition seemed to miss the enormity of the news.
Also, the tone of Morning Edition was curiously distant and even callous. If a story about the largest natural disaster in 40 years doesn't merit moving to "special coverage," what would?
When Good Edits Go Bad
Since 1992, Morning Edition has aired David Sedaris' Santaland Diaries on Christmas Eve. This past year was no exception.
But on the recent broadcast, a portion of the essay was edited out, and a lot of listeners noticed.
The essay recounts Sedaris' stint working as a Christmas elf called Crumpet at Macy's department store in New York. As in many of Sedaris' essays, his experiences as a gay man are intrinsic to the wit and poignancy of the story.
Too Risqué for NPR?
The part that was edited out had to do with a flirtation between Sedaris and an elf named Snowball:
The overall cutest elf is a fellow from Queens named Snowball. Snowball tends to ham it up with the children, sometimes literally tumbling down the path to Santa's house. I tend to frown on that sort of behavior but Snowball is hands down adorable -- you want to put him in your pocket. Yesterday we worked together as Santa Elves and I became excited when he started saying things like, "I'd follow you to Santa's house any day, Crumpet!"
It made me dizzy, this flirtation.
By mid-afternoon I was running into walls. At the end of our shift we were in the bathroom, changing clothes, when suddenly we were surrounded by three Santas and five other elves -- all of them were guys that Snowball was flirting with.
Snowball just leads elves on, elves and Santas. He is playing a dangerous game.
Listener Lawrence Fischer was one of many who wrote to ask why this section had been removed:
What in the world is NPR thinking and doing with this kind of knee-jerk 'self censorship' of the kind of reference that (a) is innocent [and has] (b) been on the air and in print for more than 10 years.... [It] is simply another example of public entities caving in to virtually nonexistent pressure -- especially before the criticism actually occurs. Say it ain't so.
Just an Edit or Self-Censorship?
Many listeners wrote to say that they feared the worst -- that NPR had decided to excise the section for fear of an anti-gay backlash. But the reason for the edit was not ominous.
Ira Glass was the original NPR producer of the story. On his public radio program, This American Life, the original 1992 version was aired unedited. As he explained on the Web site www.outsidethetent.com:
When I first produced "Santaland" for Morning Edition, the show gave more time to feature stories. In the current news environment, NPR understandably wants to devote more time to news and analysis, so features get shoved in smaller segments at the end of the hour. To run "Santaland" today means running it shorter. So someone at NPR had to cut over two minutes. I urge you all to listen to the original story and ask you to think about what you'd cut. Every section of the story works; every section makes a different point. It's really a judgment call.
I believe this was an entirely innocent editorial decision. I might've cut the same stuff myself.
I am assured by the producer who edited the story that his intention in deleting the passage was, indeed, only to save airtime. However, many listeners remained persuaded that NPR was buckling under homophobic pressures -- even thought it wasn't.
Summing Up the 2004 Election
Finally, I have (belatedly) finished a breakdown of NPR's election coverage.
Over the eight-week period of the official campaign (Sept. 7 – Nov. 2, 2004),
NPR allocated the following proportional airtime in its news reporting on Morning Edition, All Things Considered (seven days), NPR newscasts, Weekend Edition Saturday and Weekend Edition Sunday:
Bush: 31.4 percent
Kerry: 26.8 percent
Platform comparisons: 34.6 percent
Third parties: 7.3 percent
Overall, NPR News aired a total of 1,912 reports, for a total of 38 hours and 10.2 minutes of campaign news, analyses and commentaries.
Although I would have preferred that the time given both candidates have been even, I think the breakdown reflects how the parties conducted their campaigns. Kerry's campaign was less aggressive than Bush's and it showed in the amount of airtime on NPR. Platform comparisons were a good way to give listeners a way to judge the candidates. NPR's third-party time allocation happened to be close to the popular vote for those candidates.
In short, a very respectable and responsible service to the listeners from NPR's election team, in my opinion.
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