As NPR journalists approached the Oct. 7 anniversary of the brutal 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, newsroom leaders planned coverage the public broadcaster would air on that date, as well as throughout that week.
Each individual NPR program has a high degree of autonomy to determine which stories it covers. Normally that's a good thing because it preserves the unique voice and vibe of the shows. But past experience has taught NPR that when coverage isn't coordinated it can be repetitive or incomplete.
NPR leaders determined that some stories would focus on Israel, and others would focus on Gaza. On the anniversary day, Morning Edition would have two 6-minute stories, one from Israel and one from Gaza. All Things Considered would have a single story from Israel. Every story would include a note from the host, guiding listeners to other stories appearing in other shows.
Listeners had varied responses depending on which stories they heard.The harshest criticism came from those who heard only the story from Gaza on the anniversary of Oct. 7. Read on for a sample of the letters as well as my analysis of NPR's coverage. — Kelly McBride
How to mark the anniversary of Oct. 7?
Andrew Ziffer wrote on Oct. 7: I've been a proud NPR contributor for over a decade. When federal funding for NPR came under threat, I actually increased my monthly donation — because I believe in the mission of public media and the importance of independent journalism.But this morning's coverage left me deeply disappointed. On the anniversary of the October 7 massacre, your programming chose to focus on the story of a Palestinian family in Gaza. That story — while human and important — could have been aired on any other day. To run it on October 7 felt profoundly inappropriate and insensitive to the memory of more than 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians who were brutally murdered. … Equally troubling, I did not hear any coverage representing the Israeli side of the story this morning — no remembrance, no interviews, no acknowledgment of the trauma still felt by Israeli families. …This morning was not a matter of perspective — it was a failure of judgment and empathy. The date, the tone, and the framing were all wrong for what should have been a solemn day of remembrance and moral clarity.
Andrew Ziffer wrote on Oct. 7: I've been a proud NPR contributor for over a decade. When federal funding for NPR came under threat, I actually increased my monthly donation — because I believe in the mission of public media and the importance of independent journalism.But this morning's coverage left me deeply disappointed. On the anniversary of the October 7 massacre, your programming chose to focus on the story of a Palestinian family in Gaza. That story — while human and important — could have been aired on any other day. To run it on October 7 felt profoundly inappropriate and insensitive to the memory of more than 1,200 innocent Israeli civilians who were brutally murdered. … Equally troubling, I did not hear any coverage representing the Israeli side of the story this morning — no remembrance, no interviews, no acknowledgment of the trauma still felt by Israeli families. …This morning was not a matter of perspective — it was a failure of judgment and empathy. The date, the tone, and the framing were all wrong for what should have been a solemn day of remembrance and moral clarity.
Josef Blumenfeld tweeted on Oct. 7: @DanielEstrin I had to pull over after hearing your story from Tel Aviv. You raised @NPR‘s coverage of Israel to a new standard. It was an outstanding piece.
It is not easy or simple to answer the question of how journalists should memorialize the second anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023. That day Hamas breached barriers that separate Gaza from Israel and brutally attacked civilians and soldiers up and down the border, murdering 1,200 men, women and children, and kidnapping more than 250 people.
We mark traumatic events as a way of remembering the dead, and telling the story of what has happened since then to the living. It is a significant ritual and the news media plays an important role, both in deciding what anniversaries we mark as well as what we ignore.
NPR VP for news programming Eric Marrapodi was well aware of this as he monitored how the shows were developing their lineups of stories for the week. "One thing I'm always cognizant of on anniversaries like this is to make sure we have an appropriate level of coverage and make sure we've got our best coverage in the right places," he told me. "When you're covering a story like this, you have to make sure you're not overwhelming the audience."
The newsroom leadership planned coverage for the entire week. On the anniversary itself, Morning Edition and All Things Considered were to have one story per hour in each show. Marrapodi said that even on the anniversary of the Hamas attack, "we are looking to reflect the totality of the story, and to get the whole of the story."
With that in mind, Morning Edition aired two stories: one from the Palestinian perspective and one from the Israeli perspective.
Dubai correspondent Aya Batrawy and Gaza reporter Anas Baba told the story of the Dalul family and their only child, Nour. When the war started the girl was 2 and the absolute center of gravity in her family. Her parents managed to keep her alive until Sept. 22, when she died after the Israeli military bombed the building in which she was staying with her grandfather.
In that same show, Morning Edition host Leila Fadel interviewed Eli Sharabi, who survived 491 days as a Hamas hostage. After his release, he learned that his wife and two teenage daughters had been murdered the day he was kidnapped. In his recently released book, Hostage, he documents his decision to live a full life. "They are with me every day. They will be there until the end of my life. But it will be alongside of my life, not instead of my life," he told Fadel.
That afternoon on ATC, NPR Tel Aviv correspondent Daniel Estrin's story chronicled all that Israelis have lost since Oct. 7, from the 1,200 killed that day, to the soldiers who've died in Gaza, to the widespread international support that Israel once relied on, to the mental health and personal safety of so many in the country, as well as their empathy for Palestinians. It was the rare piece of journalism that went both deep and wide.
It's likely that only the most dedicated NPR listener heard all three of these stories. Most audience members probably only heard one. But they would have heard a host say in the introduction or at the end of the story that other coverage could be heard in other parts of the show or on other shows. And yet, some listeners found bias.
I've analyzed NPR's coverage of this war several times, and I have found no past indication of bias. Covering strife in the Middle East often involves documenting multiple truths at the same time. Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Israel waged war on Gaza for two years. One can't be separated from the other.
Looking at the coverage that aired on Oct. 7, I see NPR embracing those same principles of documenting the span of suffering, telling each story with as much context as possible.
On the anniversary of the Hamas attack, honing in even more on the trauma that began on that day in Israel was an acceptable choice. The vast amount of suffering in Gaza in the past two years does not erase the horror of what happened to Israelis on that day, when terrorists murdered 1,200 people including the elderly and the very young, by shooting them, blowing them up with grenades and burning people alive in their homes.
The story selection wasn't the problem. It was the introduction to the story about the Palestinian family that was off. Host Steve Inskeep said, "Two years ago, Israelis heard the sound of gunfire as militants came out of Gaza to attack. It's hard to take in how much has changed in those two years all through the Middle East. And we're hearing different perspectives throughout this day. Elsewhere this morning, a former Israeli hostage speaks, and right now, we hear the story of a family in Gaza."
Noting Israelis waking up to Hamas gunfire set the wrong emotional expectations for an otherwise compelling story. It would have been better to note that after two years of war, a pending cease fire came too late for Nour and so many others.
For people with a deep connection to Israel, Inskeep's wording might have felt like a bait-and-switch: Today's the anniversary of a horrible attack. In another part of the show we talk about that attack. But right now we're going to tell you another related tragic story.
The story of the Dalul family and the death of their daughter, Nour, was a strong piece of journalism. Using the family's recordings, listeners got to "meet" the child, hear her singing and hear this father's adoration for his daughter.
The introduction was a clumsy miscue on a weighty day. But that awkward introduction didn't happen as a result of bias against Israel. NPR's other strong stories that day documenting Israel's experience on and since Oct. 7, 2023 point to the newsroom's intention and ability to get the story right.
Other strong stories that reflect the Israeli perspective from last week include Scott Simon's Oct. 4 interview with a researcher and several Here & Now episodes that featured Israeli voices.
Estrin's story in particular, which included voices from across Israel, including soldiers, parents of hostages, survivors of the Hamas attack, counselors and people who can no longer muster empathy for Palestinians, demonstrate NPR's ability to see and document the Israeli experience. — Kelly McBride
A worthy follow-up on Eaton fire story
An NPR investigation has uncovered new information about the hours leading up to the deadly Eaton fire in California in January. NPR's Chiara Eisner and Nick McMillan found that distribution lines, which power individual homes, malfunctioned in Altadena as early as 11 a.m. on Jan. 7. Through electrical data, dispatch information from Los Angeles County fire officials and interviews with residents, Eisner and McMillan bring a clearer picture of the trouble brewing in the city hours before the wildfires began. While stakeholders wait for California authorities to release their investigation into the cause of the fire, NPR is performing a diligent public service for its audience by continuing to dig into the problems that occurred that day. — Amaris Castillo
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
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