Throughout 2025, I made more than a dozen suggestions to the NPR newsroom, ranging from how to describe that Oval Office meeting with the Ukrainian president to what the audience expects from NPR journalists when an interview subject makes an outrageous claim.
As 2026 gets rolling, four of last year's recommendations remain significant priorities, so much so that I am elevating them to the status of suggested New Year's resolutions for the network. Each goal addresses a habit or pattern that — if changed — would result in a better experience for the audience.
We'll check in on these resolutions over the year, to see how NPR is doing. Send us your questions and observations to help us shape our future recommendations. — Kelly McBride
Commit to greater geographic diversity in story selection
With more than 200 member stations, NPR is in every state in the country.
Many of those stations have deeply sourced journalists who know the stories in their communities. Often, when listeners perceive bias in NPR's work, it's because the stories are being told from a D.C., New York or LA perspective. That's not surprising, since many of NPR's journalists are based in those locations.
When I travel around the country, the No. 1 question journalists at member stations ask me is: How do we get more local stories on the national broadcast?
Last January, NPR took several steps to deepen its storytelling resources across the country. NPR has six regional newsrooms that collaborate with local stations — in Appalachia, New England, the Mountain West, Texas, California and the Midwest. These newsrooms, combined with the member stations, allow NPR to create a news report that speaks to and reflects the American public.
Cover crime trends accurately and thoroughly
The president has justified deploying military troops to several American cities by falsely claiming that violent crime is out of control. This messaging works, because many Americans believe that violent crime is rising.
That's because, historically, most commercial newsrooms have focused on individual crimes, ignoring larger trends, particularly when the crime rate is going down. And in an effort to avoid sensationalism, public media has often shied away from stories about crime.
But the public deserves better. Explaining crime trends requires complicated data analysis and deep reporting, including talking to law enforcement, criminologists and people who are most directly impacted by crime.
And crime is a uniquely local story. National trends are less relevant than local narratives. By tapping into its network of local journalists, NPR could help news consumers sort through the complicated facts and emotional narratives about crime trends.
Avoid political labels
When journalists add political labels like "right wing" or "liberal" to a person, idea or organization, they are trying to be helpful by giving the audience a piece of context. But sometimes the audience interprets the label as a slight. And most of the time, the additional context isn't necessary. News consumers can judge a person or an idea through the information in the story. The label can be distracting.
Most problematically, newsrooms tend to label the political ideas they find less palatable. Conservative publishers will use liberal labels. Liberal publishers will use conservative labels. To avoid falling into this trap, it's best to just drop the labels and describe the ideas and actions.
Prioritize breaking news across all of NPR's platforms rather than only for radio shows
NPR's flagship shows, Morning Edition and All Things Considered and their weekend counterparts, deliver the most comprehensive news reports on the big issues and events of the day. Those shows attract millions of listeners every time they air. They represent NPR's legacy.
But an equal or greater number of people turn to NPR's website and mobile app to get their news. And they don't always get a timely and robust news report. Why? Much of what NPR creates, particularly when it comes to unfolding news events, is created with a show in mind, then packaged for the internet and the mobile app later.
This works great for NPR's newscasts, which are updated every hour. But when the NPR audience turns to the website or the mobile app and they want to go beyond the newscast, they don't always get the most up-to-date reporting.
NPR's future depends on providing non-radio news consumers with the same quality and timeliness of news it provides to radio listeners. NPR is making strides. The recent increase in video interviews that show up on the app as well as on other platforms is a promising sign. But the videos sometimes appear days after the radio versions of the interviews are aired. Treating the needs of non-radio audience members as equally important will expand NPR's ability to serve the public. — Kelly McBride
Revisiting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
This week marks five years since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — a riot that continues to divide Americans. President Donald Trump and his administration are recasting the narrative of the day. He's even referred to it as a "day of love." The NPR investigations team has produced a visual archive of that day, based on thousands of videos submitted in court and NPR's own years' worth of reporting. The team calls it the most comprehensive archive of Jan. 6, 2021. The NPR audience can scroll through each chapter, from the run-up to the key moments that led to the assault on the Capitol.
This thorough project supplements an earlier database NPR created of every criminal case the Justice Department took to court. Since Trump's pardons, this database is one of the only public records of the 1,575 prosecutions. Early this week on Morning Edition, NPR investigative correspondent Tom Dreisbach told host A Martínez that the idea behind the archive is so "people can see the evidence for themselves." It is a fascinating, detail-rich timeline of what happened that day. Kudos to NPR's investigations team for their diligence in ensuring that a piece of U.S. history is not erased. — 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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