NPR's coverage of the Middle East is designed to be accessible to news consumers. Deep reporting expertise combined with smooth delivery makes this possible. Audio stories have to be succinct and intimate. As a result, NPR stories out of the Middle East tend to focus on what's happening in negotiations and on the ground, and why Americans should care.
In a recent letter complimenting NPR for this coverage, a listener asked why reporters almost always identify Lebanon's Hezbollah as backed by Iran. As you'll see by the letter below, this listener is particularly knowledgeable about the Middle East.
By contrast, most American news consumers, and I count myself in this group, cannot readily describe the political realities and alliances of the countries throughout the Middle East. And when it comes to the non-state actors like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, our knowledge is even more uncertain.
To fulfill its mission of serving a wide audience, NPR has to keep this in mind as it crafts stories from the region.
So I asked the editor who oversees the Middle East coverage to describe how NPR journalists determine what context belongs in the many stories that include Hezbollah, as well as other influential non-state groups. I also got recommendations from an academic expert.
NPR could do more. Read on to see my recommendations. — Kelly McBride
Is 'backed by Iran' the only thing we need to know about Hezbollah?
John Walbridge wrote on June 22: NPR in its generally excellent Middle East coverage routinely refers to “Iran-backed Hezbollah.” It never refers to “US-backed Israel.” While it is true that Iran supports Hezbollah, it is also the case that Hezbollah emerged as an indigenous resistance movement by the Shia minority against Israeli occupation in south Lebanon. … It is also represented in the Lebanese parliament. It would be more accurate to identify Hezbollah as a Shiite nationalist resistance movement. It also is heavily involved in social services.
NPR journalists should be guided by the needs of the audience, as they determine what words to use to describe various groups involved in the conflict in the Middle East. Americans know that the U.S. supports Israel, so it's not necessary to insert that fact into every story. Also, Israel is an independent country, whereas Hezbollah is not. But when it comes to understanding the rest of the Middle East, the needs of news consumers are vast.
Most of us cannot readily map out the political histories or modern-day actions of the countries and groups throughout the region. We can spend a lot of time discussing why that is — lack of global curiosity, insufficient education, too much shallow news reporting — but it's not going to change the fact that American news consumers are generally shaky about the facts when it comes to the Middle East.
News stories on Hezbollah most often focus on its attacks on Israel and Israel's attempts to destroy the group's military capabilities and only occasionally mention other roles.
Randa Slim directs the Middle East program at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank focused on global security. She believes that news consumers need to be consistently reminded of two facts: First, that Hezbollah's militia is backed by Iran and that it exists as a member of Iran's network to undermine Israel. Second, that Hezbollah is also a political party that formally represents the Shia population in the Lebanese parliament. (Shia is the smaller of the two main branches of Islam; the other is Sunni.)
"It's both of these things, and so there's complexity when it comes to discussing disarmament," Slim said.
NPR's Middle East editor James Hider told me that correspondents generally seek to include that context, as well as the history of Hezbollah.
"We do try to slice in little snippets," he said. "But in the day-to-day sort of newscast, in short pieces on the talks that are going on — those are super complicated in the first place."
For instance, in a story this week about Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, correspondent Jane Arraf described the town as "an administrative center for Hezbollah, which is also a political party and a provider of social services."
Last week in Beirut, Arraf interviewed people who fled the southern part of the country, and are pooling their money to purchase high-resolution satellite images of their homes. In the audio version of the story, Arraf does not explain what Hezbollah is. But in the text version, she explains, "Israel invaded south Lebanon in 1982, staying for 18 years until it was driven out by Hezbollah, a militant group backed by Iran and created to counter the Israeli occupation."
As I reviewed the many stories that NPR has done about Hezbollah just this year, I found a similar range of descriptions. Sometimes NPR gives small bits of context. Sometimes it doesn't. Associated Press stories, which NPR sometimes runs on its website and mobile app, is more guilty of the simple "Iran-backed militants" description.
But NPR also has a rich trove of stories that delve into explaining the complexity of Hezbollah. A Throughline episode from 2024 tells the entire history of the organization. In a deeply reported story from April explaining how Hezbollah rearmed after being decimated by Israel in 2024, correspondent Lauren Frayer explains the group's many facets.
"The group also runs hospitals and welfare programs, endearing some Lebanese to its cause," she explained, while interviewing supporters at a rally in Beirut.
Correspondent Hadeel Al-Shalchi also has substantial expertise on Lebanon and Hezbollah. In a State of the World podcast in March, she reported from Lebanon as Israel and Hezbollah exchanged missile attacks. There, Al-Shalchi described how support for Hezbollah was wearing thin and how the government was trying to get control of the militia.
"For decades Hezbollah has been seen by many Lebanese as a resistance movement to fend off Israel aggression and occupation in the south," she reported. Later in the story, she quoted a mayor from a town near the area where Hezbollah was born and where it runs schools and hospitals. "The mayor says even his own community was shocked and angry when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel this time. He believes Hezbollah should only act in defense."
But finding these stories weeks or months after they were published is a challenge for NPR's audience. Even though I knew they existed, I couldn't easily find them on the NPR app, or on NPR's website.
NPR could take several steps to help the audience better understand Hezbollah.
First, NPR could be vigilant about including key context in most stories, to remind audience members that Hezbollah is both a militia backed by Iran and a political party that represents a sizable minority of people in Lebanon. Second, editors could regularly aggregate the stories with the most context onto topic pages, then direct listeners who want more information to those pages. (If you want to know more about Hezbollah, go here.)
Third, NPR could make its most contextual reporting more discoverable, particularly as a suggested pathway for digital consumers, on both the website and the app.
The burden for my first two solutions falls to editors. The last fix is the toughest to accomplish. News organizations with greater resources than NPR struggle to surface their most robust reporting on any given topic.
These ideas weren't new to Middle East editor Hider, who said they were top of mind for him and his colleagues. "We have to get the news out there. The assumption is also people will have ways of finding out more," he said. "I think we can provide more context. But I don't know if we can provide it every time in every piece."
Hezbollah is not going away, said Slim, the expert from the Stimson Center. As the current U.S.-Israel war against Iran and its proxies shifts the forces of power throughout the region, the American public will need to see why Hezbollah is likely to endure.
"We have restricted ourselves in the U.S. to a security lens in talking about Hezbollah as a militia that operates outside Lebanese state control and as a terrorist group," she said. "When we discuss dismantling Hezbollah weapons, I'm with you on that. But then what are we going to do about the social service networks they operate? What are we going to do about the political party? Are we kicking it out of the parliament? So what are we going to do about the ideology?"
NPR already does a lot to bridge this gap. But it could do so much more. Deepening American knowledge of the players in the Middle East equips people to digest and even push back against the rhetoric coming from politicians and activists.
This current escalation in the Middle East could impact American politics and our economy for some time. We need the news to help all of us stay in the conversation. — Kelly McBride
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 Facebook, X 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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