We’re going to change your criticism into something we recognize, and then respond to that. Would that be okay?

Uh… Tell ya what, NPR: just go ahead and I’ll reply at my blog. 

Last week on Tumblr I wrote about an example of he said, she said journalism at NPR. It involved a report on proposed abortion regulations in Kansas that are either intended to… a.) drive the few remaining clinics out of business, or b.) put common sense public health policies into practice. You decide!

Two days ago, the NPR ombudsman responded: ‘Lowest Form of Journalism’ or Constructive and Fair?  His verdict: The NPR report was constructive and fair. I over-reacted. 

The ombudsman also contacted the reporter on the NPR segment I had complained about. She decided that when I asked for more reporting that would allow listeners to negotiate among utterly conflicting truth claims (which was the whole point of my post…) what I really meant to say was: you should side with abortion rights people, they’re the good guys! Thus…

We forwarded Rosen’s criticism to the reporter, Kathy Lohr, who responded:

“I’ve covered the abortion issue for 20 years. My goal is to be fair and accurate.

“It would be inappropriate to take a position on an issue I’m covering. So, I don’t do that, with abortion or other issues.”

In other words. We’re going to change your criticism Into something we recognize and respond to that. Would that be okay?

So I wrote a new post at my main blog, PressThink. We Have No Idea Who’s Right: Criticizing “he said, she said” journalism at NPR.

Please check it out if you’re interested in this little learning disability at NPR.

Finally, the audio clip is an even more blatant example of we have no idea who’s right, you figure it out journalism. Different story. This one’s about the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a green tech firm that received hundreds of millions of dollars in loan guarantees from the Obama Administration.

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   journalism by NPR....QPR. The rule, not the exception, which partly explains why they...

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