Is he really honored and humiliated?
Carlos Carmonamedina for NPR Public Editor
Carlos Carmonamedina for NPR Public Editor
When Dr. Anthony Fauci announced his pending retirement last week, the first news invariably pointing to his long tenure as the nation’s top infectious disease authority and how he became a political target.
As a public figure like Fauci steps down from his official role, journalism has a lot of work to do, often in a short amount of time. Stories should report the span of Fauci’s career, the major health crises he has faced and mention the criticism he has endured.
Fauci’s supporters are offended by the inclusion of the criticism. One audience member wrote to tell us that mentioning those who find fault with Fauci in the same breath as his accomplishments does the doctor a disservice.
Fauci’s detractors succeeded with kudos, which are often mentioned in introductory sentences and carry more weight in most stories.
The job of journalism is to describe the significance of the departure. The profession’s role as a history drafter looms large and will continue to do so as stories about the public health doctor’s career pile up between now and the end of the year when he fills his office. These stories are designed to give the audience a broad and accurate view of his tenure. In the years to come, the news reports will serve as guides for those who want to look back and understand how one man’s 50-year government career intersected with public policy and popular culture.
We spoke to the newscast’s executive producer about Fauci’s departure language, including one newscaster’s choice words, “honorable” and “profane.”
We also expand on the creation of a new reporting team designed to address disinformation, on behalf of a letter writer who had a question about how the team was created. It’s definitely a newsroom beat for the modern age.
Finally, we enjoyed a recent conversation with a new author, so we’re highlighting that interview and his new book.
FROM INBOX
Here are some quotes from the Public Editor’s inbox that resonated with us. Letters are edited for length and clarity. You can share your questions and concerns with us through NPR contact page.
Honored and humiliated?
Malcolm Tronic wrote on August 22nd: NPR’s news “headline” on the upcoming retirement of Dr. Anthony Fauci implies that there is equal reason for him to be admired and reviled. While his detractors are many, it is only because of their politicized, anti-science views, encouraged by unscrupulous politicians, that public health and medical people, along with most informed citizens, are grateful. for his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic. NPR did a disservice to Dr. Fauci!
During an NPR newscast on August 22, anchor Lakshmi Singh reported that Dr. Anthony Fauci is “stepping down from his job of more than 35 years as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases” in December, which he announced earlier in the day. .
After noting that Fauci is known to many Americans for his expertise during the pandemic, Singh said: “As the nation’s top infectious disease expert during the AIDS and coronavirus outbreak, he was revered by some, despised by some. by others. Although he is resigning. Fauci notes that he is not retiring from government service entirely.”
We reached out to NPR executive news producer Robert Garcia to ask why “honored” and “humiliated” were used.
“It is a fact that Dr. Fauci is both admired and despised,” Garcia wrote in an email. “Admired by colleagues, much of the American public, remembered for his work on the AIDS crisis, a leader on health issues for more than 35 years, including his guidance on COVID. He was also repeatedly scorned by Sen. Rand Paul, just yesterday [Aug. 25] from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and a host of right-wing politicians and media figures.”
“I can’t imagine not giving that context in any story about his retirement,” he continued. “It is no disrespect to Dr. Fauci to accurately state that he was admired by many and reviled by others.”
NPR was doing its job to accurately portray the politicization of public health issues Fauci has faced during his tenure. Refusing to acknowledge Fauci’s critics while looking back on his career would paint an incomplete picture. The newscast offered a brief summary to break the news the day it was announced, but NPR also produced more in-depth reporting on Fauci’s impact in the days that followed, including an Aug. 25 Consider this podcast that added more context by characterizing the level of vitriol directed at Fauci, as well as the political views held by his critics. While it is important to include the political context of the criticism leveled at Fauci, it is not an option to ignore it in narratives about his extensive career. – Emily Barske
Exploring NPR’s disinformation reporting team
Ronald Polk wrote on July 18: Listen NPR was forming a disinformation committee. Will you provide the public with the selection criteria for the members of this commission?
NPR announced in July that it was launching a disinformation reporting team. Disinformation is the deliberate creation of distortions and lies for malicious purposes.
The NPR announcement said, “The viral spread of misinformation and disinformation has emerged as one of the great civic challenges of our time.”
News SVP Nancy Barnes said disinformation coverage first became a serious interest for her in 2019 when she was at a conference and saw a presentation on how it is used to destabilize democracies. “This is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen,” she recalled saying as she watched.
In covering the 2020 election, she said reporters were constantly seeing misinformation across the political spectrum.
The recent launch of the disinformation reporting team makes the subject a more permanent staple in NPR’s news coverage. The reporting team’s aim is to explore the role disinformation plays around the world.
The team includes three reporters, Shannon Bond, Lisa Hagen and Huo Jingnan, and is led by supervising editor Brett Neely. The members of the reporting team were selected because of their respective experience in the field of technology, conducting investigative work and performing data analysis.
Because disinformation has become so prominent from the local to the international level, Neely said nearly every reporting bureau and many member stations do some coverage of the issue. WITF member station in central Pennsylvania has its own beat of democracy.
Barnes and Neely told us more about the formation of the team and their goals.
The team focuses specifically on disinformation because, while misinformation and disinformation are both harmful, disinformation involves deliberate deception.
Neely said, “People in the panic of the moment can spread false information, and that’s misinformation. Disinformation is about intentionality—it’s about intentional deception.”
This team is more interested in examining trends in disinformation and its consequences. For example, earlier this year NPR reported stories about how Russia is using disinformation as a tool in its war against Ukraine, and was doing so even before the invasion. NPR has reported how authoritarian governments like the one in Nicaragua have claimed to be successfully fighting COVID-19 while health care workers and citizens said the toll was much higher, how misinformation fuels violence at all levels of government, and that how Black Lives Matter supporters have faced misinformation in their fight for racial equality.
In their work, the disinformation team plans to show how influencers often drive the spread of misinformation. They recently did an article titled “How Alex Jones Helped Major Conspiracy Theories Become a Part of American Life.”
This reporting takes a lot of time and care. “You’re dealing with people who are casually lying in many cases, and you’re dealing with people who are litigious,” Neely said. “So there’s a lot of lawyers going into the story. You’re trying to be extremely fair to people who aren’t interested in being fair to you.”
This new pace is at the heart of NPR’s mission to help audiences understand the threat disinformation poses to democracy.
“If we can’t have a credible and shared set of facts … I say we’re doomed as a democracy,” Barnes said. “At the broadest level, it seems like the public media can do something, is to stand up for the truth and try to keep an overview of all these disinformation, systems of disinformation, consequences and results. I think that’s actually a great public service. That’s why we want to do this.” — Emily Barske with reporting by Kelly McBride
ON THE NIGHTMARE OF OBSERVATION
The Public Editor spends a lot of time examining the moments when NPR failed. However, we also learn a lot about NPR by watching work that we see as compelling and excellent journalism. Here we share a line or two about the parts where NPR shines.
An excellent interview with the author
Last month in Weekend edition on SaturdayNPR’s Daniel Estrin interviewed author Sidik Fofana about his debut short story collection, Stories from Tenants below. The collection follows the residents of a fictional high-rise in Harlem as gentrification approaches. Fofana’s characters include a single mother who waitresses and does her hair on the side, a grandmother who works nights at airport security, and a 12-year-old boy who is quitting his dance troupe. The author is also a public school teacher, and he and Estrin discuss where he finds his material and who his intended audience is. One of the best things about NPR is discovering something new, and this interview gives listeners an appreciation for this young author and his work. – Amaris Castillo
The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Editor Kayla Randall, reporters Amaris Castillo and Emily Barske, and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all your messages Facebook, I tweet AND from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.
Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Poynter Institute
