From the Inbox

I got a thoughtful email from someone who read the comment I posted on the NPR site regarding Alicia Shepard's comments on NPR's "Monkey See" blog [re: "See No Irony" post below]. Here's the email which I'm posting by request from the sender:

You wrote:
"I challenge Shepard (or anyone for that matter) to show any examples in the last 10 years where NPR's main news shows (ME, ATC, WE-Sat or WE-Sun) "held people in power accountable for what they said,[or] put it in context." I've been carefully critiquing NPR for almost 3 years and NPR News consistently echoes and champions the opinions and assertions of the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and free market corporatism."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/03/the_extended_uncut_daily_show.html

I've only heard one instance of NPR actually standing up to spin by an
interviewee:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15046448

I've never heard anything like it since, and I listen almost every day.

As I recall, there were tons of people who wrote in letters showing
support and calling for more:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15198525

Please indicate this on your blog. I couldn't find it anywhere.

Daniel Roesler

I appreciated the work that Roesler did to find this piece and the positive response of listeners. Siegel's interview does fit with my challenge. He does confront a White House spokesperson with what he has said and with what the facts are. Siegel does a decent job of contextualizing the conversation by noting that even for a $60,000 income family of four - health insurance coverage can be extremely expensive and burdensome. However, even as Siegel points out, the support for the SCHIP expansion was shared by most newspaper editorials and several prominent Republicans. I guess what I found most hopeful is that listeners seem to be hungry for a higher quality of reporting even though it's rare on NPR.