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Uproar Over Race at NPR

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News Leader’s Statement ‘Baffling and Insulting’

‘We, Staffers of Color . . . Write as One Voice’

Response From Nancy Barnes, Senior V.P. of News

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Public broadcasters joined to stage a “Public Media Village” at the journalists-of-color conventions, this one at the National Association of Black Journalists in Miami in August. Christopher Turpin, NPR’s vice president for editorial innovation and newsroom development, told NPR’s ombudsman last year, “Now the challenge is making sure that people of color joining NPR see a future here where they can imagine moving into editorial leadership positions or covering a major reporting beat. This means investing in career development — making sure that folks get the skills and experience they need to grow — and being very intentional in how we mentor and develop talent.” (Credit: Zeninjor Enwemeka/Twitter)

News Leader’s Statement ‘Baffling and Insulting’

A statement by NPR’s director of news that “disciplined, direct coverage of race relations and the culture wars” at the network is “more lacking than we realized” ignited a response this week from more than 85 NPR staffers of color calling the statement “baffling and insulting,” ignoring their persistent efforts over the last several years.

They declared Thursday, “If NPR is truly committed to nuanced, network-wide coverage, it has to diversify its management and VP tier immediately.”

Nancy Barnes

The staff members singled out Latinos as warranting more attention. “Make hiring Latinx people in editorial decision-making positions a priority,” they wrote. “NPR’s newsroom has been largely ignoring the elephant in the room — the population growth of Latinx people, Afro-Latinx people and other minorities in the country. This is the story of our times.”

Nancy Barnes, the former Houston Chronicle executive editor who joined NPR last November as senior vice president for news, responded in a statement Friday. “I regret that I didn’t speak to what we’re already doing and have done in the past,” she said in part. She acknowledged, “For years, many journalists across NPR, including the Code Switch team, have produced groundbreaking journalism, well ahead of many other national organizations.”

NPR has grappled with internal dissension over racial coverage and staffing issues for years, particularly in the early 2000s.

NPR had worked with Loretta Rucker, executive director of the African-American Public Radio Consortium, to launch three weekday shows largely aimed at listeners of color — “The Tavis Smiley Show” in 2002; “News and Notes” in 2005, first with host Ed Gordon and then Farai Chideya; and “Tell Me More,” which included Hispanics, Asian Americans and Native Americans as part of its coverage, in 2007. “News and Notes” and “Tavis Smiley” ended bitterly, with accusations by their hosts that NPR was not serious about programming to people of color.

However, in 2010, the network hired Keith Woods of the Poynter Institute to become vice president of diversity in news and operations, and in 2012, it funded the “Code Switch” project with a $1.5 million, two-year grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. With “Code Switch,” NPR announced it was launching “a major journalism initiative to deepen coverage of race, ethnicity and culture.” That grant was an initiative of former NPR President Gary Knell.

Michel Martin, host of “Tell Me More,” now hosts “Weekend All Things Considered,” media writer Eric Deggans, who is African American, joined NPR in a media-reporting role, and Audie Cornish, another black journalist, succeeded Michele Norris as a co-host of the daily “All Things Considered.” Even the underwriting and announcing teams have changed, with Dwayne Brown as a West Coast news reader and Chioke I’Anson, a college professor, sharing underwriting announcement duties. In management, Vickie Walton-James is senior national editor and Terence Samuel is deputy managing editor.

When the NPR board of directors chose Jarl Mohn to succeed Knell as CEO in 2014, it listed “demonstrate a commitment to diversity” as one of its criteria for the job, Mohn said then.

Criticism subsided, and last year NPR Ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen told listeners she had “modest change to report when it comes to the race and ethnicity breakdown of NPR’s newsroom staff. As of Oct. 31, the NPR news and information division of 396 people (19 more than a year ago) included 27 percent people of color, up from 25 percent last year. That small bit of growth was primarily the result of an uptick in the percent of newsroom employees who self-identify as Latino or Hispanic.

“Latinx employees now make up 8 percent of the newsroom staff. Keith Woods, NPR’s vice president of newsroom training and diversity, said that is more than double the percentage from five years ago. But, he noted, it’s also less than half the percentage of the U.S. Latinx population. NPR has a ways to go. . . .”

Jensen also wrote of Woods, “By his count, newsroom leaders are also more diverse (by race and ethnicity, and gender) than the overall newsroom. He identified 35 people who supervise a reporting desk (such as the national and international desks), oversee a newsmagazine, or are in what he called “gatekeeper” roles from the very top (the incoming chief news executive Nancy Barnes) down through deputy managing editors, regional bureau chiefs and other content decision makers. Within those groups, 14 people, or 40 percent, are people of color, and 63 percent are women. . . .”

‘We, Staffers of Color . . . Write as One Voice’

Dear Nancy,

We, staffers of color from across NPR, write as one voice in response to the comments you made at the Public Radio Program Directors Association conference on Aug. 28 regarding your vision for the NPR newsroom.

Specifically, your remarks that “disciplined, direct coverage of race relations and the culture wars” is “more lacking than we realized” were baffling and insulting.

For decades, staffers of color at NPR have advocated for stronger and more robust coverage of our communities. Many of us and our colleagues have also been part of past efforts to bring insightful coverage about race to our audiences, including the daily programs Tell Me More and News & Notes.

We should add that robust coverage of the issues you want to expand has been alive and well on the shows — especially WATC [“Weekend All Things Considered”] , WESUN [“Weekend Edition Sunday”], It’s Been A Minute, and Alt.Latino — as well as at Newscast, the National and Arts desks, and NPR Music.

Your comments not only seem to ignore that, but also erase the more than six years of thoughtful, deliberate and nuanced work of NPR’s Code Switch team, which has provided a compelling center of gravity for these topics.

Seven years ago, in the lead-up to our cross-platform launch of Code Switch, dozens of people of color from all over the organization, representing a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, came together to talk about what we wanted to do and the ideas around reporting efforts for different cultural communities.

These words travel and not only are they hurtful, they further marginalize people of color in an organization with historic problems of under-representing and/or dismissing the voices, creativity and work of non-white journalists.

We note this is not the first time you have delved into issues of identity in public. In your March interview with NPR’s public editor, you acknowledged a commitment “to making sure that we have Latino representation in our 2020 election coverage.” We are concerned, however, that your comments about focusing on a broader definition of “diversity” did not acknowledge NPR’s longstanding imbalance in news coverage that hasn’t given equal weight specifically to the perspectives and experiences of people of color.

Your words so far leave us feeling uncertain about the direction of this newsroom.

In an effort to heal the damage, we ask that you:

Acknowledge the effects of your public comments about race coverage widely. We understand you’ve met with the staff of our race, identity and culture team in the wake of the remarks, but those sentiments demoralized people of color across desks and divisions.

Provide specific justification for why you think that race coverage at NPR is “more lacking than we realized,” and that it needs to be more “disciplined.”

Hold an all-staff town hall to discuss the broader reorganization, jump-started with layoffs in August. An all-staff would avoid a clear problem that’s emerged in recent weeks — the staff struggling to understand where you want to go, based on quotes in the media. We seek a constructive conversation, focused on devoting institutional support and additional resources to race and identity coverage.

Include and consult your own internal experts, the Code Switch team, along with others in the newsroom assigned and dedicated to the coverage of race and diversity. Robust and bold coverage does not come from closed-door meetings with a handful of people who do not spend their days immersed in these topics, or who lack the lived experience of being non-white.

Make hiring Latinx people in editorial decision-making positions a priority. NPR’s newsroom has been largely ignoring the elephant in the room — the population growth of Latinx people, Afro-Latinx people and other minorities in the country. This is the story of our times. If NPR is truly committed to nuanced, network-wide coverage, it has to diversify its management and VP tier immediately.

Rund Abdelfatah, Host/Producer, Throughline

Hannah Allam, Correspondent, National Desk

Sophia Alvarez Boyd, Production Assistant, Weekend Edition

Ramtin Arablouei, Host/Producer, Throughline

Tanya Ballard Brown, Digital Editor, National Desk

Karen Grigsby Bates, Senior Correspondent, Code Switch

Ryan Benk, Assistant Producer, Morning Edition

Tsering Bista, Video Producer, Video

Ashley Brown, Editor, Morning Edition

Christina Cala, Associate Producer, All Things Considered

Rodney Carmichael, Hip-Hop Writer, NPR Music

Rhitu Chatterjee, Correspondent, Health Desk

Korva Coleman, Anchor, Newscast

Felix Contreras, Host/Alt.Latino

Cheryl Corley, Correspondent, National Desk

Audie Cornish, Host, All Things Considered

Ben de la Cruz, Visuals Editor, Science Desk

Mandalit del Barco, Correspondent, Arts and Culture Desk

Gene Demby, Host/Correspondent Code Switch

Dustin DeSoto, Producer, WATC

Kumari Devarajan, Production Assistant, Code Switch

Leah Donnella, Assistant Editor, Code Switch

Tinbete Ermyas, Editor, Weekend All Things Considered

Leila Fadel, Correspondent, National Desk

Adrian Florido, Reporter, Code Switch

Jason Fuller, Assistant Producer, Programming

Julia Furlan, Host/Reporter, Programming

Cardiff Garcia, Host, Planet Money Indicator

Lulu Garcia-Navarro, Host, Weekend Edition Sunday

Jenny Gathright, Assistant Producer, NPR One

Malaka Gharib, Deputy Editor and Digital Strategist, Global Health and Development

Denise Guerra, Production Assistant, Weekend Edition

Maria Paz Gutierrez, Assistant Producer, Code Switch

Mito Habe-Evans, Supervising Producer, Video

Sydney Harper, News Assistant, Morning Edition and Up First

J.C. Howard, Production Assistant, Programming

Andrea Hsu, Senior Producer, All Things Considered

Elise Hu, Host/Correspondent, Video

Patrick Jarenwattananon, Assistant Producer, Arts Desk

Kaivon Jones, Software Engineer, Digital Media

Kristen Kagei, Software Engineer, Digital Media

Diamond Kennedy, Production Assistant, News Operations

Irene Kim, Product Designer, Digital Media

Michael King, Assistant Producer, Programming

Noel King, Host, Morning Edition and Up First

Candice Vo Kortkamp, Research, Archives & Data Strategy (RAD)

Jess Kung, News Assistant, Code Switch

Hazel Leung, Design Technologist, Digital Media

Erica Liao, Digital Analyst, Audience Insights

Andrew Limbong, Reporter, Arts Desk

Sidney Madden, Assistant Editor, NPR Music

Shereen Marisol Meraji, Host, Senior Producer, Code Switch

Lauren Migaki, Senior Producer, Education Desk

Jessica Millete, Graphic Designer, Development and Donor Communications

Suraya Mohamed, Producer, NPR Music

Diba Mohtasham, Production Assistant, TED Radio Hour

Dalia Mortada, Editor, Morning Edition

Yuki Noguchi, Correspondent, Business Desk

Maureen Pao, Producer, Digital News

Marisa Peñaloza, Senior Producer, National Desk

Eyder Peralta, Correspondent, International Desk

Maquita Peters, Digital Editor, Digital Content/News

Jeffrey Pierre, Assistant Producer, Education

Kiarra Powell, Production Assistant, Ask Me Another

Loren Pritchett, Director, Development/Donor Communications

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, Correspondent, International Desk

Rebecca Ramirez, Production Assistant, Short Wave

Ayesha Rascoe, White House Reporter, Washington Desk

CJ Riculan, Video Producer, Video

Vanessa Romo, Reporter, Newsdesk

Anjuli Sastry, Associate Producer, It’s Been A Minute

Gabriela Saldivia, Producer, NPR One

Sam Sanders, Correspondent and Host, It’s Been A Minute

Michael Seifollahi, Lead Mobile Engineer, Digital Media

Parth Shah, Associate Producer, Hidden Brain

Aarti Shahani, Silicon Valley Correspondent, Business Desk

Yowei Shaw, Senior Reporter/Producer, Invisibilia

Lakshmi Singh, Anchor, Newscast

Shay Stevens, Anchor, Newscast

Lindsay Totty, Associate Producer/Director, Morning Edition

Hansi Lo Wang, Correspondent, National Desk

Chloee Weiner, Production Assistant, Life Kit

Ashley Westerman, Producer I, Morning Edition

Trina Williams, Associate Producer, Newscast

Lawrence Wu, Production Assistant, Throughline

Mallory Yu, Associate Producer/Editor, All Things Considered

Response From Nancy Barnes, Senior V.P. of News

The coverage of racism, anti-Semitism and hate-driven violence consuming this country could not be more essential than it is today.

For years, many journalists across NPR, including the Code Switch team, have produced groundbreaking journalism, well ahead of many other national organizations.

In my remarks at a recent public radio conference, I shared some thoughts on how we will tackle critical issues, including race and racism.

What I intended to convey was that I was looking for more resources to augment this important work on a daily basis.

I regret that I didn’t speak to what we’re already doing and have done in the past.

I am grateful to the Code Switch team for this week’s constructive conversation, and I am looking forward to talking more with our staff as we design the direction of our coverage.

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