Assessing An NPR Report On The Indian Child Welfare Act
A Dec. 17 report on All Things Considered about the Indian Child Welfare Act prompted harsh criticism from the Native American Journalists Association, which called it "inaccurate and imprecise." A meeting between NAJA leaders and NPR editors resulted in a clarification being posted on the online version of the piece, but NAJA members continued to have concerns about the reporting. They asked my office to look into them.
I'll address the specific concerns below. While complex, to me they are emblematic of broader questions that have come up in my tenure at NPR. One is what to do when someone who is quoted in a story says something that is misleading or inaccurate, or can be construed as racist. The second issue concerns the need for clear explanations when quoting a representative of an organization that isn't familiar to most listeners and readers: What does that organization stand for, who are its funders or what is its broader agenda?
The specific context here is the 40-year-old (known as ICWA) that governs the fostering and adoption of
