Wait, wait, I've heard this one

This Public Editor Newsletter published Feb. 10, 2022

Have you ever felt a sense of déjà vu when listening to a story on Morning Edition or All Things Considered? Like, maybe you've already heard this before? Not just heard about this story, but actually heard this exact story before?

It happens. NPR news shows will dip back into the archives and resurrect an old story. There's even a cute label, "Encore." One listener noticed and wondered if there had been an uptick, so we did some digging.

Another listener raised a more concerning issue: Are journalists more likely to call a fatal crowd surge a "stampede" when it happens in Africa? That's not the case, our research showed. But it is such an interesting question, we wondered if the word stampede is appropriate at all when talking about humans and not animals.

Read on to see our exploration of these audience comments.

FROM THE INBOX

Here are a few quotes from the Public Editor's inbox that resonated with us. Letters are edited