Two birds and two words
Every time we respond to an audience comment, we go on a journey to see how NPR's journalism is made. Along the way, we usually make a few discoveries. In today's newsletter, we address critiques of two unrelated stories — one about a flamingo and one about the president of El Salvador.
A short narrative about a flamingo that escaped from a zoo 17 years ago caused one reader to worry that the NPR reporter had deliberately conflated the bird with another famous flamingo escapee from an earlier era. As my colleague Public Editor Reporter Amaris Castillo tracked down the backstory, including the wildlife officers who've documented several sightings, she unearthed the details we needed to determine that the reporter's work was solid.
A more serious story about concerns over El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's response to gang violence in the country raised a question about the English interpretation of a source's Spanish words. The source described the president's "imagen de omnipotente," which means "omnipotent image" in English. NPR interpreted those words as "strongman
