Between idea and execution
News stories sometimes take a winding path from the point they are conceived to the point they are delivered to an audience. It's one of the most magical parts of journalism. This journey is the place where reporters ask wonderful questions that lead to incredible discoveries. It's also the place where mistakes are sometimes made.
The journey between story idea and story execution emerged today as a theme in our responses to audience critiques of completely unrelated NPR stories. In both cases, the journalists started with one story in mind and ended up with a different story.
On Memorial Day, Morning Edition ran a story from the Business Desk about the baby formula shortage. The story was attempting to explore why there needs to be more support for breastfeeding in the U.S. Asking that question left some readers and listeners feeling like NPR was judging parents or missing the bigger picture.
Chief Economics Correspondent Scott Horsley was gracious and candid with us as he discussed where the story started, how it changed course, and what he would do differently if he had another shot at it. We have some suggestions of our own, as well.
We also address another question posed on Twitter.
A reader felt two NPR stories that were categorized under the topic of "race" weren't really about race, and wondered why they were labeled as such. We looked into how and why NPR
