Ethics S. Dakota Indian Foster Care: Listening To Your Responses by Edward Schumacher-Matos August 14, 2013 • Here are some preliminary responses to your comments on the ombudsman process, on sourcing and on the length of my review of an NPR investigation into foster care for Native American children in South Dakota. Many of you wondered what NPR should do next. That is not for me to say, but one officer from the Native American Journalists Association has a suggestion. I also answer a grandmother quoted in the series who called me with a concern about truth.
Ethics S. Dakota Indian Foster Care 1: Investigative Storytelling Gone Awry by Edward Schumacher-Matos August 9, 2013 • An NPR investigation into foster care for American Indian children in South Dakota took on a serious issue but failed in several crucial respects. The series alleged that state social workers took children from their families as a way to get federal funds and put them in white homes out of cultural bias. While acknowledging secondary problems, editors defend the series, which won prizes. I find, however, that it violated NPR's standards because it lacked proof and failed to give the state's side on key points. The series also was characterized by an unfair tone, factual errors, misleading data and inadequate context. It should not have aired as it was. This introduction summarizes a six-chapter report on how not to do investigative storytelling.
Ethics S. Dakota Indian Foster Care 2: Abuse In Taking Children From Families? by Edward Schumacher-Matos August 9, 2013 • The willful taking of American Indian children from their families was presented in the NPR investigation as the baseline of alleged widespread abuse of the foster care system by the state of South Dakota. But the series offered no documented proof, and it failed to fully discuss the centrally relevant matter of child neglect. The series also failed to report that South Dakota reservations have some of the highest levels in the country of alcoholism, drug abuse, violence, teenage pregnancy and similar ills. Many families there are struggling and falling apart.
Ethics S. Dakota Indian Foster Care 3: Filthy Lucre by Edward Schumacher-Matos August 9, 2013 • The NPR investigation into foster care for Native American children in South Dakota sought to follow the money but misused the way federal incentives and bonuses work. The series alleged that state social workers took the children from their families as a way to reap funds for the state, but it gave no proof for this charge, which does not stand up to scrutiny. The weaknesses were covered over with tendentious language and tone.
Ethics S. Dakota Indian Foster Care 4: The Mystery Of A Missing $100 Million by Edward Schumacher-Matos August 9, 2013 • The headline number in the NPR investigation into foster care for Native American children in South Dakota was that the state receives nearly $100 million a year in federal funds. The series alleged that this money — a large amount in a poor state — is driving state abuses of Native American children. Without clearly telling us, however, the $100 million number is poorly sourced and pumped up by including white children and adoptions. The state says it receives less than a quarter of that amount for Indians, even including funds for Medicaid and adoptions. The reporters have not given me information proving the state wrong.
Ethics S. Dakota Indian Foster Care 5: Who Is To Blame For Native Children In White Homes? by Edward Schumacher-Matos August 9, 2013 • The NPR investigation made inflated and misleading allegations that the state of South Dakota systematically puts American Indian children into white foster homes out of a cultural bias reminiscent of old Indian boarding schools. The series failed to report that the tribes' own judges make 40 percent of the foster home placements, often with the involvement of tribal social workers, and that there is an acute shortage of Native American foster homes. The series also ignored a companion program in which Indian children are indeed being put in Indian homes.
Ethics S. Dakota Indian Foster Care 6: Where It All Went Wrong — The Framing by Edward Schumacher-Matos August 9, 2013 • The conceptual basis of NPR's faulty investigation of American Indian foster care in South Dakota was a narrow — and misleading — interpretation of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. By focusing mostly on the act's call for protecting Indian culture, the series failed to discuss the equally important need to protect children. The series also ignored historic Indian sovereignty issues and changing concepts of race.
NPR Public Editor Open Forum by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 31, 2013 • Want to post a comment about something we're not covering? Here's a space for readers to share their thoughts about media, policy and NPR's journalism.
Media Getting The Bedfellows Of Immigration Policy Right by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 29, 2013 • The Center for Immigration Studies is happy to court controversy in the current debate over immigration. The influential Washington think tank favors greater immigration restrictions. But when a Morning Edition story called the group "decidedly right-wing," it rightfully objected.
Language The 'Hot' Female Senator and the Rule of Reversibility by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 23, 2013 • My recent column on the use of words like "perky," "girlie" and "hottest" in referring to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand sparked thoughtful responses on how to write about women leaders. There were a couple of clubbings, too. The "Rule of Reversibility" might be a good place to start.
Fairness & Accuracy Regional Bias And How NPR Covers America by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 19, 2013 • A six year study of NPR's coverage finds that Washington sure enough leads, but there is more national dispersal than imagined. Editors and many of us want still more. See if your state is being dissed. Someone seems to be messing with Texas in particular (and Florida).
Media Mideast Report: April — June, 2013 by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 19, 2013 • Former foreign editor John Felton conducts quarterly, independent, reviews of NPR's Israeli-Palestinian coverage. His second-quarter 2013 report is now available online.
Media Listening To You And The Talk Of The Nation by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 11, 2013 • An icon of radio has passed on with the cancellation of Talk of the Nation. The decision was a management prerogative, but I join with the many hundreds of you who have written in mourning. Some of your letters may help the replacement, Here & Now. We are all listening.
Language The Honorable 'Girlie' Senator From The State Of New York by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 9, 2013 • Reporter Ailsa Chang was accused of sexism when she described Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as "perky" and speaking in a "girlie" voice. But what if the senator's supporters say the same, while admiring her forceful will in confronting the Pentagon? Are we undercutting women political leaders, or treating them differently from men? Is this a "Legally Blonde" moment?
NPR Public Editor Open Forum by Edward Schumacher-Matos July 2, 2013 • Want to post a comment about something we're not covering? Here's a space for readers to share their thoughts about media, policy and NPR's journalism.