Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
As the NPR Ethics Handbook states, the Standards & Practices editor is "charged with cultivating an ethical culture throughout our news operation." This means he or she coordinates discussion on how we apply our principles and monitors our decision-making practices to ensure we're living up to our standards."
Before becoming Standards & Practices editor, Memmott was one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog, which he helped to launch when he came to NPR in 2009. It focused on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.
Prior to joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He reported from places across the United States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.
During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline," "The Oval" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.
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"Politically loaded language not only violates our commitment to be fair, but also gets in the way of telling good stories. "
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Along with dates, names and numbers, NPR journalists should add voice-overs to the list of things to double- or triple-check. Audio clips must match translations. Translations must be accurate.
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A fascinating true-crime case and the shame of being well-rested: two of the stories recommended by NPR staff, using the #NPRreads hashtag. -
Fans and foes want the news media to label the armed individuals who are occupying part of a national wildlife refuge. NPR is trying to describe, rather than characterize. Here's our thinking. -
For years, it's been NPR's style to say that Myanmar is "also known as Burma" at the start of reports about that nation. We don't think that's necessary anymore. -
Does it grate on your ears if you're offered a "free gift?" Would you have a "sudden impulse" to correct that grammar? Pleonasms have unnecessary, superfluous words. Tell us about the ones you hear. -
Here's how NPR thought through whether the gunshots that killed two TV journalists should be replayed on the radio and online.
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There are times when obscene words are heard, but they are rare. Editors balance respect for listeners against the news value of the language.
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Along with the words and phrases that still ring out 239 years later are less noticed turns of phrase. They say a lot about the messages Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers wanted to send. -
This week's selection of articles and essays covers comedian Aziz Ansari's new book about love, a new demographic term, a global gaming superstar, and more.
