To her credit, NPR’s public editor took the time and care to look into why NPR’s story on my Megyn Kelly Show controversy was so unfair and why it was stealth-edited to make it more reasonable after the fact:
We disagree with NPR on two points. First, the story as originally published wasn’t just unfair. It was inaccurate. The story told readers that Lowry “appeared to use” the racial slur.
Lots of questions go viral on the internet, like “Is this dress blue or gold?” Explaining the nature of a viral question in a news story presumes that the answer is truly up for debate. In this case, NPR’s own media expert had determined by slowing down the video that it was unlikely that Lowry blurted out the racial slur.
Second, after recognizing that the story was wrong, NPR should have acknowledged the changes to both the headline and the body of the story with a formal note of clarification. Because readers were much more likely to come away from the original story with the belief that Lowry actually said the racial slur, a clarification note would be a public acknowledgment that the first story fell short. . . .
This story did not meet NPR’s high standard of being newsworthy. On top of that, the original story was written in a way that created more confusion, to the point of being misleading, instead of generating clarity. The post-publication editing corrected that problem. But a correction or a clarification note would make it clear to the audience that NPR acknowledges the flaws, which they clearly do, according to the standards editor.
This is a meaningful act of journalistic accountability that I really appreciate.