Enlarge Martin Mejia/Associated Press

A woman serves a glass of 'Chicha' to a client in the village of Pisaq near Cuzco, Peru. Chicha is a local alcoholic beverage made from sprouted or germinated corn.

Martin Mejia/Associated Press

A woman serves a glass of 'Chicha' to a client in the village of Pisaq near Cuzco, Peru. Chicha is a local alcoholic beverage made from sprouted or germinated corn.

Sometimes reporters reach for that tongue-in-cheek phrase that they think listeners will understand, and it offends instead.

On May 8, freelance reporter Banning Eyre reviewed the new album by a Brooklyn-based band inspired by Peruvian music called Chicha Libre. "It's easy to imagine that this music was made by lowlife Peruvian musicians in the '60s, tipsy on chicha wine and surf guitar," he said on air.

Having spent much time in Peru (and drunk mucho foul-smelling chicha dipped from barrels while it fermented), I understood where Eyre was coming from. Some listeners, however, were not amused.

Enlarge istockphoto.com

istockphoto.com

You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

Please stay within the community discussion rules, among them:

• If you can't be polite, don't say it: ...please try to disagree without being disagreeable. Focus your remarks on positions, not personalities.

• ...This is not a place for advertising, promotion, recruiting, campaigning, lobbying, soliciting or proselytizing. We understand that there can be a fine line between discussing and campaigning; please use your best judgment — and we will use ours.

Enlarge AP Photo/Bob Leverone

In protest of state law, a same-sex couple attempts to obtain a marriage license at the Forsyth County Register of Deeds office in Winston-Salem, N.C., Thursday, May 10.

AP Photo/Bob Leverone

In protest of state law, a same-sex couple attempts to obtain a marriage license at the Forsyth County Register of Deeds office in Winston-Salem, N.C., Thursday, May 10.

Since President Barack Obama announced last week that he supported same sex marriage, scores of listeners have complained that NPR's coverage cheered the announcement. As Susan Reif of Fairfield, OH, wrote: "I am so curious as to what NPR's push is to have same sex marriage in America?....Please, please, quit pushing this stuff down all of our throats."

Pat Morley of Herriman, UT, was embarrassed by an All Things Considered segment covering the president's announcement. Andrew Sullivan, an eloquent public intellectual and advocate of same sex marriage, was interviewed at length on the show. Morley, an NPR fan, was driving home in his car and said he assured a dismayed passenger, "Just wait a minute, they'll interview someone with an opposing view." It didn't happen. That night, he found an article in NPR.org that more fully covered dissenters, but wrote of radio: "Please don't allow your usual high standard of excellent reporting to decay."

Meanwhile, advocates of gay rights, protested against an interview May 10 by White House correspondent Ari Shapiro with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, classifies the council as a "hate group." "Why did you not ask for the opinions of the Grand Dragon of the KKK when reporting on the Trayvon Martin case?," wrote Greg Korte of Long Beach, CA.

Enlarge Mladen Antonov/Getty Images

A protester during a rally in downtown Washington DC on March 29, 2012 outside the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) headquarters.

Mladen Antonov/Getty Images

A protester during a rally in downtown Washington DC on March 29, 2012 outside the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) headquarters.

I was a Young Republican when I was in college and briefly worked for Barry Goldwater for president. I worked at the same time in civil rights in South Nashville.

I am reminded of my past as I follow the criticism in recent weeks raised by Breitbart.com, NewsBusters, commentator Michelle Malkin and other Goldwater descendents against NPR reporter Peter Overby for not having sufficiently disclosed that he once worked for an affiliate of Common Cause.

Doby Photography/NPR

Peter Overby, NPR's Power, Money and Influence Correspondent

In three stories last month on the American Legislative Exchange Council, Overby reported that Common Cause has been pushing the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax exempt charitable status of ALEC.

ALEC is the organization that brings together state legislators and corporate lobbyists to write and promote model state laws that further various conservative causes. These causes have included the cutting of corporate taxes, restricting unions, expanding voter ID, spreading Stand Your Ground gun laws and imposing Arizona-type illegal immigration restrictions.

At my request, NPR has released more information than any mainstream media organization on the diversity of its editorial staff and audience. My analysis two weeks ago turned on the question of which baseline to use in measuring progress. Now I have asked six national leaders and experts of different views what they think of how NPR is doing. They responded with great insight, some frustration and dollops of humor. The goal is for NPR to sound like America.

Summary charts are below. The shame is that commercial newspapers, television and radio don't give out the same detail.

Enlarge Screengrab submitted by Tom Hendricks.

A sponsorship banner for Of Monsters and Men's new album appeared on an NPR Music page about the band.

Screengrab submitted by Tom Hendricks.

A sponsorship banner for Of Monsters and Men's new album appeared on an NPR Music page about the band.

NPR is an increasingly powerful cultural force in books, films and music nationwide—a role that is focusing more attention on the ethics of its coverage, too. The question that pops up among listeners is whether there is a conflict of interest with the online sponsorship ads that are placed in NPR.org by record labels, film distributors and book publishers.

The banners placed by the companies feature their film, book or album—not the company—and run in NPR's cultural Web pages. On rare occasions, the banners even run cheek-to-jowl with a review of the same film, book or album.

What gives? Like some listeners, I, too, have been jarred by seeing such apparent twinning. I recently wrote at length about the ethics of corporate sponsorship in general. I found that the NPR firewall between sponsors and the news to be so firm that it was not necessary for reporters and hosts to make a public disclaimer every time a sponsor was mentioned in a story. I did allow for exceptions, however, if the relationship looked too close.

Among the few exceptions I had in mind were those cheek-by-jowl sponsorships, especially on the music Web pages. In early March, a sponsorship banner for Esperanza Spalding's album "Radio Music Society" appeared on the same page as NPR's "Exclusive First Listen" of the same album. A few weeks later, the same thing happened with the band Of Monsters and Men.

Enlarge Win McNamee/Getty

Ann Romney stands next to her husband and presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Win McNamee/Getty

Ann Romney stands next to her husband and presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In a recent segment on Weekend Edition Sunday, national political correspondent Mara Liasson sought to explain presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's lack of strong female support. "He's trailing women by 20 points. His problem is not stay-at-home moms, it's with educated women. He's trailing with college-educated women by almost 30 points," she said.

Her statement rightfully left some listeners irritated.

"Surely she knows many educated women stay at home, even give up careers, because they want to raise their children themselves," wrote Loretta Hess of Normal, IL.

Liasson herself agrees with the listeners and said she misspoke. She and her editors quickly caught the mistake. They corrected the error in subsequent broadcasts that aired in later times that same morning. Weekend Edition Sunday went one step further and aired a formal clarification during the letters segment the following week.

Enlarge istockphoto.com

istockphoto.com

You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

Please stay within the community discussion rules, among them:

• If you can't be polite, don't say it: ...please try to disagree without being disagreeable. Focus your remarks on positions, not personalities.

• ...This is not a place for advertising, promotion, recruiting, campaigning, lobbying, soliciting or proselytizing. We understand that there can be a fine line between discussing and campaigning; please use your best judgment — and we will use ours.

Enlarge Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Dairy farmer in Chester, Vermont, milks her cows.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Dairy farmer in Chester, Vermont, milks her cows.

When it comes to raw milk, even a simple story can turn sour on some listeners. There's an ongoing controversy over raw milk's safety. Proponents hail its taste and nutrients. Adversaries worry about deadly food-borne diseases. Government regulators are caught in between, accused of being too lax, too stiff or too in bed with Big Dairy.

Then there is NPR. Its science and health reporters are familiar with the debate; you can find their ongoing coverage primarily on The Salt, NPR's food blog. But concerns didn't reach me until Bonny Wolf, a regular food commentator for NPR, did a short piece for Weekend Edition Sunday in which she described her first sip.

"It didn't taste like a bad idea. It tasted like milk - fresh, rich milk," she said.

That approving statement—and the commentary that followed—left some listeners feeling as though Wolf did the audience a dangerous disservice.

Former foreign editor John Felton conducts quarterly reviews of NPR's Israeli-Palestinian coverage. His 2012 first quarter report is now available online.

Felton reviewed 71 radio segments and 46 Web-only reports for accuracy, variety of voices, fairness, and balance. In general, Felton found that the coverage of the region was consistently accurate, but noted that—as usual—listeners heard more Israeli voices than Palestinian ones. "The scarcity of Palestinian voices reflects the ongoing lack of coverage of the West Bank and Gaza, certainly in relation to Israel," he wrote.

NPR devoted 41 of the radio segments to coverage of Iran's nuclear program. Felton found that NPR presented a broad range of views on the topic, although listeners heard directly from an Iranian official only once. The majority of reports used caution and reflected sensitivity to the subject. Felton praised Talk of the Nation specifically for airing "the most comprehensive coverage" with seven conversations about Iran's nuclear program.

However, Felton did find two instances of imprecision, including a March 7 interview with Israeli ambassador Michael Oren. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel should have more directly challenged Oren's false claim that "the Iranian regime is openly saying it wants these [nuclear] weapons to wipe Israel off the map." He also suggested that NPR should provide a more adequate history of diplomacy over Iran's nuclear ambitions, noting that this conversation has been happening for more than a decade.

I encourage you to read the complete review. Quarterly reviews going back to 2008 are also available online.

John Felton prepares the quarterly evaluations. He has covered international affairs and U.S. foreign policy for more than 30 years. His most recent book, The Contemporary Middle East: A Documentary History, was published by CQ Press in 2007. A former foreign affairs reporter for Congressional Quarterly and foreign editor at NPR, he has been a freelance writer and editor since 1995.

Minority hiring is a sensitive issue. Since posting my column last night on race and ethnicity at NPR, I have been able to get more numbers on NPR's staffing that I am posting separately here, while updating the original column so that it is whole. What I find, contrary to criticisms that moved me to look, is that NPR is doing at least OK, and arguably very well.

Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and Hawaiian Islanders—or "people of color"—make up 23 percent of NPR's newsroom. This means reporters, editors, producers and managers, according to NPR's Human resources Department. This compares to just 7 percent for radio in general, according to a survey by the Radio Television Digital News Association and Hofstra University. The television news industry average approaches that of NPR at a rounded off 20 percent. Daily newspapers fall far behind at 13 percent, according to a survey by the American Society of News Editors.