by Ombudsman

Laurie Handshu of Nashville wrote asking if everyone in NPR's news department was on vacation this week.

"Your Tom Watson interview aired Tuesday. The British Open event finished Sunday.

Daniel Shorr remembered Walter Cronkite on Tuesday. Mr. Cronkite died Friday of last week. I would have been most interested in his remembrance, but I just kept thinking, this was not a big surprise here Dan....

Your moon race story airing this morning would have been more timely earlier this week or leading up to the moon landing anniversary last week. Why the recent delay of timely broadcast?"

Fair enough questions. So I went in search of answers.

Watson, as many know, is the 59-year-old U.S. golfer, who lost in a playoff in the final round of the British Open Golf championship by one stroke on Sunday. It would have been his 6th Open win.

NPR tried to speak with Watson right away, but he wasn't even doing interviews Monday.

"We thought that since [All Things Considered host] Robert Siegel's conversation with him would have a different focus from most of the interviews Watson did in the immediate aftermath of defeat, it was still worth doing," said Chris Turpin, ATC executive producer.

NPR did interview Watson's caddie on Monday "and that was definitely a unique ATC take," said Turpin.

As for Walter Cronkite, NPR did at least five stories on him including airing an obituary
on Friday, July 17, shortly after his death was made public. The next day, Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon did an essay on Cronkite.

Was Schorr's 3-minute piece too much or too late? I don't think so considering Cronkite's impact on journalism, the nation and history.

"We also had an appreciation from the producer who worked on Cronkite's stories for ATC Monday night," said Turpin. "Dan specifically requested an opportunity to write about Cronkite, who he worked with for over 20 years. So we moved up his regular commentary day from Wednesday to Tuesday."

NPR began covering the 40th anniversary of the Moon Walk on July 17 — three days before it happened. They've done enough stories that they aggregated them. Sometimes listeners hear only one story and think that's all the coverage. Sometimes it is; sometimes not. The best way to see what's been covered is to do a search on npr.org.