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Media Matters
January 7, 2004
Listeners Ask: Where Does NPR Find its Experts?
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
One of the long established practices of reporting is to go ask an expert.
An expert adds to a report by helping to frame and put the story in context. An interview with an expert is also a way of providing extra information that the reporter may not have. There is a quality of "but don't take my word for it... here's Professor X..." in many NPR reports.
But some listeners wonder, where does NPR find its experts?
Specialized Knowledge
NPR's science reporting relies on experts because of their specialized knowledge. NPR reporting on the recent Mars landing was a case in point:
Mr. ROB MANNING (Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory): We knew it required eight thrusters to turn the vehicle. We had two cooling pumps we had to work. We had 37 pyrotechnic devices; that included two latch bells(ph), 15 seven-ups(ph), two thermal batteries, eight cable cutters, three gas generators, one motor cannon. We had four sensors of star scanner sun sensor, a radar altimeter, two IMUs that work perfectly in a descent camera, two radios, one computer and air bags. And they worked.
Reporter Joe Palca continued the report by, in effect, translating what Rob Manning had just described into language that the listener could understand.
But the news requires more than science expertise. NPR reporters, researchers and producers have access to thousands of specialists from every conceivable field. Many are experts who have written and studied a particular issue for many years and who are recognized broadly as being the people to go to.
Political 'Think Tanks'
More controversial are NPR's political experts based in privately funded "think tanks."
Listener Gene Weinshenker of Cincinnati, Ohio, wonders why NPR often fails to identify the experts and the think tanks where these experts ply their craft:
Providing these [experts] is fine provided both sides of an issue are aired, preferably sequentially. But it is also important that you provide your audience with some understanding of the groups the speakers represent. In your attempt to be even-handed you often present commentaries by "fellows" of various right-wing groups, such as the Heritage Foundation, etc. Some of these groups have names that hide their purpose and funding. In the interest of assuring that your listeners better understand the biases of those presenting the commentary, you should say a bit about their sponsoring organization.
What Is a Think Tank?
A think tank is defined by Webster's as "a group or center organized, as by a government or a business, to do intensive research and problem-solving, esp. with the aid of computers and other sophisticated equipment."
Until the 1970s most think tanks were part of the "establishment." The Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Council on Foreign Relations are among the best known.
The 1980s and '90s saw the growth of think tanks with an explicitly conservative perspective such as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Hudson Institute, among others.
Think tanks are often also more influential than academic departments of universities because, as Brian Whitaker of The Guardian has written, "academics [at universities] are involved in analyzing what's going on, but they're not advocates, so they don't have the same impetus."
(Astute readers will note that I chose to quote a Guardian reporter thus confirming that I must be on one side on this issue. Actually, it's simply to avoid charges of plagiarism since Whitaker's quote was the most succinct one I could find. British and European journalists frequently report on what they believe to be the pernicious influence of think-tank intellectuals on American media).
"What Liberal Media?"
Eric Alterman's recent book What Liberal Media? traces the origins of many of these think tanks. Alterman makes no secret of his liberal position and from that perspective does a good job, in my opinion, in assessing the influence of the think tanks -- both right and left.
Alterman's book makes the interesting point that these think tank scholars are more hip to how the media really works. They know that many reporters are working under deadline pressures with less research support than they had a few years ago. They know what works on radio and television and most importantly, they are more accessible than many academics.
The result, says Alterman, is a proliferation of think-tank scholars in the media, many coming from the more conservative organizations. Academic experts in politics have been reduced as a presence in the media compared to 10 years ago. In short, they have been out-hustled by the think tanks.
The Politics of Expertise
In my experience, the rapid growth and instant availability of experts are -- in part -- due to the information explosion on the Internet. There is more raw information out there and less time to make sense of it. Harried journalists faced with conflicting information and ever-encroaching deadlines tend to put opposite points of view into their stories, then hide behind the false populism of "let the audience decide who is right."
Many in the NPR audience are knowledgeable and sophisticated about these think tanks. Listeners frequently know who these scholars are and what an interview with one might mean. Some have written to say that NPR often labels certain think tanks as conservative but rarely describes others as liberal.
Hearing from an expert once meant getting information and not opinion. But as these experts increasingly represent a political perspective, the value of these think tanks seems to be less useful than they once were. Increasingly, listeners want to know why an expert on NPR is worth listening to.
NPR needs to be more candid and more forthcoming about the political orientation of these scholars and who is funding them. If the information can't be provided in the programs, a guide to think tanks should be made available on the NPR Web site.
More useful in my opinion, would be to interview a broader range of experts both from the university communities and the think tanks -- especially from outside Washington, D.C.
Listeners can contact me at 202-513-3245 or by e-mail at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
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