Ombudsman's Report: July 2003

Highlights

• 17,185 e-mails received since March 2003 related to public radio and NPR issues.
• Criticism of NPR's Middle East coverage continues to decline but remains constant among many listeners.
• NPR's coverage of the war in Iraq was the dominant issue.
• Anti-war listener complaints outnumbered pro-war listener complaints at a ratio of more than 3:1.
• Comments about NPR's political coverage increased 600 percent from the previous report in March 2003, from 31 to 192.
• Complaints about NPR's political bias have increased 100 percent, from 482 to 847. Most of these accuse NPR of a liberal bias.
• Dramatic increase in comments about the programs and the hosts. These are not necessarily complaints.
• Decline in concerns and complaints about underwriting/funding and pledge drives.
• A local underwriting issue (see below "Rutherford") evoked a strong write-in campaign.

E-mail by subject

Ombudsman's website column	425
Accuracy	12
Anti-war	2,656
Pro-war	846
Bias	847
Corrections	169
Ann Garrels	260
General Inquiries (tapes, transcripts)	613
Hoaxes	125
Story ideas/suggestions/commentaries	574
Inquiries	18
Journalistic Guide	54
LPFM	11
Middle East coverage	1,906
Middle East history series	2
NPR/hosts/programs	3,688
Online	36
Politics	192
Rutherford	4,442
Shuttle disaster	2
Station issues	243
Underwriting/funding/pledge drives	64

Jeffrey Dvorkin
Office of the Ombudsman
July 2, 2003

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