The long-standing routine of NPR employees using the network’s airtime to discuss their own books has got to stop, NPR ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen wrote Thursday.
NPR hosts, correspondents, producers and contributors write an awful lot of books, many of them eagerly anticipated by listeners who turn them into bestsellers. But I believe NPR should not routinely help their cause by featuring the books on air and online. NPR’s new top news executive concurs, in part, particularly when it comes to show hosts discussing their own outside projects on their own shows.
By way of example, she cited a recent appearance by “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep, who discussed his new book “Jacksonland” on the show.
This sort of thing is unacceptable, Jensen writes:
Nonetheless, NPR should not be featuring a host’s book on his or her own program (and no longer will be; see below.) Overall, it also ought to be much more stingy when handing out these features to fellow staff members, particularly when it comes to the main newsmagazines, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and their weekend counterparts.
In the wake of Inskeep’s “Morning Edition” interview, NPR has drafted guidelines for covering books written by employees, Jensen writes. From now on, staffers won’t appear on their own shows “to discuss outside books,” according to a note from NPR news chief Michael Oreskes quoted by Jensen.
Jensen has been no stranger to controversy since she started at NPR earlier this year. So far, she’s called attention to political advocacy that was later deemed inappropriate by NPR and a broadcast by “Latino USA” that had its NPR affiliation pulled after her post raised questions of imbalance.