In a public memo to staffers Thursday, NPR Standards and Practices Editor Mark Memmott admonished the network’s journalists to use the same standards for offensive language on podcasts that they would over the air.
The guidance was in response to a question from journalists in NPR’s New York bureau, who asked whether it was OK to “call an asshole an asshole.”
The answer? If you can’t say it on air, you probably shouldn’t say it on a podcast.
We don’t want to seem boring and out-of-step. We do want to sound like America. But, the bar that NPR journalists need to get over before using such language themselves has to be set incredibly high — so high, in fact, that it’s almost impossible to get over.
We’re professional communicators at a major news organization. What we say and write in public reflects on NPR. No matter what platform we’re using or where we’re appearing, we should live up to our own standards. Yes, there’s more room in podcasts to let guests speak freely and for our journalists to be looser with their language. But it doesn’t mean NPR correspondents are free to use words or phrases in podcasts that they would never use on the air.
We should always be the news outlet that revels in language. There are so many wonderful words. Use them!
Memmott’s guidance comes as other news organizations are debating whether to let swears sneak into their copy. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have both visited the issue within the last year, with journalists there generally erring on the side of prudence.
