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When you work at a public media station, you’re the local face of NPR. Which means you’re often the one who gets complaints about NPR — even if you played no role in reporting or editing what they broadcast.
A lot of these complaints center around perceived bias on a particular subject: the war in Gaza, the economy, campaign coverage, etc. They're often subjective, but they're still valid, important concerns, and we’re usually happy to send them up to The Mothership (as we refer to NPR around the newsroom).
But, sometimes NPR makes a mistake, as in, they get something objectively wrong. It happens. NPR isn’t a monolithic news machine, it’s hundreds of hard-working but occasionally fallible human beings, after all.
One of those mistakes happened last week, when NPR was reporting on the recent multi-national prisoner transfer between the United States, Russia, and several other countries. Among the freed prisoners were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
During some NPR newscasts — those rapid-fire stories that air at the top and bottom of the hour — hosts referred to Whelan as a “retired” Marine.
But, as some of WHQR listeners were quick to note, Whelan is not retired.
He received a bad-conduct discharge after being court-martialed for attempted larceny and other offenses. A bad-conduct discharge – sometimes given the deceptively adorable nickname ‘Big Chicken Dinner’ – is a significant punishment in the military court system. While it is not as serious as a dishonorable discharge, it often includes forfeiting VA benefits and, in general, is considered disgraceful. And, in fact, several listeners suggested NPR should more accurately refer to Whelan as a “disgraced” or “disgraced former” Marine.
I noticed the word choice, too – having followed the story for some time – but I have to say, the error wasn’t as visceral for me as it was for some of our listeners who have served in the armed forces and, particularly, in the U.S. Marines. It was, as one listener put it, “a pretty serious insult” to those who had served honorably.
After I heard the first newscast, and some of these objections from listeners, I sent an email to our regional NPR representative. That was around 3:30 p.m. – and, by the 5 p.m. newscast, new guidance had gone out and NPR’s Michele Kelemen was referring to Whelan as a “former” Marine.
Now, there are a few things I think are worth saying here:
First, I should note that NPR’s more in-depth report on Morning Edition, which aired not long after the story broke, correctly referred to Whelan as “former” and not “retired.”
Second, just to be clear: I kind of doubt I was the only one from a member station to reach out about this, so I'm not taking credit. The important part was, when I contacted NPR they took it seriously and assured me they were working on it – and they were. It’s true they didn’t issue a ‘correction,’ and I can only assume the limited time for newscasts might not allow it for a single word choice issue, but they did course correct quickly. (It’s the kind of thing that NPR’s public editor, the excellent Kelly McBride from Poynter, might write about.)
And lastly, I’m aware that I’ve had quite a bit to say here about one word. But it’s a testament to the power of words – to the power of a single word – and to the stakes of reporting the news in a linguistic landscape littered with semantic pitfalls.
