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Some Things Considered, Mostly by White Men [1]

['Michael Tkaczevski', 'Patrick Lynch', 'J Golden', 'Jim Estrada', 'Steve Mc', 'John Q', 'Lisa Simeone', 'Marshall Dinowitz', 'Demetri Koss', 'Peter Jackson']

Date: 2015-07-15 18:48:02+00:00

A new FAIR study finds that NPR commentary is dominated by white men and almost never directly addresses political issues.

This study reviewed transcripts from January 1 to May 31, 2015, looking at regular commentators—that is, voices who were featured twice or more on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Saturday and Weekend Edition Sunday to present their perspective in monologue form. (Reviews containing soundbites from reviewed material were considered to be commentaries.)

The study found 14 regular commentators, whose viewpoints were featured in a total of 111 segments. Of these commentators, 11 were men and three were women (79 percent male); 13 of the commentators (92 percent) were non-Latino whites and one was a person of color.

The women who were regular commentators were Tess Taylor, a poetry critic, and music reviewers Meredith Ochs and Michelle Mercer. The person of color was Eric Deggans, an African-American writer who critiques TV. No women of color were regular commentators.

Of the 111 regular commentary segments, just 7 percent featured one of the female commentators. Eleven percent were by people of color, reflecting Deggans’ frequent appearances on Morning Edition. Eighty-two percent of regular commentaries aired by NPR were by white men.

FAIR has studied NPR‘s commentators twice before, in conjunction with broader studies of NPR‘s sources in 1991 (Extra!, 4-5/93) and 2003 (Extra!, 5-6/04). Both these earlier studies looked at four months of commentary, rather than five; the 1991 study looked only at the weekday news shows, not at the Weekend Edition programs.

The 14 regular commentators in 2015 were markedly lower than the 46 counted in 2003 and the 27 in 1991, despite the earliest study excluding weekend programming.

The 21 percent of regular commentators who were female in 2015 was somewhat lower than the 24 percent women in 2003, though considerably more than their 7 percent in 1991. The 8 percent of regular commentators who were people of color in 2015 was a good deal lower than their 20 percent representation in 2003, though statistically more than in 1991, when the one person of color among a larger number of regular commentators represented 4 percent.

White men were 71 percent of NPR’s regular commentators in 2015, up from 2003’s 60 percent, though down from 1991’s 85 percent.

Eight of NPR’s regular commentators in 2015 critiqued arts and entertainment, while others commented on particular subject areas like history (Nate Dimeo) or sports (Frank Deford). One, Greg O’Brien, delivered a series of audio diaries describing his personal experience with Alzheimer’s disease.

The only regular commentator who specialized in politics was BBC Washington correspondent Jonny Dymond, who delivered colorful accounts of British electoral campaigns. His focus was on rhetorical styles and personal quirks (like favorite sports teams), however, rather than on actual political issues.

This is a big change from the previous studies, which found politics to be a more frequent theme of NPR commentary. In 1991, regular commentators produced 29 segments on international affairs, 21 commentaries on US politics and seven on economics. (Compare that to just two segments by Dymond.)

The 2003 study recorded subject areas by percentage, not raw numbers; 18 percent of the segments by regular commentators focused on domestic politics, while 4 percent looked at international affairs. Only 9 percent focused on the arts.

The political discussion that used to be incorporated into NPR‘s commentary is now relegated to Week in Politics, a feature on All Things Considered that usually airs on Friday. Rather than having a range of commentators giving their individual perspectives in monologues throughout the week, Week in Politics presents two commentators who represent a conservative and liberal viewpoint discussing trending topics in a point/counterpoint format.

The regular Week in Politics pundits are Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, representing liberals, and New York Times columnist (and PBS commentator) David Brooks taking the conservative side. Both are white men.

Occasionally Brooks or Dionne takes the week off, and a stand-in takes their place. Suzy Khimm, a senior editor at the New Republic, filled in for Dionne twice in the study period. Ramesh Ponnuru, an Indian-American man and senior editor at the National Review, filled in for Brooks six times, while Reihan Salam, National Review‘s executive director, filled in for Brooks twice. All three of the replacement pundits are Asian-American. As Khimm’s two appearances were the only female representation, Week in Politics‘ punditry was 97 percent male and 83 percent white.

The virtual elimination of political commentary from most of NPR‘s main news shows comes after decades of criticism from Republicans and conservative news commentators who considered NPR to be unworthy of taxpayer support, in part because it failed to include enough conservative voices. (In actuality, back when there was enough political commentary on NPR to evaluate its political slant, FAIR argued that it leaned to the right–see Extra!, 5-6/04.)

In May 2014, the board of directors of NPR adopted a new strategic plan that aimed, among other things, for “undisputed leadership” in “stories at the intersection of race, ethnicity and culture,” and a newsroom that better “reflect[s] the fabric of America,” within three to five years.

With regular commentators who are 71 percent white men, NPR has its work cut out for it.

SIDEBAR:

Fresh Air’s All-White Commentary

In addition to looking at the regular commentators on NPR‘s main news programs, FAIR also examined the commentary heard on NPR‘s Fresh Air, which has a talkshow format. People appearing on the show were counted as regular commentators if they presented their perspectives in a monologue format two or more times during the study period (1/1/15-5/31/15).

All 9 regular commentators on Fresh Air were white; none were people of color (including Latinos).

One regular commentator (10 percent) was a woman: Maureen Corrigan, a book critic. Out of the 86 segments of regular commentary on Fresh Air during the study period, Corrigan provided 13, or 15 percent of regular commentaries. The other 85 percent of regular commentaries were by white men.

All but one of the regular commentators on Fresh Air commented on arts or entertainment, generally in the context of reviews. The exception was Geoffrey Nunberg, who talked about linguistics.

CORRECTION: After FAIR published this study on July 15, NPR ombud Elizabeth Jensen noted discrepancies in the criteria used to classify segments as commentaries. This led us to review the dataset and correct some codings and attributions. The article reflects the amended dataset (7/18/15). FAIR appreciates Jensen’s close attention to the data.

NOTE: This is a revised version; an earlier version, released July 14, 2015, mistakenly combined data from the NPR talkshow Fresh Air with data on NPR‘s news-format shows, making the comparisons to earlier FAIR studies problematic. In this version, data on Fresh Air is presented in a separate sidebar.

Michael Tkaczevski is a student at Ithaca College and a FAIR editorial intern.

FAIR’s work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. Donate today to be a part of this important mission.

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[1] Url: https://fair.org/home/some-things-considered-mostly-by-white-men-2/

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