Provocative political speech

/ Carlos Carmonamedina for NPR Public Editor

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Carlos Carmonamedina for NPR Public Editor

When former President Donald Trump goes off script, as he frequently does during his campaign speeches, reporters have to figure out how much time and energy they should spend documenting and explaining his digressions. Those small side trips in his speeches offer a window into his thinking. But it’s rarely a clear view.

During a recent speech to a group of Christians, Trump had one such moment. He said something strange, and many news organizations reported it, including NPR. A small paraphrase of Trump’s words in NPR’s online story generated a number of letters to our inbox.

Readers told us they thought the paraphrase softened Trump’s statement, making it sound less alarming.

We dug into the decision-making behind the reporting. The audience members who wrote to us were concerned with accuracy: Was the paraphrased description faithful to the actual statement Trump uttered? After looking at the facts and the timeline, I added two additional questions: Did the formats that NPR selected — a short audio spot and a short online story — allow for enough context? Did Trump’s new statement merit additional reporting?

We also address a second audience question about anonymous sourcing. Read on to see what we learned.

Then, we spotlight an investigative story that originated in NPR’s Midwest Newsroom on the adequacy of the foster care system. It’s great to see accountability journalism focused on the geographic middle of the country. — Kelly McBride

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Illustration by Carlos Carmonamedina

What did former President Trump mean?

We received numerous comments about NPR’s coverage of Trump’s statements to a gathering of Christians. Here’s a sample:

Former President Donald Trump addressed the Believers Summit in late July in West Palm Beach, Florida. The summit, organized by the political nonprofit Turning Point USA, was designed to help evangelical Christians participate in civic life.

Trump’s hourlong speech was mostly his standard campaign speech as of late. But he modified it in places to appeal to Christians, promising to protect them in government-funded spaces like schools and the military. Several times during the speech, Trump pointed out that Christians vote at lower rates. They “do not vote proportionately,” he said. “They’re not big voters.”

In the closing minutes of his speech, he returned to that point, urging Christians to get out and vote. Here’s the entire quote, transcribed and punctuated by this team:

“If you want to save America, get your friends, get your family, get everyone you know, and vote. Vote early, vote absentee, vote on Election Day. I don’t care how, but you have to get out and vote. And again, Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” said Trump. “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You’ve gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.”

That statement received a lot of press coverage. It was new, a detour from his standard stump speech. It was confusing to many people, and alarming to some.

National political correspondent Sarah McCammon heard the comments from the late Friday evening speech and filed a short audio piece to be used in the newscasts, the quick roundup of news that airs at the top of the hour. In that piece, she recapped his familiar promises, pointed out that the audience was primarily Christians, and then said, “He also called on Christians to vote this year and seemed to suggest their votes would be unnecessary in the next election.” After that, she inserted the audio of Trump saying, “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You gotta get out and vote.”

That audio spot for the newscast accurately represented what happened. It didn’t attempt to explain what Trump meant. Newscast stories are always very short and straightforward.

It was just before midnight on a Friday when she forwarded her script to her colleagues who would be working on Saturday and suggested that it would make a good story for NPR’s website.

The next day, NPR published the article that elicited so many letters to the Public Editor inbox. The headline, “Trump tells Christian voters they ‘won’t have to vote anymore’ if he’s elected,” is almost identical to what many other news outlets chose for their headlines. The article included a portion of Trump’s direct quote.

In the paragraph before the quote, the text describes Trump’s message about getting Christians to vote for him. Then the article sets up the Trump quote by paraphrasing the perplexing parts of his speech: Trump “added that if elected, Christian-related concerns will be ‘fixed’ so much so that they would no longer need to be politically engaged.”

The article then launches into a portion of the direct quote from Trump.

A promotion of the article on NPR’s Threads account also read: “Speaking at a gathering of religious conservatives, Donald Trump said if he’s reelected, Christian-related concerns will be ‘fixed’ so much so that they would no longer need to be politically engaged.”

Chief Washington editor Krishnadev Calamur told us that NPR’s Washington Desk is not usually staffed on the weekends, which is why the digital story was turned over to the staff on the weekend Digital News Hub team. “In an ideal world, somebody like me would have backread it and provided that context, and maybe that language should have been sharpened,” he said. “It’s a mea culpa, but I think our staff just doesn’t allow for us to be on every day.”

This story needed better editing, and not just to prevent the vague wording. The story itself needed explaining. What did Trump mean when he suggested that Christians should turn out once to secure his election and then never again? Other news organizations sought more clarity, and while the reporting was inconclusive, reading those stories allows news consumers to see the context of related statements and confirm that the former president is being deliberately opaque about what he meant.

McCammon’s news spot served the journalistic purpose of noting that Trump said something provocative. After all, a politician suggesting it won’t be necessary for voters to vote in future elections is undemocratic and worth reporting, just to get the statement documented.

The Saturday web story was always intended to be a reworked version of the newscast spot that was filed the night before, supervising editor Alina Hartounian told us via email. While there was some discussion about the story among editors via Slack, she said no one encouraged the reporter to follow up with the Trump campaign.

Although the plan was to do a short, online story, that wasn’t the best way to serve NPR’s audience. In addition to more reporting, news consumers needed context and analysis that would help people judge for themselves Trump’s commitment to democratic principles.

The logical follow-up story would quote sources from inside the campaign who can describe why Trump was repeating the assertion that Christians don’t turn out to vote and what he meant about showing up once and then never again. NPR was not alone in letting Trump’s statement stand alone. By the response in our inbox and to the NPR post on Threads, we can tell that listeners were dissatisfied.

Short and quick can often be the enemy of context and understanding. Breaking developments come fast and furious in this presidential election cycle. The first short story on a surprise statement from a presidential candidate is expected. The next story should bring more clarity, by asking questions and seeking answers. Most often those needs are identified in the editing stages, at which point the story is held for more information, or a third story is assigned. Neither of those options was exercised. That left the audience wanting more. — Amaris Castillo and Kelly McBride

Why use anonymous sources?

The facts in this short news spot, reported by senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, were meant to let the NPR audience know that NPR was on the case, reporting out the nagging question: Who was Vice President Kamala Harris going to name as her running mate?

Calamur told us that the information wasn’t particularly earth-shattering, but it did advance the story. That said, he understands the objection to using anonymous sources.

“One can say that is disingenuous and it’s not good for the real audience,” he said. “I won’t debate any of it,” and NPR has “a strong ethics rulebook on it.”

In this case, the reporter followed NPR’s guidelines. She revealed her sources to the managing editor on duty that day, who approved their use.

Calamur said he believes that if the audience doesn’t hear that story on NPR, they will go somewhere else looking for it. After all, it was the pressing political question of the day.

“It’s the cost of doing business in Washington, D.C.” he said. “A lot of the things that we learn from our sources are not things those sources are allowed to tell us. So we grant them anonymity to tell us that and verify it independently. Usually we do it with two sources.”

Fair enough. Harris’s search for a running mate was a story everyone was seeking. And NPR’s reporting told a different story than other journalists who were speculating on the existence of a short list. The transparency about the sourcing is valuable because it offers the audience some insight into the reason NPR is reporting the information. — Kelly McBride

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Scarce resources for at-risk girls in foster care

Facilities for girls in the foster care system with specialized needs in Iowa and Missouri don’t have enough beds available to meet demand, Kristofor Husted recently reported. Husted produced the story for the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration between member stations and NPR. The story takes a 360-degree look at the issue. Husted interviewed a woman who found success after being placed in a specialized facility as a child. He also talked with experts about why girls with behavioral issues stemming from PTSD, bipolar disorder or other mental health issues have different needs than boys. The audio story and the accompanying digital story, with its compelling photos and graphics, help the audience understand why the issue matters. — Emily Barske Wood

The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Emily Barske Wood and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, X and from our inbox. As always, keep them coming.

Kelly McBride
NPR Public Editor
Chair, Craig Newmark Center for Ethics & Leadership at the Poynter Institute

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