Whenever protests break out across the country, we hear from audience members who are dissatisfied with the coverage.
It happened during demonstrations in 2020 after the George Floyd murder. It happened a year ago when college students began protesting Israel's military campaign in Gaza. And since President Donald Trump was sworn in earlier this year, we've been fielding complaints about NPR's coverage of the most recent round of demonstrations.
The complaints regarding protest coverage fall into two categories. First, we hear that NPR doesn't publish enough stories documenting the protests themselves. Second, people object to stories about protests that result in violence or property damage, arguing that those stories distort the fact that most demonstrations are peaceful.
In response to three recent letters, I reviewed NPR's coverage and today I offer up a quick analysis. Read on to see my response.
Are protests newsworthy?
Roy Pardi wrote on April 5: I am looking at the NPR main site page at 4 pm on Saturday April 5th. I do not see ONE story about the “Hands Off” protest marches and rallies which have occurred all across the country. Not one story. I poked around more at the site and still do not see anything. Was this protest not considered “newsworthy”? WBUR thinks that it is, so why not NPR?ext, use the quote icon in the toolbar above. Do NOT turn on Pull Quote below!
Pamela Tellew wrote on March 28: Today on the news summary, with a report by Scott Neuman discussing Tesla, the story referred to vandalism and violence as a reason that Tesla cars were not selling well. In reality, the vast majority of protest against Tesla is happening in nonviolent demonstrations at dealerships and through conversations that are peaceful and legal. I know news organizations like to cover violence, but coverage of violence without covering peaceful protest is distorting the view of what is happening in the real world, and intimidating people from exercising their first amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly.
Rochelle Hauge wrote on March 15: Why are you not reporting about the protests about the current administration that are happening nationwide? I look to your news articles for unbiased coverage, but you aren’t covering the protests at all. This is proving that you are censoring information and are biased. What happened? You need to report the facts. Our country depends on this.
Does NPR ignore or underplay the mass protests?
I was in New York City over the weekend. Knowing that I already had two letters about the lack of NPR's coverage of protests in my inbox and that more would likely be coming, I went to watch the demonstration in Manhattan so I could judge the newsworthiness myself. As a news event, it wasn't very compelling.
It was certainly worth noting that it happened, but beyond that, there wasn't much actual news. Yes, the crowd was large. In fact, the pictures and videos were the most compelling part of the story.
Weekend All Things Considered featured a two-minute roundup about the rallies on Saturday afternoon. Then NPR posted a story and a photo essay on its website at 11:38 p.m. Saturday that included lots of photos and quotes from protesters in several locations across the country.
The next morning, Weekend Edition Sunday Host Ayesha Rascoe had a conversation with national political correspondent Mara Liasson. They listened to a short sound clip of the protests as a jumping-off point to discuss the rising wave of opposition to the president's policies, focusing on the impact the tariffs are having on the stock market.
On Monday, Morning Edition Host Steve Inskeep interviewed political correspondent Domenico Montanaro, who was at the protests in D.C. Montanaro offered his analysis of the opposition.
Three stories on NPR's airwaves and two stories on NPR's website seem like the right amount of coverage at the national level. The stories on the website should have been posted sooner. Audiences were clearly interested in the protests and posting the stories after many people had gone to bed was a missed chance to give people timely news they were looking for.
Local newsrooms across the country also covered the protests and in many cases posted their stories more quickly than NPR did. WBUR's story noted that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu addressed a large crowd. The story also included multiple photos.
Local newsrooms serve their local markets, and make their news decisions based on the needs of their communities and the resources they have available. NPR relies on local stations to meet local needs. And the local stations rely on NPR to bring a broad national perspective.
Does focusing on violence or vandalism distort the story of protests?
This question was asked repeatedly in 2020 during the protests after George Floyd's murder, and again last year when police were called onto Columbia University's campus to disperse students who were protesting Israel's military actions.
In both cases, while it was true that most protests had been mostly peaceful, the public had a compelling interest in understanding the events that led to conflict, destruction of property and violence. And that's still true.
Once a protest movement results in conflict or property damage, NPR journalists covering the protests will often note the exception and then point out that the majority of people at the protests were peaceful and that the majority of demonstrations started and ended without notable incidents.
Last year, NPR editors explained how their journalists searched for language to precisely describe the campus protests, including how the conflicts and violence erupted and what kind of property damage occurred.
This wave of protests outside Tesla dealerships pale in size and intensity to the campus protests of last year, but there is reason to quantify the impact. NPR coverage has noted the existence of the protests, the impact that protests are having on Tesla's image and finances, and the fact that people are being charged with domestic terrorism for vandalizing Teslas.
I didn't find any examples of NPR stories highlighting vandalism of Tesla cars and property. Instead, most of the references to the protests and property damage were passing mentions in stories about the health of the company itself.
The purpose of covering protests
Last year, when we addressed NPR's coverage of the campus protests, we cautioned that as NPR covers protests, it should describe to its audience the broader context around the decision. Why cover one particular protest and not all protests?
Transparency around coverage of protests will continue to be important, particularly if the discontent with the current administration continues to grow. Statistically, most news consumers are not protesting: Of the 300+ million people in the U.S., approximately 3 million protested last Saturday at 1,400 locations. Many people do not live close to communities where protests are happening. And even when they do, they may not know if protests are getting larger or becoming more frequent.
The individual protests themselves are unlikely to become significant news events. Instead, NPR's best service is to describe the broader implications of the protests, if and when those implications are clear and significant.
The Office of the Public Editor is a team. Reporters Amaris Castillo and Nicole Slaughter Graham and copy editor Merrill Perlman make this newsletter possible. Illustrations are by Carlos Carmonamedina. We are still reading all of your messages on Facebook, Instagram, Threads 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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