4 ms·

I had to visit like 3 different sites to understand the whole story. I feel like NPR got caught up in this scam. They should use the opportunity to investigate

I had to visit like 3 different sites to understand the whole story. I feel like NPR got caught up in this scam. They should use the opportunity to investigate how this happened instead of burying it.

jrochkind1 8y ago
Maybe they are in the midst of such. It would be a good story.
- bamboo_7 8y ago
  This American Life did an entire episode about correcting one of their earlier episodes when they found out that the individual had made up many of the details. Honestly, the retraction episode was better than the original one: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory https://www.thisamericanlife.org/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple...
  - jrochkind1 8y ago
    I actually went and emailed the NPR Ombudsmen (who posted a short thing about the OP that someone else linked to in these HN comments) suggesting they do such a follow-up story.
danso 8y ago
The ombudsman also addressed it: https://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2018/04/12/601650762/npr-issues-rare-retraction https://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2018/04/12/601650762/...
- sjsjxhhc 8y ago
  There’s additional information there, but it still gave me more questions than answers. If the problem was just that they didn’t talk to the author, that could be resolved by a correction with a quote from the author, or “x could not be reached for comment”. The statement that that they would have “essentially had to construct a different story” implies that there is something more complicated going on here, and invites confusion and speculation.
- vinhboy 8y ago
  > NPR's standard procedure in cases of errors is to make a correction, not remove a story entirely, as was done in this case. Glad to hear that the ombudsman raised the same issue I am raising here.
scott_s 8y ago
This is not what burying a story looks like. This is publicly owning up to your mistakes and trying to correct the record.

jrochkind1 8y ago

Maybe they are in the midst of such. It would be a good story.

bamboo_7 8y ago
This American Life did an entire episode about correcting one of their earlier episodes when they found out that the individual had made up many of the details. Honestly, the retraction episode was better than the original one: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory https://www.thisamericanlife.org/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple...
- jrochkind1 8y ago
  I actually went and emailed the NPR Ombudsmen (who posted a short thing about the OP that someone else linked to in these HN comments) suggesting they do such a follow-up story.

danso 8y ago

The ombudsman also addressed it: https://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2018/04/12/601650762/npr-issues-rare-retraction https://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2018/04/12/601650762/...

sjsjxhhc 8y ago
There’s additional information there, but it still gave me more questions than answers. If the problem was just that they didn’t talk to the author, that could be resolved by a correction with a quote from the author, or “x could not be reached for comment”. The statement that that they would have “essentially had to construct a different story” implies that there is something more complicated going on here, and invites confusion and speculation.
vinhboy 8y ago
> NPR's standard procedure in cases of errors is to make a correction, not remove a story entirely, as was done in this case. Glad to hear that the ombudsman raised the same issue I am raising here.

scott_s 8y ago

This is not what burying a story looks like. This is publicly owning up to your mistakes and trying to correct the record.