Seeking To Cut Down On Corrections With A 'CQ'
Can NPR reduce the number of monthly mistakes it makes in half, by October? That's the newsroom's ambitious goal.
On Monday, referencing an error rate that he called "unacceptable," NPR's standards and practices editor Mark Memmott laid out a new newsroom system that he hopes will lead to fewer corrections.
In his memo to the newsroom, Memmott wrote: "We've posted about 100 corrections a month this year. There is no acceptable number of mistakes per month, but there certainly is an unacceptable number. One hundred a month is unacceptable."
The new process, which he told the newsroom is "not optional," is really just a fallback to one that print journalists used for decades:
"Before a story is turned in to an editor, the facts must be and its connection to journalism, here's what it's about:
