This Is No Mistake: There's Good News About Corrections

By Mark Memmott

Published October 2, 2019 at 11:13 AM CDT

When we met with everyone last year to talk about how to reduce the number of mistakes we were making, we set a goal to cut in half the number of corrections we were posting each month. The average then was just over 100 a month.

We reached our goal in September. Thank you!

The biggest factor, from what I've observed, has been a doubling down on double-checking our facts. Don't stop doing that.

Of course, we can't declare victory. We don't want to regress. Please keep using the NPR Accuracy Checklist. Please reread our post about CQ'ing.

And please, please, please focus on getting names right. They continue to be the single biggest source of mistakes we make.

But, again, thank you!

("Memmos" are posted here.)

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott