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.
As the NPR Ethics Handbook states, the Standards & Practices editor is "charged with cultivating an ethical culture throughout our news operation." This means he or she coordinates discussion on how we apply our principles and monitors our decision-making practices to ensure we're living up to our standards."
Before becoming Standards & Practices editor, Memmott was one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog, which he helped to launch when he came to NPR in 2009. It focused on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.
Prior to joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He reported from places across the United States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.
During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline," "The Oval" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.
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To be "unfazed" is to be undaunted or not perturbed. To be "unphased" is not the same thing.
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The lawyer's prepared remarks include language we need to discuss.
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NPR avoids loaded language and the way that party is referred to can be just that.
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The country isn't spelled the way the New York university spells its name.
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When discussing members of a church, the word doesn't apply to those in "non-hierarchal Protestant denominations," the AP advises.
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"Worst," "deadliest" and other such labels do not automatically have to be attached to mass shootings.
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Think about who's standing in line outside the governor's office and in what order.
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Rather than jumping in, the media need to make sure they've done the reporting.
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Doing so could raise questions about NPR's independence and impartiality.
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It's easy in a new year to misspeak about when something happened. Don't trust your memory and be specific.