Errors by NPR, Part 1

On February 8, 2021, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said that he said, β€œIt was last March, remember, when a senior House Democrat called this disaster, quote, a β€˜tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.’”

However, subsequently, on February 25 of the same year, misidentifying Mcconnell as Majority Leader, Kelsey Snell of NPR said

SNELL: … Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of taking advantage of their new power in Washington to make good on a plan to turn pandemic relief into an extremely expensive liberal wish list.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MITCH MCCONNELL: It was last March, remember, when a senior House Democrat called this disaster, quote, “a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”

That is not true. Chuck Schumer was the majority leader in February of 2021, not Mcconnell.

Regarding another story, in 2017, NPR stated: “A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the House minority leader. He is the majority leader.”

NPR claims that it corrects “significant errors.” So, if misidentifying a congressman is significant, then doing so regarding a senator is more significant and a correction is warranted.

The false statement about the senate was heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition” as hosted by Noel King. Kelley L. Dickens is Supervising Editor of the program. Managing Editor for Standards and Practices at NPR is Tony Cavin. #2102V