Against my better judgment, I opened a Twitter account today. You can follow me at @KyleDKrause. Chances are that virtually everything I tweet in the near future will be related to the report done by the NPR Ombudsman regarding the Native Foster Care series.
NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos, appeared on-air today on All Things Considered to discuss his report. I missed the segment, but the audio should be available later this evening.
[Edit]: Below are links to the relevant NPR sites. (Note the new Ombudsman piece from August 14)
- Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families (Most of the series aired in October of 2011)
- NPR Ombudsman’s Blog
- S. Dakota Foster Care 1: Investigative Story Telling Gone Awry (All 6 parts posted August 9, 2013 by the Ombudsman)
- S. Dakota Foster Care 2: Abuse in Taking Children from Families?
- S. Dakota Foster Care 3: Filthy Lucre
- S. Dakota Foster Care 4: The Mystery of a Missing $100 Million
- S. Dakota Foster Care 5: Who Is to Blame for Native Children in White Homes?
- S. Dakota Foster Care 6: Where It All Went Wrong – The Framing
- Editors Note (NPR’s Response to the Ombudsman) (by Kinsey Wilson & Margaret Low Smith)
- NPR, Ombudsman Differ on S. Dakota Indian Foster Care Series (by David Folkenflik – Aired on All Things Considered on August 12)
- S. Dakota Indian Foster Care: Listening to Your Responses (August 14 by the Ombudsman)
Below I will post some links to other stories discussing the topic, and may add to the list from time to time.
- The Argus Leader has a full PDF of the story that does not require logging in to an obscure site to download it.
- “NPR’s Indian child care series rebuked” – The Argus Leader story that appears to be the basis for the first AP report
- “NPR Dismisses an Ombudsman’s Report” – By Abraham Moussako of the Columbia Journalism Review
- “NPR stands by story its ombudsman criticized” – by Andrew Beaujon of Poynter
- “NPR’s Ombudsman Demolishes Reckless NPR Series; NPR News Stands by It” – by John Williams at NewsBusters (obviously conservative)
- “When an NPR Journalist Destroys NPR Journalism” – by Bob Collins of Minnesota Public Radio
Added on 8/13/2013:
- “BLOGMORE: Where the balance? Not in NPR Indian foster care report” – by Kevin Wooster of the Rapid City Journal
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“NPR ombud sharply criticizes acclaimed 2011 investigative story” – by Andrew Lapin of Current
- “Flawed NPR Ombudsman Report on SD ICWA Stories” – by Kate Ford of Turtle Talk (poorly reasoned article)
- “Do errors in NPR piece merit 80-page report?” – by Andrew Beaujon of Poynter
Added on 8/14/2013:
- “NPR fact checker cites “five sins” in native foster care story” – by Matthew Lasar of Radio Survivor
Added on 8/15/2013:
- “A Dilemma for NPR and the Duty of Its Ombudsman” – by Jeffrey Dvorkin (former NPR Ombudsman)
- “NPR ombud’s latest report raises important questions, but it’s not without flaws” – by Kelly McBride of Poynter
Added on 8/16/2013:
- “Beat the Press Video: NPR’s Internal Dispute” – Video aired on “Beat the Press” program on WGBH
- “The NPR Ombudsman Debate” – by Bob Collins of Minnesota Public Radio
- “Stop the Relentless Evenhandedness” – by Jack Dickey of Time
- “First Amendment: Who holds the news media accountable? We all do” – by Gene Policinski
Added on 8/18/2013:
- “NPR’s Ombudsman Deconstructs an NPR Report” – by Bob Garfield of NPR’s On the Media
- “Truth and/or Bias in South Dakota” – posted by user gubenuj on Metafilter (to those posting comments – feel free to call me)
Added on 8/21/2013:
- “NPR Fails Indian children, South Dakota with report” – by Kenneth C. Blanchard Jr. – published in the Aberdeen News
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**”The Schumacher-Matos report on NPR’s coverage of child welfare in South Dakota: A case study in an ombudsman gone awry” – by Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
Added on 8/28/2013:
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“Ombud’s critique of NPR series prompts rebuke from top brass” – by Mike Janssen of Current.org
- “NPR report ‘flawed,’ but issue real” – by the editorial staff of the Rapid City Journal
**This document by Richard Wexler is the first decent response I have seen to the Ombudsman’s report, in that it actually attempts to counter some points and does not just complain about how long it is (like Kelly McBride). I disagree with a number of the critiques in the response. For example, his claim that the stories “neither say nor imply” that South Dakota social workers are taking Indian children from their families because they are motivated by federal money is clearly false. If they did not imply such a thing, then one has to wonder how literally thousands of people got that impression. BUT, the response also makes a significant number of interesting and often valid points that can serve to inform future discussion of this issue. For example, his discussion of the impact of federal funding for foster care mirrors my statements near the end of my very first post on this topic, and his discussion of confidentiality laws parallels what I wrote here.