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 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 °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ 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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NPR this week discovered ethical violations in many reports prepared for it by freelance journalist
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Does it grate on your ears if you're offered a "free gift?" Would you have a "sudden impulse" to correct that grammar? Pleonasms have unnecessary, superfluous words. Tell us about the ones you hear.
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Here's how NPR thought through whether the gunshots that killed two TV journalists should be replayed on the radio and online.
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There are times when obscene words are heard, but they are rare. Editors balance respect for listeners against the news value of the language.
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Along with the words and phrases that still ring out 239 years later are less noticed turns of phrase. They say a lot about the messages Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers wanted to send.
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An eggcorn is a word or phrase that isn't right, but makes some sense. It's among more than 1,700 words Merriam-Webster just added to its dictionary. What are your favorite eggcorns?
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Hundreds of people died this month when an overloaded ship sank in the Mediterranean Sea. They were on the move, but never reached their destinations.
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Though investigators say it looks like the co-pilot deliberately brought down the jet, killing himself and 149 others, there are reasons not to use that word.
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When NPR correspondents report about that group, they try to make it clear that it is not a "state" in the standard sense of that word. This month's "Word Matters" conversation explains why.
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°µºÚ±¬ÁÏ organizations, including NPR, support the satirical magazine's right to be offensive. But mainstream news outlets also avoid publishing such material.