Edward Schumacher-Matos

Editor's Note: My predecessor, Edward Schumacher-Matos, has been reflecting on his tenure as NPR's Ombudsman, which ended Jan. 31. Here is his final column. I'll begin posting here soon. - Elizabeth

If I am unethical, then so be it.

When I joined NPR nearly four years ago, I discovered that ...

I am pleased to introduce my successor, Elizabeth Jensen. Here's the staff note from NPR CEO Jarl Mohn.

RE: Our New Ombudsman/Public Editor

All –

I'm thrilled to share the news that veteran journalist Elizabeth Jensen will become our next Ombudsman/Public Editor.

Elizabeth brings the highest level of integrity ...

You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

While we cannot respond to every comment, the ombudsman's staff reviews the Open Forum regularly. Please note that your comments here may be used in a future ...

You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

We have updated the format in order to keep the comments section open until a new forum is posted next month. While we cannot respond to every ...

Did host Scott Simon unfairly—and sordidly—ambush Bill Cosby by raising rape charges in a Weekend Edition interview that was otherwise about art?

The 77-year old comedian and wife Camille—she was present—were being interviewed on air Saturday about the many pieces of art that they are lending to the Smithsonian ...

You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

We have updated the format in order to keep the comments section open until a new forum is posted next month. While we cannot respond to every ...

Jose Ballester of Miami, Fla., asked with apparent innocence whether an All Things Considered story about abortions in El Salvador was meant to be a "hit piece" aimed at liberalizing that nation's strict anti-abortion laws.

After reviewing the reporting, I can tell you, Mr. Ballester, that, no, it is ...

And so NPR is pulling back on using the name of the Washington football team after all.

Seven months after NPR editors officially declared that they would continue to use the team's name in news reports, Mark Memmott, the standards editor, issued this guidance to the newsroom Friday:

A ...

You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

We have updated the format in order to keep the comments section open longer, at least until a new forum is posted next month. While we cannot ...

As hundreds of emails poured in complaining that NPR was ignoring the People's Climate March in New York Sept. 21, I wondered whether editors were trying to prove their conservative critics wrong about NPR being too liberal.

But what I found instead found was that most of the writers seemed ...

Differences in recent weeks over whether to post videos or photographs of the grisly beheadings by ISIS seem to have come down pretty strongly on the side against the postings. But what about the use of the word "beheading" itself in radio stories? Should there be an advance ...

The Ferguson story has moved off the streets and into the grand jury room, which is to say that there is a lull in the reporting in this otherwise emotive story.

The quiet is a good time to take stock of just how well NPR has done so far. The ...

You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

We have updated the format in order to keep the comments section open longer, at least until a new forum is posted next month. While we cannot ...

Plagiarism is a big word. So big that it can ruin a career. And yet it is slippery to define.

When NPR.org recently ran an article in its Parallels blog from GlobalPost, a foreign news partner site, a reader named Mark Ross commented at the bottom, "What's really weird, ...

Reporters and editors have to make editorial judgments every day for which there is no single right answer. NPR West Bureau Chief Jason DeRose and reporter Alex Schmidt made one such call as they edited Schmidt's story about bicyclists in Los Angeles who move in group "trains" for support ...

Meshell Ndegeocello broke through with her hit song "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)" in the '90s, then turned to more brooding and eclectic fare with her 1999 album Bitter. Her experimentation has continued even when she's recording other artists' work, as she does on last year's ...

Glenn Greenwald can certainly raise a ruckus.

The lawyer-cum-journalist who has been a principle conduit for the publication of the National Security Agency documents leaked by Edward Snowden has turned his sights on a recent NPR story by counterterrorism correspondent Dina Temple-Raston. Greenwald has called it an "indisputable case of ...

A puzzle underlay the complaints about a health care story in May from Houston. The reporting seemed gullible, but wasn't. It was in the more recent objections over war reports from Gaza, however, that I finally saw the full outlines of the conundrum—one that has been long nipping at me. ...

After a short break, the open forum is back open for discussion. We have updated the format in order to keep the comments section open longer, at least until a new forum is posted next month. While we cannot respond to every comment, the ombudsman's staff reviews the Open Forum ...

From terrorism to natural disasters, the standard reporting on casualties is often like this by Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep:

"First, we go to Gaza," recited Inskeep. "The health ministry there says more than 500 people have been killed – many of them women and children."

Why, Larry Kalikow ...