September 2, 2005

TO: Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR Ombudsman

Dear Mr. Dvorkin:

On June 20, 2005, we first sent our concern to you regarding NPR�s lack of reporting on the civilian suffering in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over two months have now passed without any indication that the concern is being given appropriate attention. Attached is another copy of our initial letter to you.

We have spoken on two occasions, on July 26th and on August 22nd. During both conversations you committed to discussing the matter with NPR management/editors and to getting back to me with the results of those discussions. To date we have received no phone calls or emails from you.

On 7/26 you said that you weren�t sure about the reasons for the lack of complete coverage on this humanitarian crisis, but you guessed it might have to do with lack of resources. On 8/22 you said you couldn�t be sure but that you felt it probably had something to do with how dangerous it is over there, that �you can�t get out of the compound.� We know that both of these reasons are valid. They are both genuine obstacles to complete coverage. Yet these obstacles, while very real, are not insurmountable. First, limited resources are a matter of selection, choosing one story over another � whether originated by NPR or taken from other sources/wire services. Due to the fact that other sources are reporting more fully on this issue, it appears that NPR�s lack of coverage is a matter of choice. Second, danger is not new to reporting, and there are many journalists who either do take the risk or are willing to do so. Furthermore, the very fact that the environment is so dangerous adds to the terrible conditions in which the civilians are forced to try to survive. Their plight is worthy of more attention from the media, for the reasons described in our June 20th letter.

We feel this concern is as important and urgent as any of the others reported in the Ombudsman�s column since our letter of June 20th. We do not, however, seek a response in your column. Rather, we seek a response from NPR management through you as the independent liaison between the public and NPR. Only in this way will we be able to follow the procedure outlined on your website in Section B, �The Mandate and Office of the Ombudsman.�

Please contact NPR management regarding this concern and respond to us as soon as you can. Below are names of people who have a common interest in seeking to have NPR report more fully on the human tragedy which is ongoing in Afghanistan and Iraq. All the people below are waiting on NPR's response. More will be added to the list while we await your reply. If there is anything we can do to assist, or if there is anything else you require from us, please let us know.

We would appreciate it very much if you would be so kind as to confirm your receipt of this letter.

Thank you,
The Complete Coverage Campaign

Signed by 34 supporters

To: Bruce Drake, NPR Vice President � News

September 16, 2005

RE: Humanitarian Crisis: NPRs Coverage of Civilian Suffering

Dear Mr. Drake:

Before coming to you, we first approached the NPR ombudsman regarding the above-referenced subject. The ombudsman indicated to us in our last telephone conversation that he would not �refer the complaint to relevant management for a response� (B. The Mandate and Office of the Ombudsman, section 3). Instead he gave us your name and email address, suggesting we contact you.

We are writing to you, therefore, to seek a reply directly from NPR management on an issue that concerns us very much. Below please find: our first communication to the NPR ombudsman dated 6/20/05, our second letter to the ombudsman dated 9/2/05, and a report detailing our last conversation with the ombudsman dated 9/9/05.

Please read the attachments and consider seriously our request. Our request is simple: in light of the fact that NPR has a mandate to cover stories comprehensively and with fairness and accuracy, why is NPR not covering the full extent of the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq? We understand that the most recent coverage has been dedicated to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, but the tragedy of the civilian suffering has been and continues to be overlooked. When so many other stories of human suffering are given much fuller treatment, why is this one being passed over? Is there a fear of offending some listeners? Do you feel the need to refrain from appearing liberal? Do you feel it might be improper to help the citizens of a country with which we are involved in military action? Again, our request is simple: Why is NPR not covering this humanitarian crisis? We don�t want to assume the reasons; we�d like to know from you.

On 7/22/05, the AP reported that the U.N. chief humanitarian officer stated that the public generally ignored pleas for help regarding the situation in Niger until images of dying children were shown on television. This is just the most recent proof that people will help others when they are made aware of human tragedies. Radio has a similar power to move people to act.

As stated in our 6/20/05 letter, we understand the enormous difficulties in covering military actions. Obstacles exist in covering any major humanitarian crisis. Many times it is merely a matter of will, a question of commitment. Is NPR committed to covering this crisis?

Thank you very much for your consideration of this matter. We appreciate NPR and look forward to more excellent reporting.

Please reply to us at the email address below. Thank you very much.

The Complete Coverage Campaign

Signed by the following in addition to the 34 names included in the 9/2/05 letter to the ombudsman: [18 additional names were listed here.]

From: Bruce Drake
To: CompleteCoverageCampaign
Cc: "Jeffrey Dvorkin"
Subject: your email
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 3:31 PM

Dear Mr. Bahn,

This is to confirm that I have received your e-mail. I did not see it immediately because it did not come under your name and I did not recognize the address "[email protected]"

I understand your concerns and have shared your e-mail with others here. But I would say to you that an assessment of the coverage of the issues you list should not be limited to one time period of less than a month when it is natural that a story like the Katrina and Rita calamities will dominate coverage.

Year round, NPR is in the forefront of covering the issues you mention. Our Anne Garrels reported from Iraq, and the suffering of its peoples, long before the war and consistently during and after it, as have many of our other reporters. (One example was her report from Baghdad yesterday, which I attach). The same for Afghanistan. The same for Africa where we have extensively covered stories ranging from the ravages of the AIDS epidemic to hunger (see attached story from Sept. 28) to the horrors of Darfur.

So this is a commitment we have honored, and will continue to.

October 14, 2005

Dear Mr. Drake:

Thank you for your 9/30/05 response to our 9/16/05 email. We appreciate you taking the time to reply and are grateful for your understanding. Thank you as well for sending the transcript of Garrels� 9/29/05 Iraq report and of Beaubien�s 9/28/05 Africa report. Is there an easy way to get all of Garrels� Iraq stories on civilians?

Please note that we do not base our comments on �one time period of less than a month� as you state in your message. Rather, as noted in our 6/20/05 letter to Mr. Dvorkin, which we included below the text of our last email to you, our concern is based upon listening to Morning Edition and All Things Considered from before the invasion of Iraq until the present time, over 2 � years.

Maybe we were not clear about the type of coverage for which we are calling and why. We seek coverage of the humanitarian story � what the conditions are for people living there � which is not interspersed with details of a political nature. The attachments you sent to us offer a very good example of what we are saying. The Africa report does a very good job of focusing solely on the difficult situation of the people. The Iraq report, on the other hand, includes many comments and opinions about the U.S. presence in the area. In fact, such quotes seem to be justifying the suffering which is being described elsewhere in the report. It would be nice to hear comprehensive coverage of the conditions under which so many Iraqi people are living without interjection of various people�s views regarding the occupation. Why do we feel this way? Because we believe that all people � whether they see themselves being in favor of the occupation or against it, pro-military or not � can come together in support of hearing about the grave needs of the Iraqis. After all, in light of the fact that 90% of the casualties of modern military conflict are civilian (UNICEF, The State of the World�s Children, 1996), it�s clear that the conditions are quite serious. We note that NPR�s Lisa Schlein on October 5, 2005, reported very briefly from Geneva that the U.N.�s Kofi Annan stated that civilians are the major victims of war. We appreciate NPR reporting this information.

NPR might approach this type of coverage with �day-in-the-life� stories of Iraqi civilians, or any types of stories which are similar to the humanitarian coverage broadcast after the tsunami, or after Katrina, or after the recent south Asian (Pakistan) earthquake. This is what we are calling for.

And what do we mean by �extensive� or �comprehensive� coverage? Unfortunately, recent times have set a precedent for what extensive coverage is during human tragedies: 9/11, Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina. Extensive coverage means frequent reporting for days and days, weeks and weeks. And, extensive coverage is still timely, because for the people in Iraq, their tsunami, their hurricane, is still raging. The coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq has not been comprehensive or extensive. The comparison of coverage between these various human tragedies leads one to the conclusion that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq is not as important to NPR as the others.

Finally, the reason we included the names at the bottom of our 9/2 letter to Mr. Dvorkin and our 9/16 letter to you was because often it is the number of listener concerns received that causes a focus of attention, if not a change in coverage. We are sending to you in the mail an additional 300+ signatures of people who also feel that the humanitarian story is absent from NPR�s Iraq coverage.

Please make a commitment to presenting the kind of coverage for which we are asking. It is the kind of coverage which makes the most sense, would be the most consistent and which all people can support. All people, regardless of whether they are in favor of the conflict in Iraq or against it, can nevertheless support the humanitarian coverage we are calling for, because only by knowing the full extent of the crisis are people able to share in the suffering and offer their assistance.

Please think about it. We look forward to your response. Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,

The Complete Coverage Campaign

TO: NPR MANAGEMENT, BILL MARIMOW, BARBARA REHM DE LA PORTA

December 20, 2005

RE: COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CIVILIAN SITUATION IN IRAQ

Dear NPR management:

Six months ago today we first made contact with NPR. Our purpose was to call attention to the plight of civilians who endure a humanitarian crisis without adequate news coverage. Over time, our dialogue with NPR resulted in a promise to provide complete coverage of the civilian cost in Iraq.

The promise to provide complete coverage was made during two telephone conversations with Barbara Rehm. On 11/4/05, Ms. Rehm made the following comments: �This is a very fair thing for you to ask of us.� She stated that she �shares the same concerns� and that NPR �could do a better job,� and would. She said again that this is �an honorable thing to demand� and that she would take the concerns to other members of management and to reporters in the field. On 11/29/05, Ms. Rehm repeated her prior commitment and further highlighted her intentions to offer such coverage. She stated that her remembrance of the 11/4 conversation was that she�d �agreed with the basic premise that civilian deaths are something we need to keep going back to.� She said �we�ve got the military and the elections,� meaning that there was still a big story there and, therefore, a reason to have resources / reporters there. She said �we�ve weighed in from time to time, not as much as we should have . . . . � She said �it�s a subject that I have very present, and that many people here have very present. It�s not something we don�t want to do.� She said �we�re trying to beef up our staff for the elections,� implying that with more staff they would do more of the civilian stories. She noted that they had just hired a Baghdad bureau chief who would start at the end of the week. She concluded: �We are committed to this story.�

As of yesterday, since NPR�s 11/4/05 promise NPR has done 160 stories on Iraq (from monitoring of Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition Saturday only). None of these stories has offered the type of coverage that we have been describing: Coverage of the Iraqi civilians from a non-political, completely humanitarian perspective, the type of coverage given to other humanitarian tragedies like tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, famines. Your segment �Iraqi Views,� while it did give a voice to three Iraqis, is another example of reporting that continues to connect the people's situation with politics, in this case the end result of the U.S. invasion/occupation: the elections. We understand, in light of the occupation, that it may be difficult to separate politics out of these stories, but what about doing an ongoing series of "a day in the life of...." and giving Iraqis a real chance to tell the world what life is like for them (water, power, schools, hospitals, jobs, security, etc), or other such reporting without any connection to politics? Coverage of a humanitarian crisis is more than just how many civilians are killed by suicide bombers. We note that during this same period there has been ongoing coverage of the human tragedies in Pakistan and New Orleans. Why do the Iraqi people not deserve similar coverage?

Lack of coverage of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq is all the more serious because the Iraqi people are our allies. Since May 2, 2003, when President Bush declared the war over, the U.S. has not been at war with Iraq. Iraq and the U.S. are battling an insurgency together and, therefore, the Iraqi civilians are our allies. When presented with this fact, Ms. Rehm replied: �Your point is exceedingly well taken.�

We are writing to you now to ask you to fulfill this commitment. Please be the first news organization to treat our Iraqi allies as people whose stories must be told with the same comprehensiveness as any other humanitarian crisis. Please keep your promise.

Sincerely,

D. Eugene Bahn
Complete Coverage Campaign

To: Barbara Rehm, Mng. Editor, NPR News; Michele Norris, Host, All Things Considered
Via: Email and fax at 202.513.3329
CC: Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Saturday

May 2, 2006

Dear Barbara Rehm, Michele Norris & NPR Management:

We note with genuine appreciation the story presented on Monday, May 1, 2006 on All Things Considered: �Report Faults Energy and Health Efforts in Iraq� by Michele Norris. It has been quite some time since NPR has done a story on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.

Especially, we would like to thank Michele Norris for her pointed questions during her interview with Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. These are the types of questions which need to be continually before the public so that real answers can be found. In particular, it shows a real interest in the truth (truth, fairness and balance) when Norris asked Bowen if an ordinary Iraqi would have the same optimistic view of the reconstruction efforts.

In the 66 reports on Iraq that NPR has broadcast in the almost-six-week period, since our 3/23/06 letter on the subject (we monitor Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition Saturday), we note five stories that make it clear that NPR has access to information and sources which would enable a more complete coverage of the Iraq situation.

On 4/10/06, Tarabay reported �Unrest Forces Iraqis Out of Neighborhoods� about how Iraqis are fleeing their homes to escape bloodshed. On 4/11/06, Morning Edition reported �Miss Iraq Abdicates,� about how the pageant winner was threatened by extremists. On 4/12/06, Tarabay reported �Local Journalists Brave Dangers to Tell the Iraqi Story,� which compares realities for Iraqi versus foreign journalists and hears from a cameraman who has been out on the streets for the three years of the conflict. On 4/17/06, Tarabay reported �Baghdad Residents Take Up Civil Duties,� about neighborhood watch groups in Baghdad. And on 4/17/06, Tarabay reported �Being Rich, and Careful, in Liberated Iraq,� about the nouveau riche.

Certainly if NPR can report on these stories (if they have access to sources which can tell NPR reporters about local refugees, beauty pageants, local journalists, neighborhood watch groups and the newly rich), then it seems that NPR can also cover more comprehensively the shortage of life�s necessities. A disaster is a disaster, whether man-made or natural, and armed conflict has created and continues to perpetuate a disaster for our Iraqi allies. If we are to continue to care about these people for whom so much money and lives have been spent, then we need to hear much more often about their plight. These stories need to be in the forefront of the news. Your story about reconstruction failures helps, but nothing will change unless these failures are reported more frequently. (In the last three months there have only been three stories on reconstruction failures yet two or three stories daily on politics and violence.) If there is something which we are failing to see or understand about the situation, please let us know. We would greatly value a discussion on this with management. It�s frustrating to hear about the newly rich, sitting alone ogling their gold jewelry, when there are hundreds who can�t get a clean drink of water.

Sincerely,

D. Eugene Bahn
The Complete Coverage Campaign

To: Barbara Rehm, Managing Editor, NPR News
Via: Email and fax at 202.513.3329
CC: Bill Marimow, V.P. News; Morning Edition; All Things Considered; Weekend Edition Saturday

June 6, 2006

Dear Barbara Rehm & NPR Management:

In the month since we last wrote to you NPR has broadcast 74 reports on Iraq. Primarily these stories have dealt with politics and violent deaths. There were two stories, however, on May 16, 2006 which dealt somewhat with civilian concerns.

Iraq Business Environment Difficult to Navigate by Adam Davidson on Morning Edition primarily covered how difficult it is to do business in Iraq due to shipping hazards but also mentioned briefly that some reconstruction goals have not been met. Iraq Hospital Contract Canceled by Renee Montagne on Morning Edition noted that American firms failed to complete hospitals on time and states that efforts to improve the health care system is to show that the U.S. is helping to improve Iraqi lives.

Most of the more recent reporting has been about possible wrongdoing in Haditha, Hamandiya and Ishaqi. While these stories are crucial and the media must continue to do their own investigations and not just report what U.S. and Iraqi officials say about these incidents, the subject matter is still all about death and not about what the living are suffering daily. Please let us know the true nature of the disaster in which so many innocent Iraqi people are living. A disaster is a disaster, whether man-made or natural. It is just as important to compare Baghdad to New Orleans as it is to compare Haditha to My Lai (June 2, All Things Considered).

You could even see reporting on the civilian crisis as part of a competitive strategy. After all, nothing captures human interest like human tragedy. Use it. Give us all something we can CARE about and not just the same, tired, heard-it-yesterday (or this-morning) Iraqi government problems and car bomb/IED statistics.

Thank you.

D. Eugene Bahn
The Complete Coverage Campaign