Mining the Mission | For NPR, the Bittersweet Truth of Being in the Right Place at the Right Time
It was sheer luck that a National Public Radio team was 50 miles from the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake when the ground started to move. All Things Considered anchors Robert Siegel and Melissa Block and seven staffers were working on an NPR package about China’s emergence on the world stage. But when the quake struck, they began providing some of the Western media’s first reports about the disaster. While corporate news divisions played catchup, Siegel and Block were filing reports filled with vivid descriptions and heart-rending audio details; their accounts even ended up getting played on ABC, NBC, CNN, PBS, and Canadian television networks.
Sheer luck, as I said.
And yet, because NPR is nonprofit and noncommercial, it has the latitude to send A-team members to China just because it will make for good stories. It need not follow the horse-race whims of typical American media coverage. Part of NPR’s stated mission is "to create a more informed public — one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas and cultures. To accomplish our mission, we produce, acquire, and distribute programming that meets the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural expression … ." In other words, NPR can venture far off the beaten path, and in the case of the Sichuan earthquake, it was perfectly positioned to leverage its unique status and provide much-needed, immediate dispatches to a world aching for news. | 501(c)
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