NPR

Opinion: NPR's Evolving Coverage Of Live White House Coronavirus Briefings

Listeners praise and criticize broadcasting the daily briefings in real-time.
President Trump, center left, speaks during a Coronavirus Task Force news conference in the briefing room of the White House on Friday, March 20, 2020.

KUOW, an NPR Member station in Seattle, said earlier this week that it will no longer air the daily White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings live. The announcement was both praised and condemned by listeners who contacted the Public Editor's office.

Overwhelmingly, the listeners who have reached out to my office have asked that NPR itself cease airing the briefings as a routine practice, echoing calls elsewhere for the live coverage to stop. But some managers at Member stations report the opposite; their listeners want to hear the full briefings live. We've heard that from listeners, too, particularly in response to KUOW's announcement.

The public radio debate, at least that which I have heard, is heated, but the arguments

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