Temporary workers at NPR

March 3, 2019 11:06 PM

In December 2018, the Washington Post did a story about how NPR treats its temporary workers. The story was generally unflattering. And 13-hundred comments seem to show that a significant number of reader/respondents were also unhappy with how the network treats temps.

Last year, around January 20, 2018, an NPR/Marist poll was released that pointed out many of the problems the WashPo story did. But I can't find any references to NPR's reaction to the WashPo story on the NPR website. I've used keywords from Paul Farhi's piece and I can find nothing in ME, ATC or from the Ombudsman. Is NPR burying the lede on this one?

posted by CollectiveMind to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Response by poster: And I do want to distinguish between affiliate stations and NPRHQ. I trying to find stories NPRHQ did, since affiliates may do their own but they don't speak for the network.
posted by CollectiveMind at 11:09 PM on March 3, 2019

There's this column from NPR's public editor: Temporary Employees, Long-Term Impact. That mentions an ongoing internal analysis of NPR's use of temps.

I found this because I wanted to read the Washington Post article you mentioned (having missed it in December), so I searched for "npr temporary workers." The public editor's column was one of the first few results.
posted by zachlipton at 11:33 PM on March 3, 2019

I'm trying to parse what your question is. Is it, "has NPR done anything about this?" or maybe, "has NPR themselves reported on this?"?
posted by homodachi at 12:34 AM on March 4, 2019

I also cannot find the question here.
posted by deadwax at 2:22 AM on March 4, 2019