My Close Encounter With NPR

On January 10, National Public Radio ran a story on November’s school board elections. The online transcript of the radio report is titled, “A coordinated nationwide agenda dominated local school board elections last year.” The piece, reported by NPR’s Sequoia Carrillo and Kerry Sheridan, focused on school board elections in several states, including Minnesota.

For the Minnesota segment, NPR went to Minnesota Public Radio reporter Elizabeth Shockman. Shockman focused on the Minnesota Parents Alliance, a 501(c)(4) organization formed in 2022, that played a key role. Shockman’s report included this description of MPA:

Although the alliance went public in August, their parent organization, the Center of the American Experiment, has been involved in education politics for years. It’s part of a national web of groups coordinated and funded by wealthy libertarian donors such as the Koch family. Its new Parents Alliance identified Minnesotans to run for school boards.

This narrative was misleading where it was not outright false. So I looked up the email addresses of Elizabeth Shockman and Kerry Sheridan and sent them this email on January 16:

Ms. Shockman and Ms. Sheridan, I am the President of Center of the American Experiment, and I write in reference to your NPR story on school board elections:

https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/01/11/coordinated-nationwide-agenda-dominated-local-school-board-elections-last-year

You refer to American Experiment as the “parent” of the Minnesota Parents Alliance. This is incorrect. There is no corporate relationship between American Experiment and MPA. American Experiment is a 501(c)(3) organization, and MPA is a 501(c)(4) organization.

It appears that your only motive for introducing American Experiment into the story was to include this characterization: “It’s part of a national web of groups coordinated and funded by wealthy libertarian donors such as the Koch family.” This description is inaccurate. American Experiment is a grass roots organization supported by thousands of Minnesotans. In the last two years we have received more than 17,000 donations from individual Minnesotans, few if any of whom are “wealthy libertarians.” To the best of my knowledge, in our more than 30 years of existence we have never received a contribution from any member of the Koch family. (I assume you are referring to Charles and David Koch; as you probably know, David died several years ago and Charles is the last surviving brother.)

My question is: what source were you referring to that, in your mind, justified this inaccurate characterization of our organization?

John Hinderaker
President

There was no response to my email. So on January 19 I tried again, writing to Shockman and Sheridan:

I am re-sending this email in case it got by you. Please note the question at the end.

John Hinderaker

Still no reply. So, on January 22:

Not sure why this email keeps getting lost, I am sending it again. I will continue to send it until you answer my question.

John H.

Radio silence. On January 28 I tried again. I was starting to lose patience:

I am sending this email for the fourth time. Doesn’t it embarrass you that you can’t answer a simple question?

John Hinderaker

Still nothing. On January 30:

Sending again. Next, I will copy your editors.

John Hinderaker

Using the Minnesota Public Radio web site, I identified a couple of individuals who appeared to be the responsible editors. On February 1 I tried again, with an email to Shockman, Sheridan, and two MPR editors. I forwarded the one-sided email thread and added:

I am re-sending this email chain once again, still waiting for an answer to my question. I also have attached a screen shot of a social media exchange that apparently involves a listener who fell for your misrepresentations about Minnesota Parents Alliance and Center of the American Experiment.

I look forward to hearing from you, finally.

John Hinderaker

Does false reporting have an impact? Indeed it does. This is the screen shot that I attached to my email. The “Koch” reference was picked up and used to smear the Minnesota Parents Alliance, which no doubt was what NPR intended:

The reference to MPA being “resourceful moneywise” is of course ridiculous. MPA has not one percent the resources of the teachers’ union that has long dominated school board elections in Minnesota.

You might think that this email would get an answer. But no. On February 7 I wrote again to the same four individuals, forwarding the entire email thread and adding:

It is amazing to me that you cannot answer a simple question about the sources for your reporting. I am giving you one more opportunity to respond. If you have not done so within 24 hours, I will go public with this exchange (or lack thereof) and your erroneous reporting.

John Hinderaker

I suppose it was the threat to go public that did the trick. I don’t know, maybe they googled me. In any event, I finally got this cheery reply from Elizabeth Shockman:

Hi John,

Thank you so much for your email and I apologize for not responding sooner. I’m signed up for the CAE mailing list and get regular emails from them. I think I must have thought your notes were just part of that and didn’t open/read them (I am on a lot of email lists and often don’t have time to read them). Appreciate you including my editors – this brought it to my attention today.

I can only imagine how much she appreciated my bringing the matter to the attention of her editors.

This is just a quick note to let you know I got the emails today and am working on a fuller note to send you. I’m always happy to talk about my reporting.

Much appreciation,
Elizabeth

But I never did hear again from Ms. Shockman. Instead, the matter was bucked up the line to the person at National Public Radio who responds to complaints like mine. On February 11, I got this email from Steven Drummond at NPR:

Dear Mr. Hinderaker,

Your concerns about a recent story came to us at NPR, since we aired the original January 10 story. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. After talking this through with editors here and at MPR, we will be updating the story and posting the following clarification:

An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the Center for the American Experiment as the “parent” organization of the Minnesota Public Alliance. They share some common leadership. The revised story also removes a reference to the Koch brothers.

Thank you for your patience while we sorted this out.

Best,
Steve Drummond
Senior Editor/Executive Producer

It wasn’t clear to me how the “clarified” article would read, so I waited to see the new version appear. So far, it hasn’t. The linked article reads the same as it did when I lodged my initial complaint on January 16. So I have sent this email to Steven Drummond:

Mr. Drummond, I have been waiting for the corrected version of your article to appear, but so far it appears to be the same as it was on January 10. Am I missing something?

No doubt I will have more to say when I see the corrected version of the article, which in any event comes far too late to make any difference. I will reserve further comment until then.

In the meantime, I have set forth our lengthy correspondence on this issue on my web site:

https: //www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/02/my-close-encounter-with-npr.php

I will follow up in due course. Also, please note that your email did not include an answer to the question I have repeatedly posed to Ms. Shockman about the source for her reporting:

My question is: what source were you referring to that, in your mind, justified this inaccurate characterization of our organization?

John Hinderaker

For now, I will conclude by saying that this incident confirms the low opinion I have had, and you most likely have had, of National Public Radio and its local affiliates. I will update when I hear something further from NPR.