Mark Memmott

What Christine Blasey Ford alleges Brett Kavanaugh did would be a sexual assault, not an attempt at one.

There's a process for evaluating such requests and it needs to be followed.

It was not sent anonymously. But she did ask that her name not be revealed. We should be precise.

We need to know whether they have signed non-disclosure agreements that could restrict what they say. It may determine whether we go ahead with an interview. It's also something to disclose.

"Before I let you go" has become one of our favorite ways to end an interview. How about mixing in other ways of asking one last question?

There are no exceptions. If a piece being prepared for broadcast has an offensive word or phrase, or involves excretory or sexual issues, care and consultation are required.

Sen. John McCain will "lie in state" at the Arizona and U.S. capitols.

NPR this week discovered ethical violations in many reports prepared for it by freelance journalist

Remember: "Show, don't tell" is always good advice. Describe what people are doing and report what they're saying. After you've established those facts, carefully considered labels may fit.

It looks like we're not always double-checking the spelling of some familiar folks' names.

"Throwaway intensifiers" are wastes of time and space. By cutting them, you can make room for more facts and words that do a better job of moving a story along.

It makes it sound like her reason for coming to the U.S. was to get an education. That's a conclusion we shouldn't jump to.

We should say that the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 elections, without specifically attributing that to all 17 intelligence agencies.

About one-quarter of our mistakes involve names of people or organizations.

No, we're not suggesting anyone plagiarize. This is about an easy step that can make stories more accurate.

"Politically loaded language not only violates our commitment to be fair, but also gets in the way of telling good stories. "

When debunking falsehoods, it may be best to wrap them around two slices of reality.

Cadit quaestio ("the case is closed") is the approach we have to take to the stories we produce. That means double-checking facts to get them right the first time.

When reporting about someone's death by suicide, the language, tone and context are incredibly important. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has some guidance.

Not every potential scandal needs to be labeled a "gate" right from the start. We should resist the temptation.