Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott appears in the following:

Does The Cut Match The Voice-over & Is The Translation Accurate?

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Along with dates, names and numbers, NPR journalists should add voice-overs to the list of things to double- or triple-check. Audio clips must match translations. Translations must be accurate.

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Why NPR Decided To Spell Out And Say Vulgar Word Used By President Trump

Friday, January 12, 2018

NPR has decided to spell out and say on air the vulgar word President Trump reportedly used during a meeting on Thursday with lawmakers. Mark Memmott, NPR's standards and practices editor explains why the organization initially did not use the word, and why we are using it now.

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#NPRreads: A Distraction For Labor Day Weekend, And Thoughts About Work

Saturday, September 03, 2016

A fascinating true-crime case and the shame of being well-rested: two of the stories recommended by NPR staff, using the #NPRreads hashtag.

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Those Men In Oregon: Troublemakers, Terrorists Or Something Else?

Saturday, January 09, 2016

In the week since a group of armed individuals took over buildings on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon, there's been a debate on social media and op-ed pages about what to call them.

They refer to themselves as a ...

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Myanmar Is Also Known As Burma, But We Won't Keep Repeating That

Saturday, November 14, 2015

For several years now, the emails have shown up within hours — sometimes within minutes — after NPR posts or broadcasts news about one Southeast Asian nation.

They would say something such as this:

Please stop telling us Myanmar is "also known as Burma." We get it!

...

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Please Don't Have A Temper Tantrum About The Pleonasm In This Headline

Saturday, September 19, 2015

There's been a "mass exodus of Syrians," one of NPR.org's headlines declared earlier this month.

President Obama said in August that the U.S. should boost domestic energy production and rely less on "foreign imports."

A state lawmaker in Illinois had a "temper tantrum," The ...

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The Sounds Of A Murder: News Or Not?

Saturday, August 29, 2015

How much, if any, of the shocking sights and sounds should newsrooms report when two people are murdered on live television and the video whips around the world on the Web?

Alison Parker and Adam Ward, two local TV journalists, were gunned down while on the air Wednesday. ...

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3 Things To Know About NPR's Policy Regarding Offensive Language

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Editor's note: The headline on this post tips our hand. But just to be clear, we're discussing language that some readers don't want to hear or read, even when it's bleeped or not spelled out.

This question came up in the newsroom: Should an NPR journalist say during a podcast ...

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Just A Few Important Words About The Declaration Of Independence

Saturday, July 04, 2015

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It's Independence Day. Let's take a break from parades, patriotic songs and pyrotechnics to think ...

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#NPRreads: Love, Coding, Yuccies, And The 'NPR Sound'

Friday, June 12, 2015

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers throughout our newsroom share pieces that have kept them reading. They share tidbits using the #NPRreads hashtag — and on Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, ...

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Here Are 100 'Eggcorns' That We Say Pass Mustard

Monday, June 01, 2015

If you think the English language is going to hell in a handbag, you won't be happy as a clown after you're done reading this post.

On Saturday, we asked folks to send us examples of the "eggcorns" they love or hate. An eggcorn, as we reported and ...

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'Eggcorns': The Gaffes That Spread Like Wildflowers

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Please pause if you're about to tell us our headline should say "spread like wildfire."

We intentionally slipped an eggcorn into that line — something we couldn't have done a week ago because, frankly, we'd never heard of eggcorns.

But thanks to Merriam-Webster, which included eggcorn among the ...

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There's A Sad Reason 'Migrants,' Not 'Immigrants,' Is The Word Being Used

Saturday, April 25, 2015

As NPR and other news outlets report about the hundreds of people killed this month when the ship they were on went down off the Libyan coast, the stories are referring to those who died as "migrants."

There's a case to be made that the word "refugees" also ...

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Germanwings Crash: 'Suicide' Doesn't Seem To Tell The Story

Saturday, March 28, 2015

As NPR reports about the crash of a Germanwings passenger jet and the deaths of all 150 people on board, one of the words editors are weighing carefully is "suicide."

Investigators have said they believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew the plane into a mountain in ...

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There's A Reason We Say 'Self-Declared Islamic State'

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Eight months after a notorious group of fighters in Iraq and Syria became regular characters in the news, NPR still begins most of its reports with words such as these:

-- "Self-declared Islamic State."

-- "Self-proclaimed Islamic State."

-- "The group that calls itself the Islamic State."

Some ...

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Why You're Not Seeing Those 'Charlie Hebdo' Cartoons

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Wednesday's attack at the Paris office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo is thought to have been the work of killers who believe cartoons can be so offensive that they justified the murder of 12 people.

News organizations and people around the world obviously believe the opposite — that no ...

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The 'NPR Grammar Hall Of Shame' Opens With 'I' And 'Me'

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

We asked for nominations for "most misused word or phrase," and they came pouring in. Weekend Edition listeners and NPR.org readers have many gripes about the grammar gaffes they see and hear every day.

From nearly 450 story comments, 500 emails and more than 900 Facebook posts we ...

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'Fewer' Or 'Less?' The Express Lane Language Debate

Saturday, December 06, 2014

You're ready to check out at the supermarket. There are only eight items in your cart, so you look for the express lane.

The sign above says "10 items or less."

Do you:

-- Head for the register without a second thought?

-- Rue the decline of the English language ...

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Words Matter, So Here's 'Word Matters'

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Do you sigh when you hear someone begin a sentence with "so?"

Have you given up correcting people who say they're going to "lay down for a while?"

Are you curious about why NPR refers to the militant fighters in Iraq and Syria as the "self-proclaimed Islamic State?"

Starting today, ...

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Before This Blogger Moves On, He Wants To Say Thanks

Friday, April 25, 2014

The Two-Way is just shy of its fifth anniversary, on May 13.

This blogger has written just over 9,700 posts for NPR — almost 9,500 of them for The Two-Way.

It seems like a good time to move on.

Next week, I'll be on vacation. When I return to work ...

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