NPR MORNING EDITION PRESENTS "JFK PLOT" AS FACT

This morning on NPR's Morning Edition, Steve Inskeep interviews another NPR reporter, Dina Temple-Raston, on the alleged terrorist plot to blow up the jet fuel storage areas of JFK Airport in New York City. The on-air report is chock full of assertions that we listeners must question. Just because there is a press conference of law enforcement people charging a "terrorist plot" does not mean that one actually exists. NPR should carefully label every charge as "alleged." This case has not been tried yet in a court of law. Nevertheless, Raston makes it seem that the four accuseds actually did engage in a "plot," and actually did contact people in other Caribbean countries for terrorist aid. Only in one or two assertions, does Raston use the word "alleged."

In contrast I see text stories on the NPR website here and here that are clear to distinguish actual plots from those alleged by the FBI, NYC Police Department and/or the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

If NPR editors have posted written reports that are more careful to acknowledge that the government's charges are at this early point "alleged" and not yet proven, then I call on NPR's Morning Edition to remove the misleading on-air report from broadcast, or to modify it in the interests of fairness as to make it less prejudicial to the accused who have not had their day in court.