Dear Ombudsman,
Today over 300,000 people marched in New York for climate action. Hundreds of thousands around the world joined in solidarity rallies, including myself. The pictures from New York were amazing.
At 5 PM (Pacific) I turned on NPR news to see what they say about the rally.
The lead item was about some US general who said the Ukraine cease-fire is not really there, quoting his analysis of the situation at length. To my knowledge nothing dramatic has happened over there in recent days. The second item was about 1500 firefighters fighting the huge California fires - a worthy item, no question. A slew of items followed, including a re-broadcast of what Rep. King (R-Iowa) had to say on Fox News about the guy who breached security at the White House (but caused no damage).
After 5 minutes, a dozen or so items and still no mention of the climate march, I gave up in disgust and switched to a music station. I find it beyond ridiculous, that the event considered top news by leading media around the world and happening on the very same coast of the US where NPR HQ is located, was nowhere to be found, rather than being the lead item.
I now visited your website, where coverage of the march is currently posted with this lovely title:
"Large Protests In Hundreds Of Cities Vent Ire Over Climate Change"
Ire? Vent?  Do you run a special class to reporters, in how to create dismissive headlines for news items? By the way, the story body was somewhat better, but still taking a "lighter" view of the issue.
I have long suspected - with good evidence - that NPR news does little more than shill for the same interest that dominate our politics and mainstream media, albeit with a high-brow veneer. I think the final proof has arrived today.
Sincerely,
Assaf
Monday AM Update:
Ok... so I literally copy-pasted my letter to the NPR Ombudsman, for a short diary sharing my frustration with NPR. Sunday night... I was thinking 10 recs and 5 comments, max.
As the very first line in the diary says, I was seeking to see whether other people experienced the same with NPR coverage (or lack thereof) yesterday. I only listened to one hourly newscast, which made me very mad.
But the rec list with hundreds of readers? Guess I hit a nerve... so first, thanks for the attention.
Second, without going into specifics, I think some of the comments go overboard to each direction. I can only be responsible for what I wrote.
But it would be nice to know from future commenters, what they heard (or not) on NPR about the march during the day yesterday, as well as tomorrow morning. It will give me and readers a sense of whether that non-mention in the evening hourly news, and the online headline which I still find untrue and insulting, were a fluke - or a pattern that includes NPR and other news outlets. I already saw in one comment that CNN only reported the march online but not on TV (CNN TV is pretty much the default channel in, e.g., airport terminals). Did they really not cover it?
Thanks and happy Monday,
Assaf