Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
As the NPR Ethics Handbook states, the Standards & Practices editor is "charged with cultivating an ethical culture throughout our news operation." This means he or she coordinates discussion on how we apply our principles and monitors our decision-making practices to ensure we're living up to our standards."
Before becoming Standards & Practices editor, Memmott was one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog, which he helped to launch when he came to NPR in 2009. It focused on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.
Prior to joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He reported from places across the United States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.
During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline," "The Oval" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.
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Along with the words and phrases that still ring out 239 years later are less noticed turns of phrase. They say a lot about the messages Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers wanted to send. -
Fresh figures show that a relatively small number of doctors received a significant share of Medicare payments in 2012. But analysts warn against jumping to conclusions about what that means.
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The company's 7,600 pharmacies will remove cigarettes and other tobacco products from their shelves by Oct. 1. The decision should "help people on their path to better health," says CVS CEO Larry Merlo.
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Religious organizations have objected to the new health care law's requirement that employers include contraception coverage in the insurance plans they offer employees. But the Obama administration says one group of nuns is already exempt and has no standing to object.
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After the Obama administration announced that Americans who recently had their health insurance canceled can buy "catastrophic policies," the insurance industry said the change will cause more confusion.
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The nonpartisan PolitiFact has given the president's claim about his health care program a dubious honor. Obama said that "if you like your health care plan, you can keep it." When it became clear that wasn't correct, the White House tried to "rewrite his slogan," the fact checkers say.
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To those in Congress who want to kill the Affordable Care Act, Obama said "we're not repealing it as long I'm president. ... We will make it work for all Americans."
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The court will consider the objections of companies that say providing contraception benefits to workers goes against the employers' religious beliefs.
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There have been seven cases of bacterial meningitis on the university's campus since March. The FDA has given approval to importing a European vaccine because the strain detected at Princeton isn't covered by vaccines available in the U.S. The severe disease can cause serious complications or death.
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The White House unveiled a fix for consumers who've had health insurance plans canceled. Critics have pointed out that the president promised Americans could keep their plans if they wished, but that things turned out differently. As for the health care program's problems, Obama said "we fumbled."
