NPR Public Editor : NPR

A long-standing practice in journalism is trying to avoid jarring juxtapositions between ads and news stories. For example, historically, advertisements for airlines were moved away from stories about plane crashes. At NPR, oil and gas company sponsorships are kept away from stories about climate change.

At least, they are supposed to be. Two audience members alerted us to a slip in this practice. We investigated to find out how that happened.

There’s a deeper issue here about how much longer NPR and other public media will accept sponsorship money from oil companies. As the pressure increases to address the myriad threats posed by a warming planet, the number of news stories will increase as well. That raises the question of whether it will be possible or practical for NPR to keep oil company sponsorships away from news stories about climate change.

After all, these long-standing arrangements are made with both the audience and the company behind the ad in mind. It’s incongruous for the news consumer to see a story about the problems posed by climate change next to a promotion for a company whose primary activity is extracting, refining and selling fossil fuels, one of the drivers of climate change.

But it’s also bad for the oil company, because the money they spend to bolster their brand is wasted when their logo or message is next to a story about the harm caused by climate change.

Previous NPR public editors have addressed this question. They have generally supported NPR’s position of not making moral judgments about companies and instead vetting the message the sponsor wants to share. But in this most recent case, there was no message from the sponsor. The ads in question were house ads promoting NPR’s daily news podcast Up First, which is sponsored by ExxonMobil and therefore has its logo placed in the ad.

Companies that purchase these types of sponsorships seek something called a “halo effect.” They are hoping to borrow some of the goodwill that audiences have toward NPR by sponsoring NPR’s work.

We understand and support NPR’s commitment to screening messages for appropriateness, rather than companies. After all, there are so many industries that one could judge as objectionable. But when there is no message, just a logo, NPR needs a process for seeing the sponsorship through the eyes of the news consumer.

Because ExxonMobil is an established NPR sponsor, its logo is familiar on NPR’s site and doesn’t immediately raise the perception that a conflict of interest might exist. Until those adjacent stories are about climate change. Read on to see what we learned.

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FROM THE INBOX

Here are a few quotes from the Public Editor’s inbox that resonated with us. Letters are edited for length and clarity. You can share your questions and concerns with us through the NPR Contact page.

Oil company sponsorships and climate change stories

Rick Hobson wrote on Dec. 3: I am wondering about the conflict between NPR’s great online coverage of climate change issues and ads from Exxon accompanying it? It seems like a conflict of interest.

Jakki Mohr wrote on Nov. 29: I am beyond disappointed to see ExxonMobil sponsorship ads for NPR’s Daily News Podcast plastered all over www.npr.org this morning. The ads are prominently displayed on nearly every story related to climate change. I expect hypocrisy from ExxonMobil, given how widely known their strategies are to obfuscate and downplay their role in climate change. However, for NPR to take dirty sponsorship dollars is inexcusable. I expect a higher standard of ethics. I’ve posted a sampling of these ads in the dropbox link above. I would appreciate the courtesy of a reply. Thank you.

We have received similar comments in the past from audience members concerned about oil and gas companies being NPR sponsors and having ads on NPR. In the aforementioned Dropbox link, the audience member sent several images showing ads for the Up First podcast right next to and embedded in climate-related stories. On each ad is the line “supported by ExxonMobil,” featuring the company’s logo.

The Up First advertisement with the ExxonMobil sponsorship accompanied stories about climate…