On December 19, National Public Radio (NPR) ombudsman Jeffrey A. Dvorkin responded to reader concerns about his December 14 column -- itself a response to reader concerns -- that purported to settle the question of whether NPR relied too heavily on sources from political think tanks in its reporting. In his latest piece, Dvorkin emphasized, “I will state it again: I believe NPR relies too much on think tanks in general and on conservative think tanks.” But despite his characterization of this as a repetition of his previous assertion, in his December 14 column Dvorkin made a perfectly clear statement to the opposite effect: “NPR does not lean on the so-called conservative think tanks as many in the audience seem to think.”

As Media Matters for America noted, in his December 14 column, Dvorkin wrote, “NPR often calls on think tanks for comments. But NPR does not lean on the so-called conservative think tanks as many in the audience seem to think.” He then listed a tally of the number of times experts from eight think tanks had been interviewed in NPR stories: 239 citations of experts from right-leaning organizations, while the other 141 citations were of experts from The Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), “seen by many in Washington, D.C.,” Dvorkin wrote, “as being center to center-left.” Dvorkin's conclusion -- that NPR has interviewed more think tankers on the right than on the left" -- is in direct contradiction to his statement preceding the statistics that “NPR does not lean on so-called conservative think tanks.”

As Media Matters noted, one could argue whether centrist think tanks such as Brookings (which has been led in the past by Republicans, though its current president is a Democrat) and CSIS (whose board of directors includes Henry Kissinger) provide “balance” to highly conservative institutions such as the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and The Heritage Foundation. But even accepting the classification Dvorkin uses, he has found that 63 percent of the think tank experts quoted in the past year came from conservative institutions, while only 37 percent came from liberal institutions -- a pronounced conservative tilt.

After readers wrote to Dvorkin to complain about the December 14 column, he answered on December 19: “I agree that I should have been clearer. So, for those who missed it, I will state it again: I believe NPR relies too much on think tanks in general and on conservative think tanks.”

From Dvorkin's December 14 NPR column:

NPR often calls on think tanks for comments. But NPR does not lean on the so-called conservative think tanks as many in the audience seem to think.

Here's the tally sheet for the number of times think tank experts were interviewed to date on NPR in 2005:

American Enterprise - 59

Brookings Institute - 102

Cato Institute - 29

Center for Strategic and Intl. Studies - 39

Heritage Foundation - 20

Hoover Institute - 69

Lexington Institute - 9

Manhattan Institute - 53

There are of course, other think tanks, but these seem to be the ones whose experts are heard most often on NPR. Brookings and CSIS are seen by many in Washington, D.C., as being center to center-left. The others in the above list tend to lean to the right. So NPR has interviewed more think tankers on the right than on the left.

The score to date: Right 239, Left 141.

From Dvorkin's December 19 NPR column:

Last week's column examined whether NPR News relies too much on conservative think tanks to provide expertise. Many listeners wrote to complain that the column was too vague in pointing this out.

I agree that I should have been clearer. So, for those who missed it, I will state it again: I believe NPR relies too much on think tanks in general and on conservative think tanks in particular -- especially when it comes to economics, and defense policy issues. NPR must make sure there is a better balance between liberal and conservative experts in these partisan and contentious areas.