A few hours after federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, Gregory Bovino, then the U.S. Border Patrol Commander, held a short press conference. Bovino told the public and the press that the agents responsible for the killing were justified because Pretti "approached law enforcement with a weapon," that he "violently resisted" and that he wanted to "massacre law enforcement."
Over the next two days, Bovino and others in the Trump administration posted similar statements to social media and repeated them in interviews with CNN and other newsrooms. NPR quoted Bovino several times in stories that aired on the radio and in digital stories that ran on NPR's website.
Each time NPR quoted Bovino about the shooting, journalists added more context, rooted in the most recent reporting. In the first report, a correspondent said "it's not clear" from the videos if Pretti brandished or reached for a gun. The next day a reporter followed up on a similar audio clip from Bovino by saying that the videos "refute that assertion."
Many audience members wrote in to say they were angry to hear Bovino's misleading statements on NPR's news programs, because they felt like NPR was amplifying the false narrative.
I reviewed NPR's coverage with a deputy managing editor who was guiding the language choices that weekend, as well as the executive responsible for NPR's shows. Read on for my analysis. — Kelly McBride
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