Juana Summers has been the co-host of NPR’s afternoon news show, All Things Considered, for the past three years. But she got her start interning at a member station, with a drive to cover politics. As NPR comes under scrutiny for alleged political bias, and federal funding for both the national network and its member station newsrooms dries up, Summers says the national-local partnership is more important now than ever.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Juana Summers: I started working in public media when I was in college at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri, which is affiliated with the University of Missouri's Journalism School, and I was very intently focused on political journalism then. This would've been in the mid-2000s, so I was able to cover the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain at the time.
I think that was the thing that really stuck with me is, as a college student working for a local member station, being able to spend time in the state of Missouri, covering both of those candidates back in the day when Missouri was a really big swing state and a big prize for both political parties. It really lit a fire in me and was what set me on the course of ultimately becoming a political correspondent for NPR.
I think that was what made the biggest difference is knowing I was able to have that local impact on people's everyday lives.
KK: Was there anything that made your work for the local station more meaningful at that time?
JS: I think being able to serve a local audience was really important to me, and knowing that the stories that I did were really making a difference in people's lives, who lived in the surrounding area around the member station that I worked for, who were affiliated with the university and the other universities that were in Columbia. I think that was what made the biggest difference is knowing I was able to have that local impact on people's everyday lives.
KK: What stood out to you back then as the pros and cons of the relationship between the local member station and NPR, the national network?
JS: I think, obviously, as a young and ambitious journalist, one of the big pros was knowing that I had the opportunity to not just do stories that folks in my local community would hear, but that potentially could be heard and seen nationally, as well, was a big perk. Being able to explain to them what life was like there, to give that sort of firsthand expertise that you only have from being a local journalist who knows and lives in your community, and being able to bring that into the national spotlight, was something that was really important to me.
KK: Why does NPR turn to local stations for reporting on their area?
JS: There is no substitute for that firsthand knowledge that you have from living in and covering a community intently over the years. I know when a breaking news story happens, the first thing that I often do is to get online and go to the website of a local member station to see how they're covering the story. Who are they speaking to? What are the voices and perspectives that they are centering?
That is something that as a journalist, just can't be replaced. I will never be able to get that kind of knowledge if I fly into your community and cover a national story. So I'm looking for that local expertise and that local authority.
I know that when we have a big breaking news story, it's one of the biggest thrills for me when I'm able to introduce a reporter or a correspondent from that local community and bring those stories to our national audience so that everybody can benefit from that local expertise.
KK: You've been in the hosting seat at NPR as the network's faced accusations of liberal bias. A few questions here. What do you see your newsroom doing to ensure balanced, fair and nuanced political coverage?
JS: It's a great question and I think it's a good conversation that we're having.
Our mission as NPR as public media is to serve the entire nation, and that means that we have a responsibility to reflect political diversity, economic diversity, [and] the social differences that exist in this country and around the world. There have been a lot of really fruitful and robust conversations on a variety of topics about how we do that, and I think we're constantly challenging ourselves to do more, to do better.
Look, I'm a former political correspondent. I've covered politics for the majority of my career before I became a host. Those conversations have been going on for a long time. We care really deeply about making sure that we understand how to accurately cover differences and divides. And I think the way that you do that, and you do it well, is by continuing to have the conversation, continuing to check our own biases, to have conversations with the diverse staffers that work in this newsroom and to allow that to inform our storytelling.
I think NPR has talked publicly. We've made some additional editorial enhancements that are focused on making the journalism more robust to make sure that every story that comes out the door, whether it is on air or online, is well vetted, well sourced and meets our standards. I expect that work to continue.
KK: Can you give me an example of a recent story where you guys have gone through that discussion and how you decided you needed to add more sources or get a different perspective to help dial that in?
JS: I will say it's not one story. We have that conversation with just about every story we do.
I'll give you one example. When we're talking with newsmakers, for example, I interview a lot of politicians, a lot of people across the political spectrum. My first call is to our Washington desk political correspondent, our congressional correspondents, our White House correspondents who know those beats and cover them day in, day out, and say, “Hey, this is the person I'm interviewing today. What are the questions I should be asking them? What are the things I don't wanna miss?”
And then I'm having conversations with people on our team. What are the perspectives we need to include? Is there anyone we need to reach out to in terms of getting a fair response from him? If there's an allegation made in an interview, those are conversations that, as hosts, we’re having every single day, no matter what side of the aisle someone might come from, to make sure that we're telling the fullest, most accurate version of the story and providing our listeners and our audience with the context they need to make sense of a situation.
KK: Member stations like Wyoming Public Media often have deeper trust from their audience. We're in the community. We're reflecting the more conservative politics that, at least, dominate our state. What do you think newsrooms like ours need to do to hold on or build on that trust?
JS: I think member stations like yours are in a unique position because you live in the community that you serve.
People are having face-to-face interactions with you, and many times they know you, because you go to church with their kids or go to school with their kids, and you're in the community, you're running into them at the grocery store. So leveraging those personal relationships, I think, is really important and to provide those thoughtful stories that help them better navigate their everyday decision making to help them form stronger ties and social bonds within their community is just really important.
KK: Congress's vote to rescind previously approved funding for public media stations is potentially going to lead some smaller NPR member stations, but not Wyoming Public Media, to significantly scale back their local news coverage or even close, particularly in rural areas. How will this impact NPR’s ability to cover all of America and its ability to maintain the local and national dialogue that we know this partnership as today?
JS: First of all, I just wanna say that this partnership is critically important. We continue to fulfill our mission as public media to serve the entire nation. We could not do that without all of the incredible work that goes on at member stations across the country, like Wyoming Public Media, and others.
I think this is a moment, obviously, of challenge where we're gonna have to reimagine and rethink some of the ways in which we do things, but we're not shying away from that mission. That is something we have to keep doing.
We have to reflect that diversity. We have to serve everyone. So I think we're just gonna be thinking about what that looks like. But I think that one thing that I don't expect to change is the fact that having a network of member stations across the country, who know their communities better than anyone else and who can report on them authentically in the moment, that's not going away.
We'll have to think differently. We'll have to work together, and it's a challenge that we'll all work through together.
