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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While the president told Afghan leader Hamid Karzai that the Pentagon will draw up plans to withdraw U.S. forces this year, he also said there's still time to finalize a deal that keeps troops there.
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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposes cutting the size of the Army and taking steps that trim military pay and benefit costs. "We must now adapt, innovate and make difficult decisions," he says. -
President Viktor Yanukovych said he was working with opposition leaders to end the violence that has claimed more than two dozen lives in the past two days.
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Something's going on at some schools in states hit hard by the weather this winter. What it is ain't exactly clear. But administrators seem to want to have some fun when they have to spread the word about school being closed. See how they set their news to hits by Queen and Vanilla Ice.
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The celebrity cook and restaurant owner lost her Food Network gig and many endorsements last year when her past use of a racial slur was revealed. She has apologized many times. Now, a private equity company has come forward with millions of dollars to restart her business empire. -
Little is known about how the hastily arranged meeting went. Reports from the border village of Panmunjom say the two sides' representatives appeared to behave cordially toward each other. But upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises could ratchet up tensions again. -
City Councilman Kevin Faulconer will fill the seat vacated by disgraced former Mayor Bob Filner, a Democrat. Filner left office after less than a year following sexual harassment allegations from more than a dozen women. -
The National Weather Service is not holding back on its warnings about the ice and snowstorm that is hitting the Deep South and will move into the Mid-Atlantic later Wednesday. Forecasters warn of "impossible travel conditions" in Georgia and dangerous roads elsewhere. Thousands are without power. -
The central bank's new chair makes her first appearance before Congress since being confirmed. She'll also say that the economy picked up speed last year and will likely continue to grow at a "moderate pace" this year and next. -
Her singing and dancing in movies charmed millions during the Great Depression, when she was the top box-office draw. After leaving show business, Temple (known in her private life as Shirley Temple Black) was an ambassador. She represented the nation at the U.N. and in Prague during the Cold War.
