On November 25, 2024, JPR broadcast a segment on the Jefferson Exchange that featured an interview with a representative of Bayer Crop Science, one of the world’s largest agri-tech companies, and maker of a variety of genetically modified seeds, as well as pesticides such as Roundup. The interview was focused on a report, which Bayer funded, that concluded the use of Bayer’s products could lower the cost of food by reducing the time farmers need to put into growing their crops.
During the interview, the Bayer representative made a number of assertions regarding the safety and economic benefits of using its products, assertions which have been strongly disputed in the agricultural community and in the courts. For the most part, the JX host did not effectively challenge those assertions. This resulted in an interview which was largely skewed toward Bayer’s perspective on the use of these agricultural technologies and did not address the broader environmental, scientific and health issues related to their use.
A number of JPR listeners contacted JPR to express their dissatisfaction at what they heard as an unbalanced and unfair interview in which alternative viewpoints were not raised. After reviewing the segment in question, JPR News management agrees with this criticism.
As listeners may know, the Jefferson Exchange recently underwent major staffing changes, as the longtime host and senior producer both retired. The new JX staff has been on the job just a few months, and while they’ve produced many excellent show segments, they are, in some ways, still learning to manage the challenges of producing a live civic affairs program that doesn’t allow for post interview fact-checking and editing.
As JPR’s interim news director, I’m responsible for the work of the JPR news team, including the Jefferson Exchange. In this case, I failed to exercise adequate editorial oversight of the program and I take full responsibility for the result, which fell short of the journalistic standards we strive to achieve. Listeners tell us they trust our news coverage because they find it to be fair, fact-based and balanced. In this case, we didn’t measure up.
Within our newsroom, we see this as an opportunity to learn and improve our editorial process. We will address this specific topic by producing a Jefferson Exchange segment in which some of the aspects of the use of chemical and genetic technology in agriculture that were not explored in the Nov. 25th JX segment can be examined by knowledgeable people with alternative perspectives. We will also strengthen our editorial process to avoid further occurrence of segments that don’t meet our journalistic standards.
As always, thank you for listening to JPR.
Liam Moriarty
JPR Interim News Director
