NPR's Mary Louise Kelly Defends Press Freedom After Mike Pompeo Interview

01/29/2020 08:53 am ET Updated 50 minutes ago


NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly Defends Press Freedom After Mike Pompeo Interview
The “All Things Considered” co-host says the secretary of state’s personal attack on her is “not the point.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/npr-mary-louise-kelly-mike-pompeo-interview_n_5e317830c5b6cd99e786b3e0


NPR journalist Mary Louise Kelly wants to make sure “the substance” of her contentious interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doesn’t get lost in the coverage of him attacking her.

“There is a reason that freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution,” the “All Things Considered” co-host wrote in a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday. “There is a reason it matters that people in positions of power — people charged with steering the foreign policy of entire nations — be held to account. The stakes are too high for their impulses and decisions not to be examined in as thoughtful and rigorous an interview as is possible.”


Kelly pointed out that during her interview with Pompeo on Friday, he didn’t provide specific answers to her questions.

“Journalists don’t sit down with senior government officials in the service of scoring political points,” she wrote. “We do it in the service of asking tough questions, on behalf of our fellow citizens. And then sharing the answers — or lack thereof — with the world.”.............................................

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