Current.org Blog

Did NPR overreact in terminating its relationship with longtime freelance arts reporter David D'Arcy after his controversial December piece exploring the fate of artist Egon Schiele's "Portrait of Wally"? The painting, seized from its original owner by Nazis in 1939, was loaned to New York's Museum of Modern Art several years ago and has since become subject of a fight over its rightful ownership. D'Arcy's story treated MOMA unfairly, according to NPR, which later issued a correction, and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin, who defended the correction in a recent column. But nothing in D'Arcy's report "seems particularly surprising or stunningly accusatory," says this story in the Los Angeles Times, which says NPR's decison to sever ties with D'Arcy "raised questions about how its news operation sets and enforces journalistic standards."