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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum during the nation's first primary on Jan. 10, 2012 in Manchester, N.H.

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum during the nation's first primary on Jan. 10, 2012 in Manchester, N.H.

Rick Santorum has a problem. The Republican presidential candidate has been dogged by gay rights activist Dan Savage since 2003, when as a senator he supported anti-gay laws, including against sodomy. Savage, an internationally syndicated sex advice columnist, took offense and called on his readers to wage an Internet war. He invited them to name, or re-name, a sex act after Santorum. Then he took a vote and created an anti-Santorum website with the new "definition." It's not delicate.

Since then, Santorum's problem has been a Google one. Even after he came in a close second in the Iowa caucus, a Google search on his name leads to Savage's column popping up first or near the top. Santorum can't seem to escape the, well, savage plays on his name.

NPR, like much of the news media, did a story on the phenomenon. This raised uncomfortable issues of what to say on air. The resulting piece attracted a complaint from listener Brendan Wolff, of Fairbanks, AK, who quite sensibly asked if such stories were appropriate, given that young people are often listening. She also asked if NPR wasn't contributing to the popularity of the site.

This is an age-old question when it comes to reporting on smut, sex scandals and the like, and can only be decided on a case-by-case basis. We asked NPR reporter Laura Sydell why she chose to go ahead in this case. Here is Wolff's letter and Sydell's response. See what you think.

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Pittsburgh Steelers teammates execute the "run and bump," an end zone celebration analyzed by a New York Times dance critic.

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Pittsburgh Steelers teammates execute the "run and bump," an end zone celebration analyzed by a New York Times dance critic.

Last week, I responded to complaints from some listeners on two Morning Edition commentaries by Frank Deford. One of the commentaries expressed outrage at the violent hazing that takes part as an initiation ritual in some of the marching bands at historically black college and universities. The other was a humorous piece making fun of the end zone antics by professional football players after touchdowns. Deford said the antics violate the "manly" game.

Deford may get some vindication by a huge layout in the New York Times Saturday on the latest celebratory moves, which the paper christened the "run and bump." One of the two articles was actually written by one of the paper's dance critics, Gia Kourlas.

My post focused on whether Deford should have given some racial context to his criticism, as he is white and the antics were historically associated with black players, who make up the overwhelming majority of professional players. Some African-American listeners didn't take kindly to the implication of their being called unmanly. I agreed in part, but noted that much depends on whether you think that the antics are still associated with race.

The Times stories don't mention race, but the many photos show black and white players jumping and bumping butts equally. This might suggest that Deford was in the clear not mentioning race in his commentary. As I wrote, "The antics, in other words, have a black origin, but maybe, just maybe, they aren't black anymore. They are just football."

I've enjoyed following the discussion in the comments section on the original post – you're welcome to use the Times piece and listener comments I've pulled below to keep the discussion going here.

Two reactions are common when a negative news report comes out about our own race or ethnic group. One, I want to know more, so I can confront the problem. Or, two, why are they pointing fingers at us?

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A recent report on Morning Edition about the high rate of obesity among African-American girls sparked both reactions. It's the latter one that is troubling.

"I was once again appalled to hear about an issue that has nothing to do with race framed in a racial context," wrote Carolyn Casey, of Boston, MA. "The fact of the matter is that the lack of exercise increases EVERYONE'S risk of obesity, which is why over 60% of ALL Americans are considered overweight or obese."

Listener Kwende Madu commented: "I would ask that NPR refrain from publishing stories that concern the African-American community as this only gives racist elements an excuse to vent their hatred. I have no doubt that this particular problem will be handled internally and the African community will emerge stronger much to the dismay of our enemies."

So, was NPR derelict in its reporting, or did it do a disservice to the black community?

Neither.

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney on Jan. 3, the night of the Iowa Caucuses, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney on Jan. 3, the night of the Iowa Caucuses, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Our audience is a fastidious bunch—informed and outspoken. I love you, if for no other reason than you make my job easier by finding the dust under the carpet in NPR's coverage. But I wasn't so sure that I appreciated one such careful listener who wanted to re-visit the Iowa coverage.

Enough already! I agreed with all of you who wrote that you were tired of wall-to-wall caucus news. Iowans themselves must be gagging. But listener Ray Lurie, who is not from the state, raised a good question on language. Lurie is from New Haven, CT, which may mean that he is a smartypants from Yale. You read below. He notes that no one actually wins any delegates from the caucuses.

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A Predator B unmanned aircraft takes off in Arizona. The aircraft patrol the southern border of the United Sates.

Gary Williams/Getty Images

A Predator B unmanned aircraft takes off in Arizona. The aircraft patrol the southern border of the United Sates.

This blog isn't normally the place for a public policy debate, but as privacy is a media issue as much as anything, the letter excerpted below from Harley Geiger from the Center for Democracy & Technology—which advocates for Internet free speech and privacy protection—is worth discussion here. The letter picks up on a recent post of mine on Brian Naylor's NPR story on using drones inside the United States.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon had famously objected to the story. Geiger goes one step further by proposing immediate steps that can be taken to prevent the misuse of by law enforcement and others:

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Members of the Florida A&M University marching band perform prior to Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 10, 2010.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Members of the Florida A&M University marching band perform prior to Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 10, 2010.

NPR's commentators get to give their opinion, but standards of accuracy and fairness still apply, especially in a public medium.

So it was with concern that I received complaints that celebrated sports commentator Frank Deford had offended some African-Americans in successive weekly Morning Edition commentaries. One denounced violent hazing within many of the legendary marching bands of historically black colleges and universities. The other criticized the antics by professional football players after a score or a sack; most of the players are black.

"Does anyone get to respond to Frank Deford's racist commentaries, or is he so 'important' we just have to sit here and take it?" wrote Michel Martin, who is herself well-known as the host of NPR's own Tell Me More. "For the second week in a row we've been subjected to one of his unsupported-by-the-facts diatribes assailing the 'culture' of African-Americans."

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Weekly Morning Edition sports commentator Frank Deford.

Listener Justin Gabaree of Kingwood, TX, asked of the band piece: "If those same comments were on Fox News would they be offensive to you? Particularly if they were on Bill O'Reilly's show?"

The complaints left me floored. Deford may be the most eminent sportswriter in America today. He is the author of 17 books, a long-time contributor to Sports Illustrated, a documentary screenwriter, and, since 1980, a weekly commentator on NPR. I have admired his work for years. I thought of him as an acute moralist, a wistful humorist and a defender of black athletes. And so my first reaction to the racism complaints was: Say it ain't so, Frank!

What I found is that it ain't.

With the waning days of 2011 comes my last post before 2012—an open forum. Regular participants know the rules: civility. The forum keeps getting ever more interesting, at least for me. We also share your comments with the newsroom.

Part of why I like this job is its unpredictability—who knows what will come up in 2012? But here are some projects we're working on and for which you may have insights. One study is an analysis of regional bias, and what cities and states NPR covers most. Another is an analysis of racial and ethnic staffing, audience and coverage. Coming soon is a look back at an investigation of Native American foster care in South Dakota. Then there is a "thumbsucker" on the growing conflict between ethics and free speech among journalists.

I think we all enjoy each other's comments. Thank you for your thoughts and support. See you next year.

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Workers build cars on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Assembly Plant Dec. 14, 2011.

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Workers build cars on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Assembly Plant Dec. 14, 2011.

Last week's post on how NPR should frame the future of electric cars— positively or negatively—drew some 100 comments and emails. Some contributed new information to the debate. Leading among these was an email from Brian Wynne, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, an organization that promotes electric vehicles. Here it is, with a reference and a link to a UK study on the obstacle of "range anxiety":

On behalf of the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), I wanted to provide our input on how to more effectively tell the electric car story. The NPR series was negatively framed and beyond tone, it could have benefited with a more complete look at the facts. As the industry trade association representing the companies developing the vehicles and infrastructure and working with the stakeholders on deployment, a group like EDTA could have helped the writer provide a clearer view of the industry's progress and the work being done to educate consumers about electric drive options and their benefits.

For example, in evaluating vehicle sales numbers to date, it is important to put them in context. Despite the limited-market roll out that began this year, all the electric vehicles produced to date will be sold and models such as the Nissan the Leaf are expected to meet their 2011 sales goal. Wider availability in 2012 will also include diverse options for consumers. There will be more than 20 electric vehicles for consumers to choose from next year, at various price points and electric ranges.

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Pope Benedict XVI during his weekly general audience at the Vatican on Dec. 14, 2011.

Andreas Solaro/Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI during his weekly general audience at the Vatican on Dec. 14, 2011.

When the Catholic Church changed its liturgy in late November, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Morning Edition, and Tell Me More, covered the story. For some listeners that was way too much.

"When anything is mentioned on NPR concerning religion, it seems that the only religion mentioned is the Catholic religion," wrote Jim Mundy of Green Cove Springs, FL.

The reports led Ann Shropshire from Glenwood Springs, CO, to turn off the radio. "You keep running stories about how the Catholic Church has changed the mass. I do not believe that your listeners are a majority of Catholics," she wrote.

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A Predator B unmanned aircraft returns to the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is expanding its use of drones to patrol U.S. borders.

Eric Gay/AP

A Predator B unmanned aircraft returns to the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is expanding its use of drones to patrol U.S. borders.

Just because you don't like the subject of a story doesn't mean that the story was wrong.

Salon published a scathing reaction to Brian Naylor's recent All Things Considered report on the nascent use of drones domestically. The article, written by Glenn Greenwald, called Naylor's five-minute segment a "commercial for the drone industry," saying the report overlooked privacy and safety concerns. Some listeners wrote with similar criticism.

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A worker installs components into a Leaf electric vehicle at the company's plant in Kanagawa, Japan.

Kazuhiro Nogi/Getty Images

A worker installs components into a Leaf electric vehicle at the company's plant in Kanagawa, Japan.

Is the glass half empty or half full for the future of more fuel-efficient cars? How NPR and the news media answer this question in framing stories affects public attitudes and a national willingness to support the conservation effort.

The Obama Administration and automakers recently agreed to make all new cars in America have an average fuel economy by 2025 of 55 miles per gallon – roughly double the current average. The mandate prompted a Morning Edition series on how cars will get there.

"Reaching that goal [55 mpg] will takes feats of engineering and it will require Americans to change how they think about their cars and how they drive them," host Linda Wertheimer said in the introduction to the first part, on electric cars.

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Israelis and Palestinians protest after two cemeteries, one Muslim and the other Christian, were vandalized by graffiti in the Arab city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, in October.

Hmad Gharabli/Getty Images

Israelis and Palestinians protest after two cemeteries, one Muslim and the other Christian, were vandalized by graffiti in the Arab city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, in October.

It's almost a classic man-bites-dog story. Instead of a story about Palestinians attacking Israelis, NPR freelancer Sheera Frenkel reported on what is believed to be militant Jews vandalizing Arab sites inside Israel. But as with many stories involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, heated objections followed.

This time the objections were led by CAMERA, a media-monitoring organization that advocates for Israel from a strongly conservative viewpoint. It posted:

Sheera Frenkel's Nov. 18 NPR news report charges Israel with a purported agenda 'to have a purely Jewish state and to get rid of all Palestinians, the ones in the West Bank and in Israel,' as one of her main interviewees puts it. Frenkel bases her alarmist story on three cases of vandalism and the distortion of terminology, among other misrepresentations.

Many listeners sent emails with similar complaints, picking up on the details outlined by CAMERA.

The charges are serious, and so I went back to investigate. What I found is that Frenkel's story was tendentious in one part and lacked context, but it is not the anti-Israeli diatribe CAMERA portrays it to be. It's a legitimate story about actual developments—a series of acts of vandalism to Arab sites in Israel by alleged militant Jews.

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You're invited to use this space to discuss media, policy and NPR's journalism. We'll follow the conversation and share it with the newsroom.

Please stay within the community discussion rules, among them:

• If you can't be polite, don't say it: ...please try to disagree without being disagreeable. Focus your remarks on positions, not personalities.

• ...This is not a place for advertising, promotion, recruiting, campaigning, lobbying, soliciting or proselytizing. We understand that there can be a fine line between discussing and campaigning; please use your best judgment — and we will use ours.

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This post was written with LORI GRISHAM.

A recurring theme on our Open Forum posts is how NPR handles corrections. Lynn S., a regular participant on the blog, wrote: "Why are some errors corrected but not others? Why are some corrections noted but not others?"

She pointed to a correction posted above the Morning Edition segment, "GOP Says Obama Supporter Pushed for Solyndra Loan." The correction reads: "A previous headline on this story incorrectly said that a Solyndra supporter pushed the White House for loans. In fact, House Republicans contend that an Obama supporter pushed the White House for Solyndra loans." The NPR correction page has the same note.

But Lynn S.'s concern has to do with another story that had a similar error, but did not receive the same note. She wrote:

Now consider the following: NPR's story about the Mississippi personhood initiative was initially titled "Miss. Set To Vote On Measure Making Fetus A Person," even though the measure proposed that fertilized human eggs would be declared persons and the fetal stage starts months later. It took many hours and emails, comments, and phone calls from many people before it was replaced with a less informative—but no longer erroneous—title, "Miss. Set To Vote On Measure Defining A Person."

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I appeared today on WOSU's local call-in show All Sides with Ann Fisher out of Columbus, OH. Following a brief interview with NPR's new CEO Gary Knell, Fisher and listeners asked me questions about the challenges – and joys – of being NPR's ombudsman. Following are some excerpts of what I said. Take a listen to the full audio segment online and share your reactions on the blog.