Dear NPR: Here's how to investigate crime instead of parroting what Republicans say.

Every news outlet has published at least one story roughly headlined, “Republicans paint Democrats as ‘soft-on-crime’ ahead of the midterms. Will it work?” The New York Times asks readers at least once a day.

Here’s NPR with the standard story template: Republicans blame Democrats for rising crime. Here's the complicated truth.

The story opens with Trumpy Republican Lee Zeldin. Zeldin is challenging New York Governor Kathy Hochul by relentlessly hammering Hochul on crime:

"There is a crime emergency right now in New York state," Zeldin declared at a mid-October campaign event outside Rikers Island jail, where he accepted the endorsement of the Corrections Officers' Benevolent Association.

"Time and again, one new pro-criminal law after the next, where was Kathy Hochul?"

Zeldin is talking about a series of laws passed in recent years by the Democratic-majority state legislature, which has been in the vanguard of the national movement to reduce incarceration. Prisoners are now guaranteed more rights in the parole process, they can earn their freedom more quickly, and fewer minors are being prosecuted as adults. The most prominent of the changes, though, was the bail reform of 2019, which eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.

That means more criminal defendants stay out of jail before trial. Critics say some have used that freedom to drive up the crime rate.

The rest of the story is a ping-pong game of, “But supporters of reform say that … “ “Yet critics counter that … “

You’re fucking NPR. You have endless investigative resources. What do you say?

Where are the profiles of people who got out early due to changes in the parole process? Is there any record of whether they’ve re-offended, thus adding to the crime rate? Do they even exist? Legislative parole reforms are more like …. polite suggestions that parole boards usually ignore.