NPR and PBS Leaving Twitter After Being Labeled ‘Government Funded’
Left-leaning news and opinion publishers NPR and PBS have announced leaving Twitter in protest over the label of public funding affixed to their accounts by the social media platform. The two are no longer tweeting to their Twitter accounts.
National Public Radio (NPR) announced on April 12 that it wouldn’t make any new posts on any of its 52 Twitter accounts because of the label “state-affiliated media” added to their accounts.
Twitter had previously added such labels to foreign news sources like Russia Today that receive government funding.
However, NPR, which was created by the federal government and has been receiving government funding all along, did not like the same policy applied to its own accounts on Twitter.
Bemoaning Twitter’s policy of declaring the government-media financial connection to media accounts on the platform:
The news organization says that is inaccurate and misleading, given that NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence.
NPR’s accounts now carry the label “Government-funded Media” on Twitter.
Commenting on NPR’s status, Twitter owner Elon Musk called for stripping NPR of its federal funding with a short tweet.
NPR decided to quit Twitter one day after conservative news site The Daily Signal, published by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, published a scathing article by Jarrett Stepman titled “NPR Is Part of the Incestuous Regime.
Why Haven’t Republicans Defunded it?” The article pointed to NPR’s political activism masked as journalism and asked, “Why should American taxpayers be on the hook to pay for a highly partisan and ideological media outlet?”
But NPR is not the only major government-link media that went silent on Twitter; Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) did the same, probably quitting even before NPR.
Yahoo News reported on April 13 that PBS also halted its use of the platform and hasn’t posted on its Twitter account since April 8th.
PBS’s Twitter profile claims it maintains editorial independence and produces “trustworthy content.”
PBS’s editorial independence is central to our work and will never change. We produce trustworthy content that features unbiased reporting.
Conservative voices on Twitter questioned the integrity and significance of both NPR and PBS after the two announced quitting the social media platform.
One comment questioned why NPR wouldn’t leave YouTube in protest when the video platform still labels it as an American Public Broadcast service.
The tweet wrote: “They won’t boycott YouTube because Elon Bad, YouTube good.”
Conservative news site The Daily Caller took aim at PBS and tweeted that its departure from Twitter means nothing.
Following the news of its government-funded label on Twitter, many edits were made NPR’s Wikipedia page to claim that its content was independent and its government funding was insignificant in proportion to the media’s total funding.
A look at the editing history of NPR’s wiki page shows that the introductory line of the page has changed many times over the past year. In January 2022, the intro described NPR as:
“an American quasi-autonomous government-funded non-profit media outlet created by the Federal Government of the United States.”
By October 2022, this intro had been changed to “an American privately and state-funded non-profit media organization.” Sometime later, it was changed to its current intro that omits any mention of state or government connection and calls it: “an American nonprofit media organization.”
NPR’s funding has been a point of controversy since its founding in 1970. NPR is officially a private company, but up until 1983, it received over half of its funding from the federal government through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). In that year, NPR nearly went bankrupt after years of financial mismanagement, and in the subsequent restructuring process, the organization was put under tighter controls by the CPB in exchange for loans. From the late 1980s, NPR generated increasing amounts of its revenue from charitable donations and licensing fees, though a significant portion of the fees come from private local stations which receive funding from CPB and state and local governments. Presently, NPR receives funding for less than 1% of its budget directly from the federal government, but receives almost 10% of its budget from federal, state, and local governments indirectly. NPR and PBS receive quite a bit of their funding from independent stations that carry them for a fee, and the independent stations are government funded. We have several radio and tv stations in NC that carry both NPR and PBS. I think they are a little left, but not outrageously left. I am moderate.
So if the shoe fits, where it!
Ernest, here is a good issue for you to research and do a PBP on, maybe you can beat Larry Horist to the punch!
See “https://itsonnews.com/netflix-sued-over-false-representation-of-cleopatra/”
NPR at .1% Federal Funding and PBS is at 15% Federal Funding, some of which are specific grants for specific things.
“leans left” is one notch of top-dead-center from most media bias trackers. They are about as moderate and objective as you can get. The ragged right just likes to cater to those who disdain educational media. They like FAUX news and Twitter.
“However, NPR, which was created by the federal government and has been receiving government funding all along.” Sure, .1%…. And yes, started by Democrats who wanted non-commercial, educational broadcasting and first presided by Republican Dan Quayle back when Republicans worked for the public.
PBS was formed by the same 1967 bill for the same reasons; the original whopping $5M Federal funding was split amongst 5 similar broadcast outlets. Oh the Dumpster horror of it all. Today, PBS gets about 15% of it’s funding from the government which amounts to about $1.35 to each taxpayer. Oh, the horror of it all.
Meglomaniac Magarat Musk needs cash so he dumps on NPR/PBS using the ole conservative hatred of funding anything that might be construed as liberal. Or educational. Or factual. He’s banking on the ragged right to fill the gap left by all those liberals fleeing the twitter than Musk has created.
What the Dumpster fails to note is how Musk has his head so far up his ass, he is blinded from the light, revved up like some douche bag, another grifter in the night. His net worth is down 50%; he may be the first human to lose $200,000,000. His Tesla stock is down 50% from 2022. And his spaceship blew up after launch which he claimed was a complete success (just like his Twitter launch).
First, Twitter decided to label the network “state-affiliated media.” This is the same term Musk uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and autocratic countries. Clearly that is a LIE.
In an interview, Mush said, gee, I might have fucked that up (like the rest of Twitter).
So, smart-guy Musk then revised NPR to “government-funded media.”
Now, if you got .1% to 15% from the Federal Government, with only a few strings attached, would you be offended by someone saying you are government funded? At minimum, misleading. The real intent — fire up those Magarats with more misleading facts.
Mush has stated that further changes could happen, like changing it to a more correct term: publicly funded. Still not correct, but better.
Many affiliates and friends have already dropped Twitter. Good. Time for this twisted social malfeasance to end.
In associated news: the DeSantis/Musk Public Policy and Media Affairs School will be opening soon to provide instruction on how to pull pretend political publicity stunts for public relations advantage. It is unaccredited.