
<p>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.</p>



<p>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. </p>



<p>Twitter had previously added such labels to foreign news sources like <em>Russia Today</em> that receive government funding. </p>



<p>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. ;</p>



<p>Bemoaning Twitter’s policy of declaring the government-media financial connection to media accounts on the platform:</p>



<p><em>The news organization says that is inaccurate and misleading, given that NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence.</em></p>



<p>NPR’s accounts now carry the label “Government-funded Media” on Twitter. ;</p>



<p>Commenting on NPR’s status, Twitter owner Elon Musk called for stripping NPR of its federal funding with a short tweet.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Defund <a href="https://twitter.com/NPR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NPR</a></p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1646225313503019009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>NPR decided to quit Twitter one day after conservative news site <em>The Daily Signal</em>, published by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, published a scathing article by Jarrett Stepman titled “NPR Is Part of the Incestuous Regime. </p>



<p>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?”</p>



<p>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. </p>



<p><em>Yahoo News </em>reported on April 13 that ; PBS also halted its use of the platform and hasn’t posted on its Twitter account since April 8th. ;</p>



<p>PBS&#8217;s Twitter profile claims it maintains editorial independence and produces “trustworthy content.”</p>



<p><em>PBS’s editorial independence is central to our work and will never change. We produce trustworthy content that features unbiased reporting. ;</em></p>



<p>Conservative voices on Twitter questioned the integrity and significance of both NPR and PBS after the two announced quitting the social media platform. ;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PBS leaves Twitter, affecting absolutely nothing <a href="https://t.co/G86lQQ5Gk4">https://t.co/G86lQQ5Gk4</a></p>&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1646599135611572225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>One comment questioned why NPR wouldn’t leave YouTube in protest when the video platform still labels it as an American Public Broadcast service. </p>



<p>The tweet wrote: “They won&#8217;t boycott YouTube because Elon Bad, YouTube good.”</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wonder when NPR will boycott YouTube for accurately labelling them in the interest of transparency (this has been the case for years btw—it&#39;s NOT new).<br><br>jk they won&#39;t boycott YouTube because Elon Bad, YouTube good. <a href="https://t.co/b1SiO1pLwO">pic.twitter.com/b1SiO1pLwO</a></p>&mdash; stevenmarkryan (@stevenmarkryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevenmarkryan/status/1647050934445539328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>Conservative news site <em>The Daily Caller</em> took aim at PBS and tweeted that its departure from Twitter means nothing.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PBS leaves Twitter, affecting absolutely nothing <a href="https://t.co/G86lQQ5Gk4">https://t.co/G86lQQ5Gk4</a></p>&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1646599135611572225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>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. </p>



<p>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:</p>



<p><em>“an American quasi-autonomous government-funded non-profit media outlet created by the Federal Government of the United States.”</em></p>



<p>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.”</p>

NPR and PBS Leaving Twitter After Being Labeled ‘Government Funded’
