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NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

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Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#171

Post by dahwolf »

Whilst I admit that Musk is needlessly erratic, unpredictable and troll-like in these matters, part of me enjoys the pushback against legacy media on Twitter.

They've come into power by riding the Twitter hate train, maximally exploiting the algorithm that rewards rage and division. Lowering standards for journalism to a mere shadow of its former self. And yet they always have clean hands and are perfectly neutral, according to themselves.

Regardless of where you stand on this, it's interesting to watch. Journalists don't really have anywhere else to go. Their status and reach is exclusive to Twitter and cannot easily be replicated elsewhere.

Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#172

Post by annexrichmond »

So much of this article reads like an op-ed that I can't take it seriously.

Edit: for the downvoters, some excerpts:

> The BBC exchange showed Musk as alternately conciliatory and erratic.

According to whom?

> He also said that he's sleeping on a couch at work, that he followed through on his promise to purchase Twitter only because a judge forced him to, and that he should stop tweeting after 3 a.m.

this is a lot to say without any specific quotes

> Like so many policy decisions at the social network of late, Musk applied the label to NPR's Twitter account abruptly. It's still not clear why he became so animated about the issue.

Heavy use of adverbs and adjectives is like injecting opinion.

> For years, many journalists considered Twitter critical to monitoring news developments, to connect with people at major events and with authoritative sources, and to share their coverage. Musk's often hastily announced policy changes have undermined that.

Again, according to who??

Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#173

Post by TheCoelacanth »

judge2020 wrote: post #25
misssocrates wrote: post #10

> It receives less than 1 percent Why do they keep saying they receive almost nothing, yet at the same time say government funding is essential to their operation?

https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finance... > Public radio stations receive annual grants directly from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) that make up an important part of a diverse revenue mix that includes listener support, corporate sponsorship and grants. Stations, in turn, draw on this mix of public and privately sourced revenue to pay NPR and other public radio producers for thei…

If you look at the breakdown lower in the page, 31% of NPR's revenue comes from member station licensing fees and of the member station funding 13% comes from government sources, so in total that would be 4%.

Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#174

Post by retrocryptid »

throwaway743 wrote: post #165
chiefalchemist wrote: post #79

I listen to NPR station in the car. Anecdotally, very little of the content is true journalism; much of it is effectively op-ed. That's not necessarily a bad thing, provived you understand what you're consuming. The state-funded tag is a bit much. But to claim NPR is a pure journalism play isn't accurate either.

By definition they're state funded, but not state ran. The implications from the optics though may result in extreme takes. Though we could assume there's at least some influence the funding has.

Exxon gets a larger percentage of its income from the federal government in subsidies, yet we seldom (if ever) apply "government funded" to that organization.

What's your definition of "state funded"?

Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#176

Post by TheCoelacanth »

jpmattia wrote: post #151
bryanlarsen wrote: post #20

I've seen government-funded ads on Twitter. Wouldn't it be ironic if Twitter's revenue share from government sources is larger than NPR's 1-2%?

It's also interesting that we don't see the state affiliated label on SpaceX yet.

Or Tesla, for which government carbon credits makes up roughly the same percentage of revenue that NPR gets from government funding.

Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#177

Post by orwin »

freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #131

Talk about rage quitting. They'll be back. And whether it's unpopular or not, CPB gets federal and state grants for part of their operating budgets . Technically state funded or affiliated in the same way auto makers get government contracts. I don't know why they are mad about the designation. Whether it implies bias or not, it's true they get state funds, ergo they are state funded media.

The issue is that they are marked as state affiliated, not state funded.

And i support every company that receive state funds, directly or via tax breaks to be called 'state funded company'. That would have interesting repercussions.

Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#179

Post by dylan604 »

segasaturn wrote: post #9

I wonder if this will have any domino effect, right now the only thing holding Twitter together is its network effects. According to the article on NPR's site[0], they have 8.7 million followers and run 52 different accounts so Twitter is losing a pretty important partner. Also, no mention of Mastodon in this announcement. It sounds like they're just going to use Facebook for the time being. 0: https://www.npr.org/20…

I would assume a single account with 8.7 million followers isn't a big deal to Twitter. It's not like the 8.7 million NPR followers are unique to NPR and are going to disappear. Those 8.7 million followers probably follow 8.7 million other things themselves.

I'd be willing to guess a single Kardashian has more followers than NPR (maybe I'm too cynical). Eventually, the way Musk is running Twitter, he'll give a free blue check mark for the Brawndo Corp. Maybe he could just rename Twitter to "Ow, my balls"

Re: NPR quits Twitter after being labeled as 'state-affiliated media'

#180

Post by retrocryptid »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #79

I listen to NPR station in the car. Anecdotally, very little of the content is true journalism; much of it is effectively op-ed. That's not necessarily a bad thing, provived you understand what you're consuming. The state-funded tag is a bit much. But to claim NPR is a pure journalism play isn't accurate either.

What's your definition of journalism?
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