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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'

#211

Post by justin66 »

empressplay wrote: post #192
justin66 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter have got the govenrment-funded label on VoA now. But not the BBC, curiously. > some personal beef the owner has with NPR NPR is a bogeyman of the American right-wing media, which Musk seems to be consuming an awful lot of in recent years.

The BBBC is funded by TV license fees so their funding is more arms length, also they make money through BBC Worldwide and collaborations with external media companies like HBO. As such they commonly shit on the government of the day, no matter who it is

I don't know how you'd apply measurement using the length of arms and conclude that BBC receives less money than NPR from the government. In any case, editorial influence is a lot more important, and that's where the BBC is falling down lately.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/15/the-gu...

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

#212

Post by chatmasta »

hitpointdrew wrote: post #203

How on earth can anyone say "falsely labeled"? NPR does get money from the federal government, that is an undisputable fact. How are they not "state-affilated"? I don't care how small a % of the budget is money from the government. The fact they take any money at all from the gov makes them sate-affilated.

In their rebuttal [0] to this, they cited a statement from the White House Press Secretary:

> When asked about Twitter's decision during the White House's daily briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to address Twitter's content rules specifically. But she also defended NPR's journalism.

> "There is no doubt of the independence of NPR journalists," Jean-Pierre said. "If you've ever been on the receiving end of their questions, you know this."

[0] https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168158549/twitter-npr-state-...

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

#213

Post by starbase »

Here's what NPR's own website says about their federal funding:

"Federal funding is essential to public radio's service to the American public and its continuation is critical for both stations and program producers, including NPR."

"Public radio stations receive annual grants directly from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)"

"The loss of federal funding would undermine the stations' ability to pay NPR for programming, thereby weakening the institution."

"Elimination of federal funding would result in fewer programs, less journalism—especially local journalism—and eventually the loss of public radio stations, particularly in rural and economically distressed communities."

https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finance...

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

#214

Post by pixxel »

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…

8.7 million followers but take a look at their feed. Go back a week in time (for a snapshot) and the like/retweets/comments are generally in the 10s or low hundreds, with a few exceptions (low thousands). Same with NYT. Last time I looked they had 50+ million followers with similar low engagement.

So how many of their followers are bots and what’s NPRs true value to Twitter? I don’t know. I’ve got a small 5k following and I have similar engagement.

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

#215

Post by LastTrain »

nailer wrote: post #61
hidden80 wrote: post #3

It's so wild witnessing the degradation of Twitter.

[flagged]

Please act in good faith. You know why Twitter did what it did, and you know why it was wrong. We know you know that. NPR is not state affiliated, or even government funded. Fox news airs ads from the US Military - is it state affiliated?

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

#216

Post by kaesar14 »

hitpointdrew wrote: post #203

How on earth can anyone say "falsely labeled"? NPR does get money from the federal government, that is an undisputable fact. How are they not "state-affilated"? I don't care how small a % of the budget is money from the government. The fact they take any money at all from the gov makes them sate-affilated.

By this logic, Tesla is also "state-affiliated". A huge amount of companies in this country receive government subsidies, are they all "state-affiliated" media? The NPR journalists act independently from any government oversight, they are not part of the government's media apparatus

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

#217

Post by clipsy »

hitpointdrew wrote: post #203

How on earth can anyone say "falsely labeled"? NPR does get money from the federal government, that is an undisputable fact. How are they not "state-affilated"? I don't care how small a % of the budget is money from the government. The fact they take any money at all from the gov makes them sate-affilated.

Great, so you agree that Tesla and SpaceX must also be labeled as state-affiliated, right? And of course every single company that took PPP money, and...

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

#218

Post by LastTrain »

trasz3 wrote: post #156
pionar wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is your argument that NPR is a mouthpiece for the US government? I think that requires some evidence, rather than flinging about flimsy associations like this.

No, my argument is that an institution managed by past government officials cannot be unironically called independent from said government.

So every institution employing former government officials are state affiliated? Or does this just apply to ones you don't like?

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

#220

Post by starbase »

chatmasta wrote: post #212
hitpointdrew wrote: post #203

How on earth can anyone say "falsely labeled"? NPR does get money from the federal government, that is an undisputable fact. How are they not "state-affilated"? I don't care how small a % of the budget is money from the government. The fact they take any money at all from the gov makes them sate-affilated.

In their rebuttal [0] to this, they cited a statement from the White House Press Secretary: > When asked about Twitter's decision during the White House's daily briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to address Twitter's content rules specifically. But she also defended NPR's journalism. > "There is no doubt of the independence of NPR journalists," Jean-Pierre said. "If you've ever been on the receivin…

How ironic that NPR uses the state's talking points to argue they're not affiliated with the state.
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