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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'

#531

Post by iamerroragent »

geraldwhen wrote: post #451
iamerroragent wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is how NPR is funded: https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finance... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR#Funding

Member stations are federally funded. Member stations pay NPR. To say that NPR doesn’t receive a significant portion of its budget from the federal government is a lie. This same argument is made whenever a politico mentions cutting funding to NPR. There is a large push to claim that NPR receives very little funding and it’s irrelevant to the network. But you can’t have it both ways. The lady doth protest too mightil…

The Federal Government prints the dollar. If you buy something with that dollar, did the Federal Government fund your expense?

It's just as disingenuous to say NPR is directly funded by the Federal government as it is to say NPR receives little money from the Federal Government since it gets a lot of money from CPB which actually gets money from Congress.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_for_Public_Broadca...

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

#532

Post by icehawk »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #64
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…

> no mention of Mastodon in this announcement Mastodon blew its moment. It could have eaten Twitter’s lunch. But onboarding—specifically, choosing a server—was too tedious for non-niche adoption.

The internet blew its moment. But onboarding—specifically, choosing an ISP—was too tedious for non-niche adoption.

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

#533

Post by user3939382 »

balozi wrote: post #517

Distilled down to its most basic argument -the question becomes: can an institution that receives funding from a sponsor also claim that its output is independent of that sponsor's interests? My perception is that NPR serves specific class interests, not State interests per se. Unfortunately for them, the State also serves the same narrow class interests. Rage-quitting will not address the underlying tension.

I’d say no. All of these corporate media outlets have the same conflict of interest (Fox, MSNBC, etc) and the result is unsurprising.

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

#534

Post by unethical_ban »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #398
jacquesm wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and this gives their funders editorial control how?

I was so surprised by the first statement in your comment, that I stopped reading right there, and searched online to see if I could confirm/deny the statement. Then I wrote a reply without reading the rest of your comment. I didn't say anything about editorial control.

The only reason in theory for a place to put a "state media" label is to imply the State has editorial control.

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

#535

Post by AmericanChopper »

jacquesm wrote: post #485
AmericanChopper wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State funding of media, regardless of how it’s structured, creates an obvious conflict of interest with editorial freedom. Theoretically it’s possible for a state funded media company to exercise editorial freedom, just like it would be theoretically possible for a climate study funded by ExxonMobile to exercise academic freedom, but not without acknowledging that the conflict of interest exists. Maybe they are a hig…

The NPR makes no secret of its funding. But stamping a label on it like this implies that they are at the same level as the Chinese and Russian official state channels and lapdog institutions, which is the effect that Musk is going for here, which clearly is unfair to the NPR. Any attempt to whitewash even aspects of it is in part giving credit to it and I'm just not going to carry Musk's water on this. It's a petty…

NPR has exactly the same conflict of interest in regards to funding that RT has. You can make your own judgements about how influential that conflict is for different outlets, but the existence of it cannot be denied. If you think labelling the conflict of interest is worthwhile (as other social media platforms also do), then you have to do it for all outlets that have it. Otherwise you’re revealing that you’re actually pursing some other alternative agenda.

Personally I think it’s a stupid idea in general. But that’s because I’m against any organisation attempting to establish itself as an authority over the concept of the truth.

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

#536

Post by lostlogin »

yossarian1408 wrote: post #502
bagels wrote: post #317

Should Twitter itself get a state sponsored label for getting concessions from San Francisco on their headquarters? https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-controller-hails-... Should Elon's account (or SpaceX or Telsa) have the same label because of their significant government funding? It's hard to see this as anything but silly politics games.

Twitter, SpaceX and Tesla are not newspapers/publishers. The reason for labelling news organisations' government affiliations is for the viewer/reader to understand that there may or may not be bias, and where the funding is coming from. If NPR's government contributions are embarrassing for the organisation, it might be best for them to forgo that funding. Additionally, if there's no influence/bias, then why does it…

When Chinese and Russian state propaganda channels are getting the same label for a different situation, it’s a bit off.

Your (and Elons) argument has shades of the famous ‘with us or against us’ line. Details matter.

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

#537

Post by hitpointdrew »

JohnFen wrote: post #255
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.

> The fact they take any money at all from the gov makes them sate-affilated. In that case, very nearly every business (including mom and pop shops) is "state affiliated" and one has to ask why NPR is being singled out for this.

> In that case, very nearly every business (including mom and pop shops)

How so? In what capacity are “most businesses” getting federal money? Tax credits/breaks don’t count, that is the companies money that they don’t have to pay, not the federal government directly funding the business.

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

#538

Post by minsc_and_boo »

kaeresten_dit wrote: post #467

Seems like a funny reaction to a label added as a subtitle to an organization with the name National Public Radio People get attached to words or phrases without thinking about what they actually mean, seems like definitions get modified to emotionally herd the [un]imaginative/initiated Wild that style of thinking goes that high up the chain at NPR the CEO sounds child-like with their response

If it's such s small infraction then it should be easy for Musk to say they were wrong and correct it, right?

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

#539

Post by asdfman123 »

kaeresten_dit wrote: post #467

Seems like a funny reaction to a label added as a subtitle to an organization with the name National Public Radio People get attached to words or phrases without thinking about what they actually mean, seems like definitions get modified to emotionally herd the [un]imaginative/initiated Wild that style of thinking goes that high up the chain at NPR the CEO sounds child-like with their response

Because words and definitions matter, and you’re doing a lot of projection here

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

#540

Post by preseinger »

h2odragon wrote: post #373
tapoxi wrote: post #240

Good. It's clear now that Twitter is just an information control mechanism for Musk, and journalists should quit their addiction to it. I think every major news outlet should have their own ActivityPub compatible service, essentially as a modern replacement for RSS.

> Twitter is just an information control mechanism for Musk, and journalists should quit agreed. That was the case long before Musk. Would you have felt comfortable articulating that opinion, two years ago? When anything but Twitter was "an extremist echo chamber"? When the only censorship they were indulging in was the censorship we still can't talk about?

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