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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'

#831

Post by photochemsyn »

warner25 wrote: post #463
photochemsyn wrote: post #46

Well, there is an interesting history here. E.g. in 2000 NPR (and CNN) allowed the US Army's Psychological Operations division to place military members in the newsroom as interns as part of a media training program: https://fair.org/home/psyops-in-the-newsroom/ > "PSYOPS is a division of the U.S. Army mandated to “develop and disseminate propaganda designed to lower the morale” of “enemy forces,” and to “build suppo…

For what it's worth, I'll give some perspective here as a career Army officer. I think this is one of those things that sounds like the plausible work of a highly intelligent and effective monolith, which is how conspiracy theorists often seem to view "the government." I think the reality is that "the government" and the US Army is not. It's a sprawling bureaucracy with insanely high turnover and many internal divisi…

Your arguments are cogent, but it's still 'state-affiliated media' - I mean, that also applies to the whole 'media embedding program' that got started in Desert Storm (Gulf War I, or perhaps II if we count the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s).

Independent media is not necessarily adversarial to government, but it can't be dependent on government or it turns into nothing but the propaganda arm of the government. E.g. reporting on military failures is necessary, even if this upsets the brass because it damages morale.

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

#832

Post by AmericanChopper »

roflyear wrote: post #615
AmericanChopper wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most F500 companies aren’t media companies, and the interests motivating any public statements they make are well understood by the public.

How many media companies got PPP loans? Probably all of them, right?

This is an excellent point. If you review my comment history I think you’ll find some of my most downvoted comments being about how rolling out the biggest infringements upon civil liberties since WWII, and then creating a financing program that media companies rely upon to survive, was one of the most corrupt things I’d seen during my life time.

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

#833

Post by soerxpso »

orblivion wrote: post #755
d23 wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NPR is not nor has it ever been state-affiliated media in any reasonable sense of the word. Is it a full stop, bald-face lie.

I agree and wasn't fond of the "state-affiliated" label but they switched to "government funded" which I agree with.

How is receiving funding from someone not a form of affiliation with them?

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

#834

Post by ceejayoz »

wyager wrote: post #643
mcguire wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the federal government assert editorial control over NPR?

It doesn't matter in the slightest if they do this explicitly . NPR would be stupid to bite the hand that feeds it.

NPR gets 1% of funding directly from the government.

13% of the 31% (4%) they get from member stations comes from the government, for a total of 5%.

The "hand that feeds" NPR is mostly corporate sponsors and member stations' listeners.

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

#835

Post by rys »

Jenepas wrote: post #738
passwordoops wrote: post #707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so to amend OP's original point: Should Twitter come with a label as "state-owned" considering both the Qatari and Saudi governments hold a significant stake in the company?

Personally yes, when i hear everyone clamour for transparency, I want brutal honest transparency, so yes twitter handle and twitter docs should clearly mention that they are owned by Saudia and terrorist Qatar. Same with DW News, Al Jazeera, Middle East eye and Gulf news. I've always wondered, without pure transparency, who will guard the guards?

Isn’t DW state-owned by Germany?

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

#837

Post by lamontcg »

skrowl wrote: post #737
d23 wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NPR is not nor has it ever been state-affiliated media in any reasonable sense of the word. Is it a full stop, bald-face lie.

NPR was, quite-literally created by an act of the United States congress. It receives DIRECT funding from the United States government. Twitter was generous in changing the label from "State-affiliated" media (given that it was literally created by the US Government) to "Government-funded media". There is no possible argument against the "Government-funded media" label that makes sense. They're government funded. NPR…

Corporations and institutions/foundations make up more than half of NPR's funding. And that exceeds the pledge drive funding, which collectively vastly exceeds the government funds they receive.

When NPR runs their "ADM Supermarket to the World" spots, that is telling you who is really funding them and who to worry about exerting editorial control.

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

#838

Post by [deleted] »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #572
yossarian1408 wrote: post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. SpaceX and Tesla do not publish news 2. If by "easy loans" you mean competing for contracts with the likes of BlueOrigin, Raytheon and Boeing, you ought to drop the word 'easy' 3. If the goal is getting back at the industry, one questions whether Elon Musk wouldn't have had an easier time just buying up a bunch of the papers like Bezos and Murdoch 4. Unlike the previous Twitter regime, Musk allows organisations fr…

Can we please drop the Twitter free speech façade? We all know it's not true. He's banned activists at the behest of right wing influencers. He's banned parody accounts. He banned the account posting public flight log data of his plane. He banned people for posting links to Mastodon, then unbanned (some of?) them, then prevented people from interacting with tweets linking to Substack. If you search Twitter for "subst…

[deleted]

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

#839

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #442
jacquesm wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NPR needs money and they need editorial freedom, they seem to have both. I really can't fault them for that, editorial independence is the yardstick by which media should be judged unless there is outright ownership.

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…

put a better way, theoretically it's possible for an entity that has received a small amount of funds from the state, to be controlled by that state, just like SpaceX, which is state funded, could be controlled by that state, and just like theoretically I could give you a dollar and then control you, but any actual accusation of such or implication thereof would need actual evidence behind it, or else such conspiracy theories based only on incentives and no evidence can be dismissed out of hand.

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

#840

Post by rozal »

harrelchris wrote: post #544
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

Twitter defines state-affiliated media as: > outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution. [1] This isn't an accurate description of NPR. The government has no control over the content. > NPR receives less than 1% of its direct funding from the federal government [2] Even Twitter re…

I can't stand NPR. It's always one sided and always the typical US propaganda. CSPAN is where it's at for raw politics.
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