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Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

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Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#31

Post by 2022-11-07 »

kevincrane wrote: post #22
2022-11-07 wrote: post #16

This is not a very convincing defense. Most foreign outlets Twitter and US media label state-affiliated are not directly controlled by the state. It's more like, hey, this institution gets a lot of its funding from, or has close ties to, the state, so just watch out for that which is 100% true here. NPR was literally created by an act of congress. You can't be honest and say in good faith it's not state affiliated.

Except when you read the article, you saw a description from Twitter and link saying: > State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/state-affilia...

Even though that help page contradicts their decision to label it as state-affiliated media, it does not change the fact that NPR is state affiliated media. Maybe they just forgot to remove NPR as an example when they changed their designation?

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#32

Post by Rimintil »

cool_dude85 wrote: post #27
TheCoelacanth wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

31% of revenue comes from member station fees and 13% of member station fees comes from government funding, so that would mean 13% of 31% or 4% of the total comes from government sources. "State-affiliated" still seems highly inaccurate. Tesla get 3% of its revenue from government carbon credits. Are they labeling Tesla as state-affiliated?

But if the CPB stations didn't exist, who would be trying to advertise, excuse me, become a corporate sponsor, with NPR? The network of stations that NPR sells its material to would likely not exist without Federal funding.

What-ifs get in the way of the facts. Perhaps we should just not go there since your scenario isn’t applicable to NPR as it stands today.

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#33

Post by [deleted] »

vuln wrote: post #28
Dudelander wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The source you cite points out that only 8% of public radio's funding comes from federal funding, and less than 1% of NPR's budget comes from federal funding. The federal government does not exercise any editorial control over NPR other than by the mechanisms that apply to Fox, CNN, Newsmax, or any other "private" media organization.

> The federal government does not exercise any editorial control over NPR other than by the mechanisms that apply to Fox, CNN, Newsmax, or any other "private" media organization. So NPR hires former IC members and then utilizes them to downplay or hype a story? I mean “give an analysis”…

[deleted]

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#34

Post by pugworthy »

2022-11-07 wrote: post #31
kevincrane wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except when you read the article, you saw a description from Twitter and link saying: > State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/state-affilia...

Even though that help page contradicts their decision to label it as state-affiliated media, it does not change the fact that NPR is state affiliated media. Maybe they just forgot to remove NPR as an example when they changed their designation?

So when does Voice of America get the designation? Or Stars and Stripes? Both of them are 100% state-affiliated media - no gray line at all. And tag every affiliate NPR station's Twitter account too?

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#35

Post by stusmall »

vannevar wrote: post #20
nyerp wrote: post #15

The article states "More than 99% of NPR's funds do not come from federal sources" and yet elaborates "NPR ... gets the bulk of its direct financial support from two sources: sponsorships and fees paid by hundreds of member stations." How are those member stations funded? Through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives a $465 million federal appropration each year. So can the Federal Government exert…

By this same logic, all television networks are "state-affiliated media", because they all depend on local stations that hold federally-granted broadcast licenses. So add Fox Broadcasting, NBC, CBS, etc., etc. to your list.

Also with the same logic Tesla is "state-affiliated". Federal subsidies on sales have been a critical part of their business model.

I think people are arguing that is label makes sense are really losing the thread of the point of the label. Is it possible for the Federal government to exert pressure on the organization? Honestly, that's true of any person or organization that has any financial dealings that touch the US. It's really hard to argue in good faith that NPR is a mouth piece of the state like RT or Xinhua.

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#37

Post by dingosity »

nyerp wrote: post #15

The article states "More than 99% of NPR's funds do not come from federal sources" and yet elaborates "NPR ... gets the bulk of its direct financial support from two sources: sponsorships and fees paid by hundreds of member stations." How are those member stations funded? Through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives a $465 million federal appropration each year. So can the Federal Government exert…

I believe you to be high.

The US petroleum industry as a whole (and the few individual companies I follow closely) receive a higher percentage of their income as subsidies from the US federal government than NPR does.

By this logic, they are more likely to yield to pressure from the US government than NPR and yet Twitter does not label their accounts as "government affiliated."

Tesla received $7.5B in federal subsidies last year on $81.4B of revenue. That's about 8 percentage points more federal funding than NPR received. Maybe we should label Tesla's twitter account as "government affiliated."

I can't find recent data, but through 2015, SpaceX received $4.9B in government subsidies, and SolarCity received $497M in direct federal subsidies. Maybe they should also be labeled "government affiliated."

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#38

Post by dingosity »

vuln wrote: post #28
Dudelander wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The source you cite points out that only 8% of public radio's funding comes from federal funding, and less than 1% of NPR's budget comes from federal funding. The federal government does not exercise any editorial control over NPR other than by the mechanisms that apply to Fox, CNN, Newsmax, or any other "private" media organization.

> The federal government does not exercise any editorial control over NPR other than by the mechanisms that apply to Fox, CNN, Newsmax, or any other "private" media organization. So NPR hires former IC members and then utilizes them to downplay or hype a story? I mean “give an analysis”…

It turns out that many people leave the intelligence community each year. Many of them move on to other jobs (i.e. - they don't retire, they change jobs.) Some of these jobs are at NPR. What's your point?

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#39

Post by dingosity »

2022-11-07 wrote: post #16

This is not a very convincing defense. Most foreign outlets Twitter and US media label state-affiliated are not directly controlled by the state. It's more like, hey, this institution gets a lot of its funding from, or has close ties to, the state, so just watch out for that which is 100% true here. NPR was literally created by an act of congress. You can't be honest and say in good faith it's not state affiliated.

And it was defunded by an act of congress as well.

So... your point is... congress once gave them a fair chunk of change and now they don't but that doesn't matter because they once gave them a lot of cash. That's like saying my parents still control me because they gave me an allowance in jr. high school.

Re: Twitter labels NPR's account as 'state-affiliated media', which is untrue

#40

Post by dingosity »

pie420 wrote: post #10
paulpauper wrote: post #5

I think there should be an appeal process. Hard to say either way. I have seen NPR publish negative stories about Biden too.

You realize even Stalin's USSR allowed controlled opposition and occaisional articles critical of the government in order to give the illusion of freedom and dissent, right? Propaganda has evolved into a much more sophisticated beast since then.

So... what's your point here? That NPR is controlled by Stalin? or the Soviet Union? or Lyndon Larouche?
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