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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'

#961

Post by muyuu »

mcv wrote: post #958
muyuu wrote: post #887

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i believe they are in the process of including more labels to State-affiliated and State-funded media

Yeah, but it does seem like they're doing so only in order to justify their decision on NPR. They gave NPR the label in response to a critical article from NPR, even while NPR was explicitly listed as an organisation this label didn't apply to. Since then, they've been scrambling to change rules and texts to justify a decision that was clearly made out of revenge.

looks to me like they're expanding from the ones they know first

it's strange to me that State-affiliation is seen as a pejorative, perhaps it's an American perspective - in Europe it's somewhere between a badge of honour or incidental information about the media that needs to be considered for context

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

#962

Post by mcv »

petsfed wrote: post #589
kodah wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon's playing word games. When the average person talks about State Affiliated Media they're referring to editorial control. As far as I know NPR has always had editorial control and goes to great lengths to maintain neutrality in their writing. They've certainly screwed up in major ways before, but compared to MSNBC, Fox, the NYT, NYP, and CNN I'd say NPR looks like a saint. The irony I see here is that Twitter is…

I was going to mention Radio Free Europe as a really good example of egregious, western state-sponsored media, but then on a lark, I looked up how well regarded they are, bias-wise, and now I don't know what to think.

Turns out many democratic systems actually like politically neutral media that inform the public in the way they need to be informed in order to function in a democratic system. Healthy democratic governments abhor propaganda.

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

#963

Post by burkaman »

guywithahat wrote: post #886
burkaman wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just look at the NPR page we're discussing, which says 13% of public radio station revenue is from federal funds? 13% of 31% is 4%. Edit: The 13% is from all government funds, not just federal.

NPR has a history of downplaying their government funding, I'm not sure if you should use them as your main source. I know in the past they've said it was around 5%, while independent investigations found it was closer to 20-40%

That's the source we're discussing here. If you have some evidence that they're lying about this then please post it, I would genuinely be interested to see it.

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

#964

Post by Timon3 »

v0idzer0 wrote: post #956
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could somewhat see him trying to be fair after first acting out of spite. But why isn't the PBS NewsHour account labeled as government-funded media?

They are working on it. This is a new system a each label requires human research and consideration. They can’t do them all overnight.

Why start by labelling those entities you don't like, then changing the rules to allow for this label, and then slowly adding (or not) to other entities? It would be so easy to do it in a way that doesn't seem childish.

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

#965

Post by Timon3 »

v0idzer0 wrote: post #957
eat_veggies wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Musk allows organisations free reign to critique anyone and anything they like That's why you were not allowed to like or retweet posts that linked to substack, right?

Substack was temporarily suspended for stealing data to seed their Twitter clone. They stopped and you can once again like and retweet their posts

You're putting this as a known fact, but it fully relies on Elon being truthful. The Substack CEO denied this, and since he doesn't have a history of lies over the last months, I don't see any reason to give Elon the benefit of the doubt.

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

#966

Post by mcv »

muyuu wrote: post #961
mcv wrote: post #958

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but it does seem like they're doing so only in order to justify their decision on NPR. They gave NPR the label in response to a critical article from NPR, even while NPR was explicitly listed as an organisation this label didn't apply to. Since then, they've been scrambling to change rules and texts to justify a decision that was clearly made out of revenge.

looks to me like they're expanding from the ones they know first it's strange to me that State-affiliation is seen as a pejorative, perhaps it's an American perspective - in Europe it's somewhere between a badge of honour or incidental information about the media that needs to be considered for context

It's a pejorative according to Twitter. According to their own definition, it applies to state-controlled media that don't have independent editorial control, and tweets with this label are not boosted the way other tweets can be.

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

#967

Post by fireflash38 »

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.

So NPR never criticizes the government?

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

#968

Post by minsc_and_boo »

ghiculescu wrote: post #748
minsc_and_boo wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you genuinely asking for examples, or are you just declaring your opinion in bad faith? NPR reports on DNC mishaps and criminals all the time: - https://www.npr.org/2017/11/16/564593737/sen-al-franken-accu... - https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/12/505309059... - https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/19/529119721... - https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/04/568336597... - https:/…

I don't have a strong view on this yet, but I think some links that are less than 5 years old would make your argument more compelling.

There haven't been criminal convictions of federal democratic politicians in the last 5 years to report on.

Also, it's moving the goal posts.

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

#969

Post by ghiculescu »

minsc_and_boo wrote: post #968
ghiculescu wrote: post #748

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a strong view on this yet, but I think some links that are less than 5 years old would make your argument more compelling.

There haven't been criminal convictions of federal democratic politicians in the last 5 years to report on. Also, it's moving the goal posts.

GP asked for literally any critical reporting. You missed the goal posts, they didn’t move.

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

#970

Post by dpkonofa »

raxxorraxor wrote: post #945
kyralis wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the label has a connotation that is not accurate. Connotation is just as important as denotation when evaluating meaning and accuracy of statements. Engineers love to pretend otherwise - that's probably part of why we're engineers - but that doesn't make them right.

A connotation is subjective and should not matter. Public funding however is. In my country there are more or less trustworthy government funded news stations that are also flagged. At least on youtube. But I believe the label is more important than what some people fear other people would maybe perceive.

It would simply be a connotation if Twitter's own documentation on what that tag means didn't explicitly state that the tag means that the source's editorial process may be influenced by the government organizations funding them. That's not the case for any of the current organizations that have gotten that tag.
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