Some of those critics this week highlighted social media posts of Katherine Maher, NPR’s CEO, praising Democrats, calling President Trump a racist and promoting progressive ideas.
I thought this could be pretty bad coming from a CEO of a news source, until I looked into it more. She had said those things before being the CEO of NPR, as a public citizen vs as the CEO of a neutral news source. Good job hill on not providing sufficient context.
I think the issue here is that you no longer can have “balanced” political discussion when one side cannot help but regurgitate conspiracy theories, disinformation, and just 100% proven false statements in bad faith. The minute you platform these people any meaningful “debate” evaporates and you’re left with discussion not based on anything in reality. And trying to only works to drag the Overton Window to the right.
This is one of the reasons I stopped listening to NPR in the first place. During the Trump administration they kept letting Trump’s mouthpieces say whatever they wanted for like 15 min, and then give like 3 min to the opposition to explain how everything they said was a bold face lie. There just wasn’t any push back from the actual journalist.
That and they canceled Ask Me Another, which is pretty much the only thing I would ever give them money for.
IDK, I feel a lot of their programming, especially recently, has been pretty stern that there’s conspiracy theories with no basis in reality. I recall them having pushed back on lies by conservative interviewees as well.
They finally changed (or learned) after January 6th. I distinctly remember yelling at my radio that they were allowing Trump’s lackeys to repeatedly spew lies, and for the sake of “balance” those lies went essentially unchecked, and they’d hand the interview off to a Democrat who was baited with a leading question about “what you think about the claim that Democrats are running a child prostitution ring in the basement of a pizza restaurant”, or something else equally ludicrous. The first time they stopped presenting those lies with “you decide” ambivalence was the Big Lie, which is the first time they started fact-checking in real time.
So yeah, recently they’ve started figuring out how to push back against obvious bullshit, but during the Trump presidency their coverage was absolutely horrendous, and they were played like a fiddle by Republicans who knew damn well NPR journalists had to take every salacious claim they made at face value, which essentially rewarded them for being as insane as possible and consistently working the Overton window in their favor.
A side note here is that there’s a VERY strong difference between American and British journalism, in that Americans put a premium on decorum, and Brits put a premium on counterpoints. Sometimes they can be so direct and probing that it comes off as quite rude, and we can be so polite and courteous that we lay out the red carpet for liars. NPR has traditionally specialized in the “politely ask more questions and eventually you will get to truth” style of journalism, and they’re only now starting to lean into a slightly more confrontational style of “no, that’s wrong” argumentation. They’re not particularly good at it, mind you, but they’re kinda getting there.
The challenge is that in this current Trumpworld political climate is that news organizations that push back or argue in the slightest would never get additional interviews. Similar to how game publishers stop sending review copies to publications who haven’t reviewed their previous works in a positive light.
We appear to be in an era of “no news except positive news or else” rather than “all press is good press”
But what is the value of having those interviews? Platforming somebody who is just going to tell flat out lies, and not calling them out, doesn’t inform the viewer of anything other than that watching that news outlet is a waste of time.
I agree. It’s the current state of our society. Nobody likes to be challenged or have their feels hurt, which leads to avoidance of the challenge. It’s a catch-22. There’s little value in a non challenging interview. There’s no value in an interview that doesn’t occur at all.
Oh hell yes I can’t name names at the moment. But I remember seeing a number of different clips of American right wingers going on BBC proper to be interviewed by some right-wing lunatic in the uk. Thinking that it’s going to be some sort of Cakewalk and they’re just there to look good. And then just get totally shredded. It makes me a little sick inside to cheer for the British lunatic. But you got to take small wins where you can get them. I wish all media had a fraction of the spine they do over there. It’s still far from perfect. But it’s so much better.
Yes that was at least one of them. Shut right down in a hurry. LOL
That could be true nowadays, I haven’t listened to them since the Trump administration. I don’t really think it makes up for it though. If the journalist only has the spine to stand up to the GOP with a Dem in the Whitehouse, then I don’t think they should be on air.
are you seriously implying that NPR is scared of which party is in the white house? I feel that a rather extreme accusation that warrants a lot of proof. I would more easily believe that things you saw were more of a result in a change in American politics, that the media was slow to react to. This is the first president and party that is believing and spouting conspiracy theories and outright lies, with a huge percent of their voters believing them. Our government has been struggling dealing with this unexpected twist, so it only makes sense for journalists, or anybody involved in politics, to now know how to deal with this new setting and take time to adjust their plan of action.
are you seriously implying that NPR is scared of which party is in the white house?
I think media personalities have to follow the guidance of editors and producers, and I think those editors and producers can be influenced by things like donors and funding. I’m not sure if I would characterize that as being scared.
I feel that a rather extreme accusation that warrants a lot of proof.
Lol, I’m not making a court case. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, mine is that npr is mainly patronized by center right WASP.
I would more easily believe that things you saw were more of a result in a change in American politics, that the media was slow to react to. This is the first president and party that is believing and spouting conspiracy theories and outright lies, with a huge percent of their voters believing them.
Not old enough to remember the Bush years?
Our government has been struggling dealing with this unexpected twist, so it only makes sense for journalists, or anybody involved in politics, to now know how to deal with this new setting and take time to adjust their plan of action
It may feel that way, but I’ve been through this rigamarole more than once. Similar excuses were made for the media complicity to the invasion of iraq…we just haven’t ever had the wool pulled over our eyes like this before! Selectively forgetting the bay of pigs and the Gulf of tonkin.
They’ve been doing that at least since the GWB years, which is why I stopped listening to them then.
Yeah… tbf pretty much every news outlet post 9/11 went completely insane.
Wish NPR had the guts to have a left wing bias. Between fund drives, hand wringing, pearl clutching, and some biographic segment on the death of an obscure vaudeville act reviewer, they’re pressed for time to come up with anything else
Lmfao at the “vaudeville act reviewer” piece
Who comes up with their stories/segments??
Some of those critics this week highlighted social media posts of Katherine Maher, NPR’s CEO, praising Democrats, calling President Trump a racist and promoting progressive ideas.
Why are they criticizing her for calling a loud-and-proud racist a racist? Because it hurts their feelings?
Sounds like they’re telling on themselves.
He literally pleaded ‘non-contest’ to being a racist, when investigating for bias in his slum rentals. https://www.newsweek.com/fair-housing-acts-50th-anniversary-look-back-investigation-trump-familys-879437
The link you provided doesn’t say that, “Trump and his father, who were both named as defendants, responded by accusing the Department of Justice of defamation, and filing a $100 million countersuit. The messy legal battle ended with the Trumps signing a consent decree, an agreement that allows both parties to end a dispute without admitting fault.”
Translation: While being sued for discrimination the Trumps sued the DOJ for accusing them of defamation for a large sum of money and dragged it out in court until the DOJ decided the case was costing them too much with no end in sight and was forced to mutually drop the cases against each other, thus allowing the Trump’s to not be tried for discrimination. They used their wealth to avoid consequences, so much the same as we’re seeing now.
Okay but the material facts of the case included that their employees were instructed to identify applicants who were black and refuse to rent to them because they were black.
That’s not a judgement, it’s just central evidence uncovered by the DoJ.
Which, if you’ll pardon the expression, is a kind of no contest that he’s racist.
There’s no doubt he’s racist, but don’t you think at the very least we should strive to be better than fox news at reporting the details?
Reality has a liberal bias.
Look, I left NPR when they refused to call “enhanced interrogation” torture, and dog-paddled along with every other corporate news outlet in the run-up to Iraq II: He Tried To Kill Mah Daddy.
Juan Williams, the Fox News host, was a main contributor then. Unsurprisingly, he also participated in the propaganda snowjob.
NPR is the best some people who have to commute and only have the radio can do, but it’s several planets away from “progressive” - and this guy saying “no collusion” is fucking outrageous. Fuck that guy.
NPR: Nice Polite Republicans.
Good. Fuck that guy and his bullshit. NPR and PBS are the only ones following the Fairness Doctrine (you have one viewpoint, and then the opposite presented to the listener)
The problem with that stance is, not all ideas are equally credible and deserve airtime. As the adage goes, “If one person says it’s raining outside, and another says it’s sunny, a reporter’s job isn’t to present both as fact. It’s to open the fucking window.”
What the right are really angry about is that their lies aren’t being given the same weight as the truth for the most part at NPR.
Did you… Read the article? I agree with you, but you may be thinking the headline means something it doesnt since it also agrees with you.
I’ve found NPR to be pretty good at that. It’s particularly apparent when it comes to Trump’s lies about the 2020 election; they are consistent about pointing out when claims have been conclusively disproven, and often use the word “lie”.
That said, I agree with Berliner’s fundamental point; I’ve noticed an increasing slant in the stories NPR emphasizes. It’s not that their reporting is unfair, but their choice of what to cover aligns pretty closely with the positions of the progressive left.
Is the slant created by NPR or by the political climate, though?
Let’s use an extreme:
If a person says that all strawberries are red, then another person says “hey, this guy said that strawberries give cancer!” and NPR says “What the first person said was that all strawberries were red,” then all good. Then 1,000 people claim that no, what was said was that strawberries cause cancer. And NPR insists on indicating that no, it’s just a statement about strawberries being red - will you say that the “red strawberry” slant was caused by NPR?
Have you read Berliner’s article yet? He gives three examples:
- NPR talked a lot about investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign while investigations were ongoing, but was “sparse” in its coverage of the Mueller report’s finding that there was no credible evidence of such collusion.
- Hunter Biden’s laptop, containing evidence of influence peddling was deemed non-newsworthy; Berliner believes it was newsworthy.
- NPR dismissed the SARS-CoV-2 lab leak hypothesis as a conspiracy theory and failed to report on it seriously. While it is not the leading hypothesis, there’s credible evidence for it, and at some points in the past the evidence looked fairly compelling.
These examples are very different from ignoring someone who claims without evidence that strawberries cause cancer, that the 2020 election was rigged, or that wildfires in California were started by Israeli space lasers.
Lol. As soon as you mention the “laptop”, you lose all credibility.
What about Al Capone’s vault!? Why aren’t we focusing on that?!?
You REALLY aren’t giving him enough credit. Have you read his essay? I’ll bet its not at all what you think it is.
https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust
Okay, I started reading it, and I had to stop because he lost his credibility to me. Here are the notes I made for the beginning of the article.
First, he cites statistics to show how the demographics of listeners moved left between 2011 and 2023. He mentions Trump as related, but doesn’t consider how Trump’s lies about “fake news” caused a massive shift in what news people consume. And he doesn’t mention how during that time all news outlets were being affected by the rise of social media.
But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming.
This is what Burr’s summary of the Mueller report said. It’s right wing propaganda. The report actually found all sorts of evidence, but concluded it couldn’t call them crimes because of a policy of the DOJ.
There was really no point in continuing reading once I got to actual lies. It’s not journalism and the author doesn’t come off as credible to me.
Yeah it’s interesting because I actually agree with his overall point that coverage there could try to be a bit more balanced but his essay does a very poor job of supporting this idea and does more to reveal his own biases than NPR’s.
and does more to reveal his own biases than NPR’s
And what biases are those? He’s a legit award winning Journalist, a registered Democrat and he voted against Trump twice.
I don’t know this guy at all but from the outside looking in it really appears as if he’s being tossed under the bus and silenced simply because he’s saying something that his boss, and and quite a few people online, don’t want to hear.
