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Id highly suggest listening to an NPR story that covers something you are deeply familiar with. Of all things where I am an expert, NPR misinforms in the direc
by blhack 6y ago
Id highly suggest listening to an NPR story that covers something you are deeply familiar with.
Of all things where I am an expert, NPR misinforms in the direction of outrage. I can only assume that is their standard practice. It’s shameful that they are tax paper funded.
If somebody has an example of a story that NRP did a good job of accurately informing the consumer, I would love to read it and change my mind.
- ggm 6y agoIs it possible you're less of an expert than you think you are, and there is a range of views in these things? Is it possible you are e.g. an autodidact, and NPR is going to academics?
- pstuart 6y agoI think NPR tries too hard to be "neutral" and tends to report on the chatter of the stories rather than the drivers of them. The way they report on the Military Industrial Complex, the War on Drugs, and our foreign policy misadventures is maddening, but I don't think it's done to intentionally deceive. It feels more like they're trying to be objective by echoing chatter and headlines without injecting any critical analysis. But that's just my bias as a "lefty".
- mhh__ 6y ago> But that's just my bias as a "lefty". If they did the article or podcast would be an order of magnitude longer - also, could you cite some specific passages, because I'm not familiar with the NPR going into some impassioned defence of the War on Drugs for example. If you want to know what wrong with the world ask an anarchist, whether you stay and listen to the solution is up to you.
- pstuart 6y ago> I'm not familiar with the NPR going into some impassioned defence of the War on Drugs for example. It's not the defense, it's the reporting on it at face value without question. Positions can be challenged by data, and opinions are often offered up by "experts", but this and many other subjects are never implicitly challenged, because "neutral". If you could save me the effort, I'd be interested in you channeling an anarchist perspective in how to fix things (I'm already reasonably aware of what's broken).
- mhh__ 6y agoI'm not an anarchist myself I just think they're the best place to go to for a big rant on just how bad things really are e.g. I trust Noam Chomsky immensely to tell me what's wrong but I wouldn't pay that much attention on specific policy issues.
- mhh__ 6y agoAny concrete examples rather than slightly vague truisms? Have you ever watched a programming conference talk on something you're particularly knowledgeable about - surprise, surprise, there are always things that can be improved. And besides, unless you are an expert in everything you alone cannot be the judge of this without help.
- mojomark 6y agoI listen to NPR, but cringe heavily during news reports that verbally may be roughly unbiased but are delivered with a tone that is either shining with overwhelming approval or dripping with disdain. I don't need my news delivered to me with a patronizing tone, or opposite. I can make up my own mind; just the facts please. The best thing by far on NPR, for me at least, is Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal. He's amazing, but some of his understudies try too hard to emulate Kai's playfully slick idolect that it comes off as ersatz.
- ThankYouBernard 6y agoor is it possible that you already have an axe to grind about "tax-payer funded" and you always look at NPR through that lens?
- kube-system 6y agoHmm, I've always felt the opposite about their reporting. I've always thought they went out of their way to be accurate when expert attention to detail is necessitated, in comparison to other news outlets (regardless of whether they're left or right leaning)