5 ms·

Ever try listening to NPR in recent years? It is really approaching the point of self parody. I would say that at least 80% of NPR "stories" have an explicitly

Ever try listening to NPR in recent years? It is really approaching the point of self parody. I would say that at least 80% of NPR "stories" have an explicitly stated racial angle and probably greater than 90% have a gender or race angle. It is literally almost the only thing NPR commentary and analysis segments talk about these days. Yes racism is bad. No it is not reasonable that every single segment is about how supposedly blacks, transgender blacks, illegal immigrants, etc, are victims. Even in coronavirus coverage it is all about race and a particular race at that. There is very little mention of anti-Asian hate crimes (often by blacks) almost no mention of interesting race facts, like the fact that Filipino American nurses were far more likely to die of Covid than other ethnic groups. Instead arcane stories, like African Americans in general are afraid of vaccines and that is okay because of the Tuskeegee experiments 50-60 years ago are aired. Again racism is bad. But when CNN or NPR is spending a huge, gigantic amount of their airtime covering racial issues every single day it is a little perplexing. It would make sense if the goal was to manufacture racial tension as distraction from real issues. Maybe it is. If you constantly focus on the outrage of the day you can ignore the slow boiled frog of rising economic inequality over the past 20 years. I am seriously interested in a study that quantified the number of NPR news analysis stories that contain explicit commentary on race in 2020. I bet it is over 80% meanwhile the black share of the population is around 12%. Seems to me it would make sense to have the number of stories more proportional to that.

AshWolfy 6y ago
Of the 30 stories currently featured on the NPR website, 1 is about race
- morpheos137 6y ago
  In the title. However, I am sure, having listened to NPR almost every day, that most of those stories contain an explicit "racial analysis" segment. It is also possible that the written content is less race obsessed than what airs on the radio. I know when I am listening to NPR driving to work I hear racially focused stories back to back every single day as if there was absolutely nothing else interesting to talk about.
  - AshWolfy 6y ago
    If you had evidence you would have already presented it, i looked through a couple of articles and nothing about race. im not going to waste more time to confirm what i already know
    - morpheos137 6y ago
      While I also do not have time to do an analysis right now, and as I mentioned radio content may be different from web content, the number of upvotes my initial comment calling out NPR got suggests my opinion is not unusual.
      - ttt0 6y ago
        Remember when NPR deliberately took a video out of context to portray peaceful protesters attacking a random car as if the driver was some sort of white supremacist who tried to hit them on purpose? https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/22/npr-falsely-calls-victim-of-attack-by-rioters-a-white-supremacist/ https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/22/npr-falsely-calls-victi...
        AshWolfy 6y ago
        They used that photo on an unrelated story, the photo had nothing to do with the story. nice try though. Just admit you were wrong, its ok
        recursive 6y ago
        But that's exactly what's being said. The photo has nothing to do with the story. NPR admitted as much. https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1274809408262938624 https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1274809408262938624 But your tone suggests that you disagree with something.
        AshWolfy 6y ago
        The implication was that npr was smearing this woman, rather than the editors being lazy. All in service to the argument that npr focuses on race, despite there being no evidence
evan_ 6y ago
> I am seriously interested in a study that quantified the number of NPR news analysis stories that contain explicit commentary on race in 2020. I bet it is over 80% meanwhile the black share of the population is around 12%. Seems to me it would make sense to have the number of stories more proportional to that. What is the connection in your thinking between the proportion of stories that analyze race and the percent of black people in the US?
- morpheos137 6y ago
  Almost all NPR stories that analyse race concern "black or brown" people. Why do you think that a disproportionate amount of content should be generated focusing on one issue? If my premise is correct, that more than 12% of NPR content contains racial analysis, I don't feel that the burden is on me to explain why I think this is an unjustified proportion. There are other interesting things to talk about in the world and time is limited. That's why. Why should one issue pre-empt others day in and day out?
  - evan_ 6y ago
    Why does the news spend so much time on sports coverage? Only like 0.0001% of the population play sports professionally.
    - recursive 6y ago
      They do a lot more political coverage, and the number of professional politicians is probably similar.
    - morpheos137 6y ago
      Well sports news is entertainment. There are specialised sports reporters and sports segments. Sports fans don't usually burn down city blocks when their team loses. Maybe identity politics outrage news is also serving a market demand. However it should be clear if the news is not proactive and tethered to underlying reality, i.e. if police are not actually racist as portrayed by CNN then the net social effect of such fake news is clearly negative. I don't think there is a such thing as fake sports news. There is clearly fake business news. When the media promotes ideas like ubiquitous AI and self driving cars it leads to malinvestment.
justaman 6y ago
I listen most every morning. It has absolutely become this. "Fresh Air" in particular more often than not has a racial/gender slant to it. The radio is different from the website.
eplanit 6y ago
Thank you for noting this, as I have found NPR to now be unbearable. I listened to it for over 30 years, and for the longest time it was one of my main sources. Now, like you say, they're like self-parody -- but not funny. Clearly, they've chosen to see the world, and therefore report _every_ story, through a narrow set of prisms: race, ethnicity, gender [identity], sexual orientation, and class. I still tune in to them from time to time to check, and now I play a game: how long before I hear a reference to one of the above perspectives. In general, it's less than 2 minutes, and often less than 1. It's as though they're beating a drum, or like a mantra. I hope that quality journalism returns someday.

AshWolfy 6y ago

Of the 30 stories currently featured on the NPR website, 1 is about race

morpheos137 6y ago
In the title. However, I am sure, having listened to NPR almost every day, that most of those stories contain an explicit "racial analysis" segment. It is also possible that the written content is less race obsessed than what airs on the radio. I know when I am listening to NPR driving to work I hear racially focused stories back to back every single day as if there was absolutely nothing else interesting to talk about.
- AshWolfy 6y ago
  If you had evidence you would have already presented it, i looked through a couple of articles and nothing about race. im not going to waste more time to confirm what i already know
  - morpheos137 6y ago
    While I also do not have time to do an analysis right now, and as I mentioned radio content may be different from web content, the number of upvotes my initial comment calling out NPR got suggests my opinion is not unusual.
    - ttt0 6y ago
      Remember when NPR deliberately took a video out of context to portray peaceful protesters attacking a random car as if the driver was some sort of white supremacist who tried to hit them on purpose? https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/22/npr-falsely-calls-victim-of-attack-by-rioters-a-white-supremacist/ https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/22/npr-falsely-calls-victi...
      - AshWolfy 6y ago
        They used that photo on an unrelated story, the photo had nothing to do with the story. nice try though. Just admit you were wrong, its ok
        recursive 6y ago
        But that's exactly what's being said. The photo has nothing to do with the story. NPR admitted as much. https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1274809408262938624 https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1274809408262938624 But your tone suggests that you disagree with something.
        AshWolfy 6y ago
        The implication was that npr was smearing this woman, rather than the editors being lazy. All in service to the argument that npr focuses on race, despite there being no evidence

evan_ 6y ago

> I am seriously interested in a study that quantified the number of NPR news analysis stories that contain explicit commentary on race in 2020. I bet it is over 80% meanwhile the black share of the population is around 12%. Seems to me it would make sense to have the number of stories more proportional to that. What is the connection in your thinking between the proportion of stories that analyze race and the percent of black people in the US?

morpheos137 6y ago
Almost all NPR stories that analyse race concern "black or brown" people. Why do you think that a disproportionate amount of content should be generated focusing on one issue? If my premise is correct, that more than 12% of NPR content contains racial analysis, I don't feel that the burden is on me to explain why I think this is an unjustified proportion. There are other interesting things to talk about in the world and time is limited. That's why. Why should one issue pre-empt others day in and day out?
- evan_ 6y ago
  Why does the news spend so much time on sports coverage? Only like 0.0001% of the population play sports professionally.
  - recursive 6y ago
    They do a lot more political coverage, and the number of professional politicians is probably similar.
  - morpheos137 6y ago
    Well sports news is entertainment. There are specialised sports reporters and sports segments. Sports fans don't usually burn down city blocks when their team loses. Maybe identity politics outrage news is also serving a market demand. However it should be clear if the news is not proactive and tethered to underlying reality, i.e. if police are not actually racist as portrayed by CNN then the net social effect of such fake news is clearly negative. I don't think there is a such thing as fake sports news. There is clearly fake business news. When the media promotes ideas like ubiquitous AI and self driving cars it leads to malinvestment.

justaman 6y ago

I listen most every morning. It has absolutely become this. "Fresh Air" in particular more often than not has a racial/gender slant to it. The radio is different from the website.

eplanit 6y ago

Thank you for noting this, as I have found NPR to now be unbearable. I listened to it for over 30 years, and for the longest time it was one of my main sources. Now, like you say, they're like self-parody -- but not funny. Clearly, they've chosen to see the world, and therefore report _every_ story, through a narrow set of prisms: race, ethnicity, gender [identity], sexual orientation, and class. I still tune in to them from time to time to check, and now I play a game: how long before I hear a reference to one of the above perspectives. In general, it's less than 2 minutes, and often less than 1. It's as though they're beating a drum, or like a mantra. I hope that quality journalism returns someday.