5 ms·

NPR CEO Slams Twitter for Labeling Its Account as ‘State-Affiliated Media’

10 points by g42gregory 4y ago

anigbrowl 4y ago
Already discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457578
WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
“We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as ‘state-affiliated media,’" Yes, Twitter should have done better but come-on most people think NPR is financed by the government so it's not such a big surprise. It's not clear by most people that it's a private entity. And it's been a regular mistake. NPR needs to work on making sure that people understand the reality.
- basscomm 4y ago
  > NPR needs to work on making sure that people understand the reality. I'm pretty sure that the only people who are ignorant of NPR's funding are people who don't listen to it and aren't interested in finding out. If you listen to NPR for a few hours, you'll hear some verbiage between shows saying that it's funded via contributions from member stations (i.e. local public radio stations around the country) and sponsorships from corporations, charitable organizations, etc. If you go to npr.org there's a link in the footer labeled 'Finances' that breaks down their finances even further. What else could they reasonably do?
  - WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
    yes, but it's still an issue and it has been an issue as long as I can remember. They might have to go as far as making it part of their logo. I really don't know. I suspect the "public" in their name gives the wrong connotation. PBS has the same issue.
BillyTheMage 4y ago
Is their entire argument "we're not state affiliated because most of our funding comes from other places". Media companies don't need to get their funding from the state in order to be state affiliated. They can be (have been) infiltrated by state agents. All of them, not just NPR. We know 2 things for a fact: the state uses the media to control the majority of people, and they also have incredibly powerful and efficient covert agencies. There's no chance in hell NPR or any other media company doesn't have state agents embedded in its highest levels of management.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > Is their entire argument “we’re not state affiliated because most of our funding comes from other places”. No, their argument is that they are mostly not even state funded because most of their funding comes from other places. They aren’t state affiliated because the government doesn’t exercise editorial control, and that’s Twitter’s stated definition of state-affiliated, which expressly excludes state-funded outlets that have editorial independence. > We know 2 things for a fact: the state uses the media to control the majority of people, and they also have incredibly powerful and efficient covert agencies. There’s no chance in hell NPR or any other media company doesn’t have state agents embedded in its highest levels of management. So every media outlet globally should be labelled as “state affiliated” media of at least one and probably multiple different states based on this conspiratorial viewpoint?

10 points by g42gregory 4y ago

Already discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35457578

“We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as ‘state-affiliated media,’" Yes, Twitter should have done better but come-on most people think NPR is financed by the government so it's not such a big surprise. It's not clear by most people that it's a private entity. And it's been a regular mistake. NPR needs to work on making sure that people understand the reality.

basscomm 4y ago
> NPR needs to work on making sure that people understand the reality. I'm pretty sure that the only people who are ignorant of NPR's funding are people who don't listen to it and aren't interested in finding out. If you listen to NPR for a few hours, you'll hear some verbiage between shows saying that it's funded via contributions from member stations (i.e. local public radio stations around the country) and sponsorships from corporations, charitable organizations, etc. If you go to npr.org there's a link in the footer labeled 'Finances' that breaks down their finances even further. What else could they reasonably do?
- WheelsAtLarge 4y ago
  yes, but it's still an issue and it has been an issue as long as I can remember. They might have to go as far as making it part of their logo. I really don't know. I suspect the "public" in their name gives the wrong connotation. PBS has the same issue.

BillyTheMage 4y ago

Is their entire argument "we're not state affiliated because most of our funding comes from other places". Media companies don't need to get their funding from the state in order to be state affiliated. They can be (have been) infiltrated by state agents. All of them, not just NPR. We know 2 things for a fact: the state uses the media to control the majority of people, and they also have incredibly powerful and efficient covert agencies. There's no chance in hell NPR or any other media company doesn't have state agents embedded in its highest levels of management.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> Is their entire argument “we’re not state affiliated because most of our funding comes from other places”. No, their argument is that they are mostly not even state funded because most of their funding comes from other places. They aren’t state affiliated because the government doesn’t exercise editorial control, and that’s Twitter’s stated definition of state-affiliated, which expressly excludes state-funded outlets that have editorial independence. > We know 2 things for a fact: the state uses the media to control the majority of people, and they also have incredibly powerful and efficient covert agencies. There’s no chance in hell NPR or any other media company doesn’t have state agents embedded in its highest levels of management. So every media outlet globally should be labelled as “state affiliated” media of at least one and probably multiple different states based on this conspiratorial viewpoint?