4 ms·

Does the federal government assert editorial control over NPR?

by mcguire 4y ago

wyager 4y ago
It doesn't matter in the slightest if they do this explicitly. NPR would be stupid to bite the hand that feeds it.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  NPR gets 1% of funding directly from the government. 13% of the 31% (4%) they get from member stations comes from the government, for a total of 5%. The "hand that feeds" NPR is mostly corporate sponsors and member stations' listeners.
- lamontcg 4y ago
  39% of NPR revenue comes directly from corporations. Another 12% comes from foundations (the wealthy donor class). Only 31% of their revenue comes from member stations and only 13% of that comes from CPB or government sources, which totals up to 4% coming from the government. So corporate interests fund NPR more than 10x times as much as the government.
  - wyager 4y ago
    Then why did NPR have a ton of content on their website about how absolutely critical federal funding was to their operation?
    - lamontcg 4y ago
      Because they don't want liberals thinking too hard about how much Archer Daniels Midland pays them. And threats to their federal funding are also probably great for their pledge drives.
    - ceejayoz 4y ago
      Scroll up the thread; your question is already answered. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35542645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35542645 Federal funding isn't critical to NPR, but it's important to the public radio ecosystem of small local stations, who get ~13% of their funding from government.
      - wyager 4y ago
        So evidently NPR disagrees with the "it's just a small percentage, who cares" judgement (until that judgment being on their website becomes embarrassing)
        ceejayoz 4y ago
        "We don't want our customers being unable to afford our products" is, I suspect, a common opinion among businesses. I'm not sure why you'd find it surprising. Walmart wants people to spend their food stamps on their groceries. Tesla wants people to use the EV tax credits on their cars. They don't get accused of being government controlled because of it.
- fireflash38 4y ago
  So NPR never criticizes the government?

Does the federal government assert editorial control over NPR?

wyager 4y ago

It doesn't matter in the slightest if they do this explicitly. NPR would be stupid to bite the hand that feeds it.

ceejayoz 4y ago
NPR gets 1% of funding directly from the government. 13% of the 31% (4%) they get from member stations comes from the government, for a total of 5%. The "hand that feeds" NPR is mostly corporate sponsors and member stations' listeners.
lamontcg 4y ago
39% of NPR revenue comes directly from corporations. Another 12% comes from foundations (the wealthy donor class). Only 31% of their revenue comes from member stations and only 13% of that comes from CPB or government sources, which totals up to 4% coming from the government. So corporate interests fund NPR more than 10x times as much as the government.
- wyager 4y ago
  Then why did NPR have a ton of content on their website about how absolutely critical federal funding was to their operation?
  - lamontcg 4y ago
    Because they don't want liberals thinking too hard about how much Archer Daniels Midland pays them. And threats to their federal funding are also probably great for their pledge drives.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    Scroll up the thread; your question is already answered. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35542645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35542645 Federal funding isn't critical to NPR, but it's important to the public radio ecosystem of small local stations, who get ~13% of their funding from government.
    - wyager 4y ago
      So evidently NPR disagrees with the "it's just a small percentage, who cares" judgement (until that judgment being on their website becomes embarrassing)
      - ceejayoz 4y ago
        "We don't want our customers being unable to afford our products" is, I suspect, a common opinion among businesses. I'm not sure why you'd find it surprising. Walmart wants people to spend their food stamps on their groceries. Tesla wants people to use the EV tax credits on their cars. They don't get accused of being government controlled because of it.
fireflash38 4y ago
So NPR never criticizes the government?