>It still happens, but often now the trajectory of the conversation is different. After the initial “I love NPR,” there’s a pause and a person will acknowledge,

>It still happens, but often now the trajectory of the conversation is different. After the initial “I love NPR,” there’s a pause and a person will acknowledge, “I don’t listen as much as I used to.” Or, with some chagrin: “What’s happening there? Why is NPR telling me what to think?” This is me. I'm a political conservative who has listened to NPR for most of my life. Just like the New York Times—which I've read for most of my life—I knew where it was coming from, and enjoyed the content accordingly. But, as Berliner wrote, something changed: >There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed. It’s frictionless—one story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies. It’s almost like an assembly line. I challenge anyone nowadays to listen to Morning Edition or All Things Considered for more than 30 minutes and not find a story about only "supposed racism, transphobia", let alone the other categories. Then start reducing the window to 15 minutes, then 5 minutes.