A very good article from an NPR employee-- I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust. I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust. Uri Berliner, a veteran at the public radio institution, says the network lost its way when it started telling listeners how to think.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I used to listen to NPR a lot but slowly stopped about 3 years ago. Too many of the podcasts/segments were just repetitive left wing pieces playing on emotion as you did things like follow families crossing the border. It grew tiresome, even if I the politics themselves didn't bother me.
I used to listen to NPR on the drive into work, I always thought that programming was pretty good. Sometimes a little biased but they also had plenty of R leaning people being interviewed. Has the morning (6-8am) stuff also changed in the last year?
It's hard to report the news objectively when most of the basis for conservatives today just isnt reality. What are they supposed to do? Report that the election was stolen and immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country? Even Fox gets accused of being infected with liberalism when they try to check the crazy a bit. Like i said above sarcastically, what feels left to people on the right is simply a reality check.
Excellent OP - thanks for posting. As someone who leans Right this does not make me happy - it simply validates that we've lost our way in having cogent, reasonable reporting; and, we all lose as a result. There is no common ground. 87 Democrats and zero Republicans on the Editorial Staff - and "Diversity is our North Star" sadly, is just total propaganda.
I've been listening to NPR for over 30 years. Couldn't say I've seen any real difference in their reporting. I like that they report on a lot of issues that don't get any attention by the big media outlets.
Not saying you’re wrong but based on the way you post here….I'm not surprised you like what you hear on NPR.
If anything they are guilty of too much balance, and like most media end up airing far-right views because the "reasonable conservative" is more mythical than a unicorn these days. But I suppose in a way that is accurate of the state of play.
'NPR is too liberal' is another thing I've been hearing for multiple decades, along with "the deficit is out of control and Weimar-like inflation is just around the corner if we don't do austerity."
I love the suggestion that 25+ years ago conservatives were listening to NPR for news during the height of Rush Limbaugh's popularity
I don’t think reporting the news objectively has changed. Objectivity is still objectivity. It’s listener’s ears that have changed, and what they believe to be true. There is no objectivity when our country’s nightly news programming is wrapped by a partisan reality distortion field led by the evening entertainment programming provided by Fox, CNN and MSNBC.
I listen to long haired hippy $@#1 music in the mornings... to get away from the short haired political crap from both sides of the aisle.
For the record I don't think NPR has shifted left. I think the redundancy with which they are "left" is now too much to make me want to listen anymore. I would open my podcasts, listen for about 5 minutes, and turn it off because it was just more of the same.
I used to listen to NPR a lot, years ago during my commute when there were no such things as podcasts. But it’s many years since I listened to them to any degree. I was open to agreeing with the author, but the three examples he gave were not convincing at all - “Russiagate” was a real thing. There was collusion of sorts. But there wasn’t enough evidence to charge criminal activity such as conspiracy. There was enough evidence to charge obstruction but they (rightfully ) decided not to do so since they couldn’t charge conspiracy. - Perhaps everybody did jump the shark with Hunter Biden, but it had all the makings of disinformation given the nature and the timing, and to this day there isn’t any evidence linking this to the president. It really is a story of a president’s son behaving badly. - Sooner or later the concensus will be that the origin was from Wuhan wer market of natural origin. That’s where all the evidence points. There is no evidence it was a lab leak Im not going to argue NPR coverage went either way. I don’t really listen to them anymore. But he gave pretty weak examples to prove his point, and now he has fallen for the counter narrative.
A segment following a family cross the border sounds insightful. Not sure why it’s not a good story because it shows hardships which is considered “playing on emotions”. Those types of stories have been a part of investigative journalism for decades. In Boston Globe’s series on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, the first story included a first hand account of a family that went thru abuse. But imo they need to show all facets of the issue. ie what are the cities, hospitals, civil services, and US citizens near the border facing.
This is an important point. How do you have balance when so many of the things on one side are just fantasy?
I'm guessing even regular NPR listeners spend more time with their podcasts than listening to the actual live radio. I used to listen a lot when Car Talk was still around and This American Life was at the top of its game, but podcasts kind of killed the need for "talky" radio in the car for me. Now you can basically curate your own radio programming.
Peak NPR was between when the Prairie Home Companion movie came out in 2006 and Serial came out in 2014
