I used to look forward to listen to NPR

Cotton, a US Senator, has been busy tweeting out stuff encouraging people to use their cars on Gaza protestors, I cant think of anyone proved more correct than the people who argued he shouldnt have been allowed a platform.

 

You had a professor who mocked libbie movies?!
How old are you dude? lol

 

No we mocked the professors 'libbie' movie

 

He resigned his position at NPR.

 

Granted I don't work in journalism, but if I publicly blasted my employer like that I'd expect to be fired - especially if a number of my claims were questionable, misleading, or outright false.

 

What's questionable, misleading or outright false in what he stated? The CEO is far left. NPR did move fairly far to the left. They were always slightly left, but since trump came on scene they've gotten progressively farther left. I've moved to the middle in the last 8 years and NPR seems to be moving farther left by the day.

 

Thanks wgb. If I understand you correctly, you see Berliner’s critique as less of an exercise in truth seeking, and more of an effort to push certain narrative boundaries and maybe also to signal a status of “objective”. I am sure some people fit your description excellently, and maybe Berliner is one such individual. However, I don’t think all criticism of the media can be thus explained, and some of it must come from a more respectable place.

You are right that we don’t see this same complaint regarding obviously right wing media like Red State, but nor do I see it for obviously left wing media like Mother Jones. In a world of Red States / Mother Joneses and APs / NYTs, I think NPR is most definitely supposed to fit with the latter group. They aren’t supposed to be a media source for liberals; they are supposed to be a media source. If they have a liberal agenda -and again, I think is a difficult claim to prove- I do think that is regrettable.

 

Would you agree their CEO is far left? Did NPR push the Biden laptop sorry? Did they question Covid lockdowns and school closures? Did NPR question Fauci and the CDC’s miss steps? Did NPR question Walensky? These were issues that any impartial media organization should have pursued vigorously.

 

Not the part about the CEO, the examples in the original story that were claimed as evidence of left-leaning bias. Gator_lawyer shared in post #130, but here's a tweet thread looking at the initial claims:

 

This comment hit it perfectly:

 

So taking some random twitter post over the 25 year journalist because it fits your narrative? Bold move.

 

It's not a random Twitter post of someone simply disagreeing. He goes point by point with examples to show why the claims are misleading or false.

If you're going to keep pushing this centrist shtick at least try to show some objectivity instead of jumping on every little anti-liberal thing out there.

 

What I would hope is that NPR would be down the middle. They aren’t. Their ceo is far left. Where was NPR in 2020 questioning lockdowns and school closures? Where was NPR when mask data was nothing more than BS “studies” that were nothing more than models? Where was NPR on myocarditis in teen boys? These were serious issues. The Centrist in me says NPR already covers the right and keeps them honest. You honestly think NPR is doing the same on the left?

 

I don't watch or listen to NPR so I can't comment on their leanings over the past few years.

My only point is that the guy who tried to blow the whistle on NPR did so in a (at best) misleading way and so it shouldn't be a surprise that he got suspended and was likely going to be deservedly fired had he not resigned.

 

It’s not a misleading way at all. He is more in tune with the inner workings of NPR than the rando twitter user you are choosing to believe. I’ve given things most people in the middle has issues with and NPR did a terrible job holding those in power(trump also) during Covid. And no one can argue the ceo is far left.

 

There is no reason taxpayer $$ should be used to fund a politically biased radio. Considering the likelihood NPR will never change, I would prefer all funding from the federal government be terminated. Let the well-heeled progressives keep it on the air.

 

I understand your point. Indeed, Berliner seemed to make the very same ones. I had never heard of Maher before this snafu, but the stuff posted in this thread does suggest to me she is rather left leaning. Though I want to stress the point that what I believe about her, or the other issues raised, is irrelevant. I am just a random person. I also view you to be right leaning, so if being partisan by my account defeats one’s credibility, yours too would be vanquished.

In the end, proving a bias is difficult because one would need an unbiased comparison, and I know of no source unanimously agreed to be so intellectually pristine. Many of the other posters here clearly did not find Berliner’s argument at all compelling. Perhaps they did not because of their biases, but perhaps you did because of yours. As John Locke wrote, “It would, methinks, become all men to maintain peace, and the common offices of humanity, and friendship, in the diversity of opinions; since we cannot reasonably expect that any one should readily and obsequiously quit his own opinion, and embrace ours, with a blind resignation to an authority which the understanding of man acknowledges not."

If we are going to solve this, we need a critical mass to agree not on the facts but on a process that determines the facts. This suggests that we do not even have that.

 

The ceo is “left leaning?”. How many on the right are for strict gun control and national gun registries and want assault weapons banned? How many on the right want increased funding for people with disabilities(true ones because there is fraud as well)? How many on the right want teachers paid more and for it to come out of the defense budget? I support gay marriage and want abortions to be legal up to 24 weeks. I am about down the middle as they come if one actually looks at all the issues.

 

It would appear that my thesis did not get across. I was not trying to make claims regarding who is right or left. My point was that this is a fraught exercise that cannot be left to single individuals, like me. Perhaps Maher is far left, but who decides? You? Perhaps you are as unbiased as they come, but who decides that? Clearly this can’t be you, or our reasoning becomes circular. Objectivity must be demonstrated, not assumed.