How NPR lost America's trust

[Doctor Phibes]

800K is only a lot when it's somebody I don't like earning it.

I dislike Max Verstappen a lot more (basically because he's quite aggravating, foreign, and very talented), and he earns over 50 million a year.

[Axtremus]

I don't listen to radio much to begin with, and I listen to radio even less as I spend less time in the car. Still, of all the radio stations out there, I continue to prefer NPR for when I do listen to radio.

[LuFins Dad]

She looks like she should be the college intern.

[George K]

@LuFins-Dad said in How NPR lost America's trust:

She looks like she should be the college intern.

Taibbi: https://www.racket.news/p/new-npr-chief-katherine-mahers-guide?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

Maher’s timeline reads so much like the Titania McGrath site spoofing overeducated nonsense-babbling white ladies that it’s difficult to believe she’s real — she even looks like the fictional McGrath, if Titania had more money to spend on personal upkeep.

[Doctor Phibes]

@LuFins-Dad said in How NPR lost America's trust:

She looks like she should be the college intern.

They all look like that. And sound like it.

For all the talk of "diversity", pretty much everybody's young and female. Admittedly, they're a pretty diverse group of young women.

[Mik]

@Axtremus said in How NPR lost America's trust:

I don't listen to radio much to begin with, and I listen to radio even less as I spend less time in the car. Still, of all the radio stations out there, I continue to prefer NPR for when I do listen to radio.

I do too, unless I want music. Sometimes the wokeness gets to me, but most of the time I don't mind hearing a different viewpoint. Every now and then they achieve something close to balance. Not often, but sometimes.

[George K]

Of course they did:

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244962042/npr-editor-uri-berliner-suspended-essay

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had "lost America's trust" by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press. It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in How NPR lost America's trust:

Of course they did:

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244962042/npr-editor-uri-berliner-suspended-essay

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had "lost America's trust" by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press. It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

If I publicly criticised the company I work for I'd get a lot worse than that.

Just saying.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:

If I publicly criticised the company I work for I'd get a lot worse than that.

Maybe there's a difference between that and calling out a "news" organization for being propaganda biased?

But, I get your point.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in How NPR lost America's trust:

Maybe there's a difference between that and calling out a "news" organization for being propaganda biased?

There's a contract between me and the people that pay my wages that I don't make them look bad.

I know, he's being heroic. It's what journalists do, and then go on and on about it.

At the end of the day it's just a job. If he wanted to follow a calling he should have joined the church.

I agree with what he said, incidentally. NPR are pretty woeful.

[jon-nyc]

Yeah any place I’ve worked such a letter would be understood as a letter of resignation

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:

At the end of the day it's just a job. If he wanted to follow a calling he should have joined the church.

Not everyone views their job in the way that you view yours. Old-school NPR journalists for example are pretty hardcore about theirs. And it was a good thing they were.

[Jolly]

@Mik said in How NPR lost America's trust:

@Axtremus said in How NPR lost America's trust:

I don't listen to radio much to begin with, and I listen to radio even less as I spend less time in the car. Still, of all the radio stations out there, I continue to prefer NPR for when I do listen to radio.

I do too, unless I want music. Sometimes the wokeness gets to me, but most of the time I don't mind hearing a different viewpoint. Every now and then they achieve something close to balance. Not often, but sometimes.

Nah, I'm a talk radio guy most of the time. AFR, Moon Griffon, and bouncing between Hannity, Levin or Buck&Travis. I'll also listen to Wilcow on satellite. Music, I listen to satellite radio and I have my favorites:

1. The Bridge
2. The Blend
3. Frankly Sinatra
4. Willie's Roadhouse
5. 40's Junction
6. 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
7. Classic Rewind
8. Classic Vinyl
9. Bluegrass
10. enLighten
11. Prime Country

[George K]

Apparently, he was suspended not for what he said, but for where he said it.

NPR's contract states that its reporters can not publish on any outside source.

I wonder if NPR would have published his essay...

[Horace]

He should have courageously done it anonymously.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Aqua-Letifer said in How NPR lost America's trust:

@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:

At the end of the day it's just a job. If he wanted to follow a calling he should have joined the church.

Not everyone views their job in the way that you view yours. Old-school NPR journalists for example are pretty hardcore about theirs. And it was a good thing they were.

Well OK, that's fine and all. And they didn't fire him. He got off with a lot less than I would have.

And I definitely wouldn't get away with going to work with a competitor to publish the message as apparently he did.

Still, they do pay his wages. You can view your job as some kind of sacred endeavour, but forgetting who pays the bills isn't something I'd recommend, even if you are a priest.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:

@Aqua-Letifer said in How NPR lost America's trust:

@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:

At the end of the day it's just a job. If he wanted to follow a calling he should have joined the church.

Not everyone views their job in the way that you view yours. Old-school NPR journalists for example are pretty hardcore about theirs. And it was a good thing they were.

Well OK, that's fine and all. And they didn't fire him. He got off with a lot less than I would have.

They're unionized.

And I definitely wouldn't get away with going to work with a competitor to publish the message as apparently he did.

Still, they do pay his wages. You can view your job as some kind of sacred endeavour, but forgetting who pays the bills isn't something I'd recommend, even if you are a priest.

You've worked zero years as a journalist.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Aqua-Letifer said in How NPR lost America's trust:

You've worked zero years as a journalist.

Ah, right. I'm not black or trans-gender either. So that should cut me out of all those conversations. Which is a blessing.

[Aqua Letifer]

Well there's no thread police, people can and always do contribute where and how they want.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Aqua-Letifer said in How NPR lost America's trust:

Well there's no thread police, people can and always do contribute where and how they want.

You know what else I’ve never done? Hacked a murdered girls phone or taken sleazy photos of celebrities on the beach.

So morally I’m ahead, profession wise.