How NPR lost America's trust
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@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.
@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
propagandabiased?But, I get your point.
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@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
propagandabiased?But, I get your point.
@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.
I was only joking
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@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.
@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.
Please love yourself.
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@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.
@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:
- The Bridge
- The Blend
- Frankly Sinatra
- Willie's Roadhouse
- 40's Junction
- 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
- Classic Rewind
- Classic Vinyl
- Bluegrass
- enLighten
- Prime Country
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@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.
@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.
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@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.
@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.
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@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.
@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.
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Well there's no thread police, people can and always do contribute where and how they want.
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Well there's no thread police, people can and always do contribute where and how they want.
@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.
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@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.
@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:
@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.
Don't be peacockin' just yet. Atrocity is one of the last few distribution networks left that we have yet to democratize. Technology's going to make those things a lot more accessible!
Please love yourself.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:
@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.
Don't be peacockin' just yet. Atrocity is one of the last few distribution networks left that we have yet to democratize. Technology's going to make those things a lot more accessible!
@Aqua-Letifer said in How NPR lost America's trust:
@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:
@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.
Don't be peacockin' just yet. Atrocity is one of the last few distribution networks left that we have yet to democratize. Technology's going to make those things a lot more accessible!
Also, while not a journalist I did work as an intern at the BBC, which is what NPR would be if it could. Whilst very laudable I found them to be a little sanctimonious if I’m honest. They offered me a tech job but I couldn’t face the idea. Way too much sitting around and pandering to artistic types who treated the techs like second class citizens.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in How NPR lost America's trust:
@Doctor-Phibes said in How NPR lost America's trust:
@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.
Don't be peacockin' just yet. Atrocity is one of the last few distribution networks left that we have yet to democratize. Technology's going to make those things a lot more accessible!
Also, while not a journalist I did work as an intern at the BBC, which is what NPR would be if it could. Whilst very laudable I found them to be a little sanctimonious if I’m honest. They offered me a tech job but I couldn’t face the idea. Way too much sitting around and pandering to artistic types who treated the techs like second class citizens.
@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:
@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.
Don't be peacockin' just yet. Atrocity is one of the last few distribution networks left that we have yet to democratize. Technology's going to make those things a lot more accessible!
Also, while not a journalist I did work as an intern at the BBC, which is what NPR would be if it could. Whilst very laudable I found them to be a little sanctimonious if I’m honest. They offered me a tech job but I couldn’t face the idea. Way too much sitting around and pandering to artistic types who treated the techs like second class citizens.
Well, it's the beeb. They're monolithic AF.
When I worked as a journalist, the hours were beyond shit and the pay was just enough not to have to owe anybody money. But what we did actually mattered. Otherwise no sane person would ever agree to do it.
Yeah, a lot of 'em are holier-than-thou about their profession. But just about everyone who's holier-than-thou about journalists has never worked as one and I don't find that at all surprising.
I also don't think we're better off without them. Just about every single complaint or criticism aimed at journalists today aren't actually aimed at journalists. They're aimed at content creators and propagandists because the critics don't know the difference.
Please love yourself.
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@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:
@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.
Don't be peacockin' just yet. Atrocity is one of the last few distribution networks left that we have yet to democratize. Technology's going to make those things a lot more accessible!
Also, while not a journalist I did work as an intern at the BBC, which is what NPR would be if it could. Whilst very laudable I found them to be a little sanctimonious if I’m honest. They offered me a tech job but I couldn’t face the idea. Way too much sitting around and pandering to artistic types who treated the techs like second class citizens.
Well, it's the beeb. They're monolithic AF.
When I worked as a journalist, the hours were beyond shit and the pay was just enough not to have to owe anybody money. But what we did actually mattered. Otherwise no sane person would ever agree to do it.
Yeah, a lot of 'em are holier-than-thou about their profession. But just about everyone who's holier-than-thou about journalists has never worked as one and I don't find that at all surprising.
I also don't think we're better off without them. Just about every single complaint or criticism aimed at journalists today aren't actually aimed at journalists. They're aimed at content creators and propagandists because the critics don't know the difference.
@Aqua-Letifer said in How NPR lost America's trust:
Well, it's the beeb. They're monolithic AF.
This is OT, but that's not really true. You only see the bit that comes over here. In the UK there's a huge number of local radio stations. I worked for BBC Wales in Cardiff which was very different to the London based outfits, and we'd go out to these little places in the wilds of rural Wales which were really operating as the little local radio stations with a couple of people on a shoestring and reporting on the type of things that bigger operations would never capture or even be interested in.
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Berliner’s argument is not about bias — NPR’s liberal tilt is structurally unavoidable given the kind of people who want to work there — as much as it is about the complete internal corruption of journalistic ethics. (To wit, his discussion of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal is the ultimate confirmation of priors for suspicious conservatives: “I listened as one of NPR’s best and most fair-minded journalists said it was good we weren’t following the laptop story because it could help Trump.”)
The subtext of the piece, however, was clear: “Now that I’ve aired our dirty laundry, I dare you to fire me before I eventually resign.” This was, for all its eloquence, functionally a career-terminating act. The various official responses from NPR, including a defensive rebuttal from NPR’s standards & practices editor and a five-day suspension without pay for “freelancing without permission,” indicate clearly that he is now persona non grata. To be fair, Berliner either certainly expected this or should have. As Phoebe Maltz Bovy aptly asks, “How many jobs are there where you could write a big essay about your beef with your workplace and keep your job?” Berliner was clearly dismayed enough about the situation at NPR that he was prepared to leave, and since as an NPR liberal he is more genteel than Homer Simpson, he chose to burn his bridges publicly and rhetorically, rather than literally.
