If you missed it, Public Radio and its affiliate internet footprints are abandoning Twitter. The platform has begun tagging them as “state-affiliated” or “government-funded media,” and they are outraged. How dare you label us!
They may have a point. While they get taxpayer money to support their operations, most funding comes from so-called private charities or viewers and listeners like you. The fact that many of those “charities” launder money that favors the government’s message is irrelevant. The fact that the reporting overwhelmingly aids and abets a partisan progressive government message is irrelevant.
But here we are, and I find it quite amusing.
The folks at Maine Public, Vacationland’s state franchise of Nancy Pelosi Radio, just announced their departure.
The false implication of government influence on journalism originating from public media organizations like NPR and, by association, Maine Public, strikes at the very foundation of public media. Our editorial independence and the integrity of our journalism and journalists speaks to our core values shared by everyone in the organization. As stated by NPR’s CEO John Lansing, “Actions by Twitter or other social media companies to tarnish the independence of any public media institution are exceptionally harmful and set a dangerous precedent.” We agree.
I’m not about to audit Maine Public’s reporting, but I have little doubt the results will reflect core values that suggest, if not extensive, influence, a complete and utter lack of ideological diversity that results in the same outcome.
And it’s not just that nearly every employee will likely have carbon-copy progressive political profiles or interests; there will be an absence of any effort to hire people who think outside that tiny blue box.
It results in not just those microaggressions that concern you so much but open hostility, what you’d call a hostile and intolerant work environment (even if you happen to be black, female, or gay), and no safe spaces.
The media culture is likely so toxic that no one with a different opinion would even bother to apply there unless desperate and willing to play the part of cookie-cutter left-leaning apparatchik.
It may not be as intolerant as a University campus, but ideological diversity in media is an illusion. And that truth doesn’t end at the doors of NHPR, Main Public, or any similar outfit.
But?
I don’t think Twitter should be tagging them or anyone else, but if you’re flagging accounts as government funded, you will have to do it to everyone else, many of whom get even more or most of their money from one or another Federal agency.
- Most College and university accounts, both public and private, should be flagged.
- Alleged experts in every field who write or speak to issues resulting from their government-funded research will need a scarlet letter.
- Almost every Left-Side recognized climate or public health “expert” would need to be flagged.
It could get out of hand quickly. Especially if we started tagging every mainstream outlet that took gobs of ad money to lie about COVID or the safety or effectiveness of the mRNA “vaccines.”
My advice is this. Don’t tag anyone. Free speech, like individual liberty and free markets, comes with risks. Embrace them and engage them with more of the above, not labels that lead to less. But there’s nothing wrong with continuing to point out that if the integrity of an outlet hinges on the impropriety of its funding, then in the name of equity and inclusion, that blanket should cover as diverse a range of sources as possible -meaning all of them.
And then flag anyone who insists that’s not the case.
