Twitter labeled the account run by National Public Radio (NPR) as “US state-affiliated media” Tuesday night, prompting backlash from NPR and other liberal news outlets, but a nod of approval from others.
"NPR stands for freedom of speech & holding the powerful accountable," NPR CEO John Lansing tweeted Wednesday. "A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy. My full statement on the recent inaccurate Twitter label below:”
NPR is partially-funded by taxpayer dollars, but most importantly it only seems to “hold the powerful accountable” when “the powerful” happen to be conservatives or Republicans. They generally carry water for Democrats, as they demonstrated in the closing days of the 2020 presidential election.
What should have been an October surprise that would have assured then-President Trump’s reelection, never made it off the starting block. The New York Post’s stories of Hunter Biden’s “Laptop From Hell” were banned from Twitter as “disinformation.”
But legacy media such as NPR did all they could to ignore it, and NPR appeared proud of its decision.
“Why haven’t you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post’s Hunter Biden story?” NPR asked on Twitter. “We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”
They wouldn’t even try to confirm or rebut what should have been the biggest news of the 2020 election cycle.
And the Biden administration appreciated it. At Wednesday’s White House daily briefing, a reporter asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to comment on Twitter’s designation of NPR as “state-affiliated media.”
She didn’t hold back her praise. “There’s no doubt of the independence of NPR’s journalists,” she said, adding, “the hard-hitting, independent nature of their coverage speaks for itself.”
Author and political commentator Dave Rubin told Newsmax TV’s John Bachman Thursday that “If she says there’s no doubt, there’s doubt.”
He explained, “try to find some headlines on NPR that aren’t biased toward the Democrats, toward the progressives, toward the lefties, and not against Republicans, conservatives, etc. They obviously have a political bias.”
Rubin concluded, “NPR has basically been a propaganda outlet, and all you need to know is if Karine Jean-Pierre is saying they have journalistic standards, what she means by that is that they’re running cover for Democrats like pretty much everybody else.”
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald observed something odd about the White House press secretary’s praise: NPR used it as proof that they weren’t state-affiliated media.
“NPR has an article complaining that Twitter now characterizes it as ‘US state-affiliated media,’” Greenwald said. “To prove that they are not, they cite the fact that WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre today ‘defended NPR's journalism.’"
He concluded, “Strange choice.”
“Amazing,” Greenwald added.
He explained, “NPR, in trying to argue it's not-state affiliated, didn't only cite the praise of the WH press secretary for its ‘journalism.’ It also cited this bulls**t self-proclaimed ‘disinformation expert’ who works in a program funded by the Pentagon.”
In other words, to make its case that it’s not a government mouthpiece, NPR cites praise from the White House and the Pentagon. They could have made their case better by citing complaints from the government.
But NPR shouldn’t feel singled out. Twitter also gave The Washington Post a spanking.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has come under fire lately for spending untold thousands of hours to elevate misdemeanor charges against former President Donald Trump to felonies, while reducing more than 50% of violent felony charges down to misdemeanors.
Bragg has often been referred to as a “George Soros-funded DA,” a claim to which Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler took exception. He called it false, asserting that Bragg’s campaign never accepted a dime from Soros.
Twitter fact-checked the fact-checker and added context to Kessler’s claim.
“Soros donated $1 million to the Color of Change PAC, the largest individual donation it received in the 2022 election cycle, days after it endorsed Bragg for district attorney and pledged more than $1 million in spending to support his candidacy,” Twitter said.
None of this would have been possible had billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk not purchased Twitter and turned it around.
It’s always refreshing when someone has the courage to state the obvious: that “the emperor has no clothes.”
And it makes no difference whether it’s a little boy that says it while enjoying a royal parade, or it’s a social media platform pointing out the obvious prejudices of legacy news.
Either way, it’s always fun.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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