Here's why the NPR matter really matters
For the good of the country, NPR needs to clean up its act
You would think that the higher ups at NPR would’ve finally learned their lesson by now. After Uri Berliner dropped what I call the Biggest Truth Bomb Ever in his painfully blunt essay about how NPR lost America's trust, one would assume that management there would wake up to the ugly truth about how their blatant bias is turning listeners away.
Apparently not.
The official response from Edith Chapin, their Chief News Executive, is that she and their news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment. So I guess it’s full steam ahead with their current DC news staff which, as Berliner points out, has an editorial staff with 87 registered Democrats and not a single Republican. You read that right, it’s 87 to zero.
This is the problem with all news media today, just about every major news outlet is made up entirely of people in the same party, all with the same biases, pushing the same agenda. They often complain about echo chambers, but they’re the creators of echo chambers.
The terrible consequences of this were explained quite accurately by A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of the N.Y. Times, when he pointed out how journalists are embracing a stance of what he calls “one-side-ism” where writers are demonstrating that they’re on the side of the righteous. “I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers.”
It’s bad enough for a private, for-profit company like the NY Times or Fox News to do this, it’s their money and their call. But it’s entirely unacceptable at NPR which receives millions in taxpayer money from people who are forced to pay for it despite many being totally opposed to the agenda they’re pushing.
Money aside, the biggest reason we should be opposed to this one-side-ism is because it’s further dividing an already fractured and polarized society. NPR has convinced millions of Americans that democracy will be “destroyed” if the wrong person gets elected, so much so that some will drop to the ground and scream at the sky in protest when it happens.
It wasn’t always this way, not so long ago staunch conservatives like William F. Buckley had a prominent role at NPR and provided a very eloquent voice for conservative viewpoints. This is sorely lacking at NPR now and Berliner is a hero for speaking out about it.
Tragically, rather than being recognized for his bravery, Berliner has now been suspended from NPR for daring to speak the truth. Every writer, journalist, analyst, and commentator in the country should be horrified about this, and it’s particularly dreadful coming from the side that claims to be protecting truth and democracy. They’re silencing whistleblowers while forcing voters to fund one sided propaganda. This is obscene to anyone with an ounce of honesty.
The article by Berliner was written for an excellent source called The Free Press and right next to his column was one entitled It's Harder to Hate the Other Side When You Come Face to Face which is something the good people at Braver Angels subscribe to diligently. BA always has a good balance of people who lean blue and those who lean red, which leads to much more thoughtful and productive dialogue, which results in a lot less screaming at the sky.
NPR should do the same, and our elected officials should suspend funding until they do.
I for one think that members cancelling their memberships with NPR stations over the suspension of Uri Berlner might get attention. I will be cancelling my WBUR membership tomorrow. I will keep it with WGBH as I still like PBS and also the classical outlet, WCRB.