National Public Radio (NPR) recently claimed that it would no longer be making use of the Twitter social media platform in the wake of being plastered with labels that claim to mark the media group as an extension of the U.S. Government.
This choice, which takes place just about six months in the wake of Elon Musk buying out and becoming CEO of Twitter, means that NPR will no longer be posting any content to its 52 “official” Twitter feeds.
“NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” explained a spokesperson for NPR in a recent release.
“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” the statement went on.
NPR spoke out the express its anger and has not elected to tweet out any links to its various reports since last week when Twitter flagged the account with a “state-affiliated media” tag on their profile, a label which put NPR in the same category as foreign state-run media outlets such as Russia’s TASS and China Xinhua News. Despite NPR being created in the wake of an act of Congress, Twitter previously marked NPR as an exception in the United States because of the group’s “editorial independence.”
One of the top groups to rally behind the defense of NPR was the White House itself. Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for President Joe Biden, has recently lauded NPR’s “independence” and claimed that its journalists “work diligently to hold public officials accountable and inform the American people.”
Critics of NPR, which include well-known host for Fox News Tucker Carlson, stood in favor of the recently established change.
Tucker hilariously SNAPS on Regime-funded NPR after Elon Musk literally exposes them to world as "State media" on Twitter 🔥
"NPR is not that much different to the Tehran Times, except, of course being less accurate and more anti-American." pic.twitter.com/UHg7PKjujs
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 7, 2023
When a reporter for NPR highlighted to Musk that NPR only gets about 1% of its yearly operating budget from government financial support, the CEO finally admitted that the new label could be incorrect. “The operating principle at new Twitter is simply fair and equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as govt, then we should do the same for US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate here,” stated Musk in an email.
The primary Twitter account for NPR sports a large crowd of 8.8 million followers and just recently became active once again to only insist that it “produces consequential, independent journalism every day in service to the public,” and to share additional platforms where it will still post.
