Twitter labels NPR as "State-Affiliated Media" (NPR CEO is big mad)

[Occam's Banana]

NPR CEO Slams Twitter for Labeling Its Account as ‘State-Affiliated Media’: It’s ‘Unacceptable’
Elon Musk tweets that the change for the public broadcaster "Seems accurate"
https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/twitter-npr-state-affiliated-media-ceo-1235574359/
Todd ******** (05 April 2023)

Elon Musk’s Twitter slapped a new label on the account of American public radio broadcaster NPR that says it is “US state-affiliated media.” Other Twitter accounts with the state-affiliated media label include Russia Today (RT), Russia’s Sputnik and China’s Xinhua News.

In a statement to Variety, NPR president and CEO John Lansing said, “We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as ‘state-affiliated media,’ a description that, per Twitter’s own guidelines, does not apply to NPR. NPR and our member stations are supported by millions of listeners who depend on us for the independent, fact-based journalism we provide. NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy.”

The “state-affiliated media” label now shows up on all of the tweets from NPR’s primary Twitter handle.

Musk, who closed the deal to buy Twitter in October 2022, on Tuesday evening tweeted a portion of the social network’s policy regarding state-affiliated media in reply to a user who gave Musk a shout-out for the update to NPR’s account. “Seems accurate,” Musk wrote.

According to NPR, on average, less than 1% of its annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies and departments.

Twitter’s current policy on this issue reads in part, “State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution. Accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their prominent staff may be labeled.” The policy notes that “State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.”

The change to NPR’s account comes after Twitter on Sunday removed the verification badge for the New York Times. That came following an exchange on Twitter, in which Musk, replying to someone noting that the publication said it would not pay for verification, say, “Oh ok, we’ll take it off then.” Later that day, Musk tweeted, “NY Times is being incredible hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay their subscription.”

Meanwhile, earlier this week, without advance notice Twitter’s web interface replaced the famous Twitter bird logo above the home button the an image of a Shiba Inu — aka the “Doge,” part of the logo of the Dogecoin open-source cryptocurrency, which was created as a joke in 2013. Musk, a noted fan of Dogecoin and related memes, was named in lawsuit filed last year accusing him of racketeering over his promotion of the cryptocurrency. Last Friday, his lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the claim, arguing the plaintiffs failed to show how Musk’s promotion of Dogecoin represented fraud. “[T]here is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency,” the Musk legal filing said.

Musk has been trying to drive up subscriptions to Twitter Blue, which the company has said will become the only way for users to receive the blue check-mark badge. Twitter said it would start removing blue check-marks from legacy verified accounts on April 1, but that doesn’t appear to have happened in any large-scale way at this point. On Sunday, Twitter changed the language in the description of verified users to read, “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account” — so that now you can’t tell who is paying for a blue check-mark and who isn’t.

NPR last month laid off 10% of its staffers, at least 100 employees, after a revenue drop attributed to a slowdown in advertising and sponsorship revenue particularly for its lineup of podcasts. As part of the cuts, NPR canceled four podcasts: “Invisibilia,” “Louder Than a Riot,” “Rough Translation” and “Everyone & Their Mom,” a spinoff of the “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” game show.

---

https://twitter.com/npr

 

[jkr]

 

[AngryCanadian]

Why so mad CEO of NPR?

Twitter is right on this one.

 

[TheTexan]

popcorn.gif

 

[acptulsa]

They've been making it painfully obvious for a couple of decades now. It was Reagan that really made tools of them.

 

[Snowball]

 

[Occam's Banana]

Note the label has also changed.

It was "US state-affiliated media" (see the image in the OP).

Now it is "Government Funded Media" (see the image below).

NPR says it won’t tweet from @NPR until Twitter removes false “state-affiliated” label
“We stopped tweeting from the main @NPR account after they attached that false label to it because each tweet we publish would carry it.”
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/04/n...twitter-removes-false-state-affiliated-label/
Sarah Scre (07 April 2023)

Looking for NPR stories on Twitter? Look elsewhere.

NPR has not tweeted since Twitter slapped a “US state-affiliated media” label on its main account on Wednesday, a designation that lumps the news org in with propaganda outlets like Russian broadcaster RT and China’s People’s Daily newspaper. And it doesn’t plan to until the label is removed.

The @NPR account — which has more than 8.8 million followers — has an updated bio: “You can find us every other place you read the news.” The header image now includes the words: “Always free and independent. Always at NPR.org.”

https://twitter.com/npr

​

The changes were made on Thursday, NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara confirmed.

“We stopped tweeting from the main @NPR account after they attached that false label to it because each tweet we publish would carry it,” Lara said. “We have paused tweeting from that account until we hear back from Twitter on this. We’ve continued tweeting from other accounts that aren’t mislabeled.”

Abstaining from Twitter is less of a hardship than Twitter owner Elon Musk might like to think. Twitter doesn’t drive much traffic for most news publishers, even though it’s a platform many journalists can’t seem to quit. (And that’s before the “state-affiliated” label downranks your content.)

Also on Thursday, Musk told an NPR reporter that the designation may have been a mistake.

“Well, then we should fix it,” Musk wrote in an email to tech reporter Bobby Allyn, who had pointed out government aid accounts for roughly 1% of NPR’s finances.

Allyn said he “provided Musk publicly available documentation of the network’s finances showing that nearly 40% of its funding comes from corporate sponsorships and 31% from fees for programming paid by local public radio stations.”

Twitter defines “state-affiliated” publishers as ones where the government “exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”

Until Wednesday, Twitter’s own policy on the “state-affiliated” label specifically noted that “state-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the United States, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.” Twitter removed the reference to NPR after giving its account the “state-affiliated” label.

 

[donnay]

Yes, they are sponsored by independent wealthy people who want to take down America with such brainwashing propaganda.

National Propaganda Reapers.

 

[CaptUSA]

“Well, then we should fix it,” Musk wrote in an email to tech reporter Bobby Allyn, who had pointed out government aid accounts for roughly 1% of NPR’s finances.

Allyn said he “provided Musk publicly available documentation of the network’s finances showing that nearly 40% of its funding comes from corporate sponsorships and 31% from fees for programming paid by local public radio stations.”

Lol - that "1%" number is just a funky way of accounting that hides their true influence.

NPR was created by the federal government. And while 1% of its funding comes directly from the federal government, it gets additional federal dollars through grants. It also gets about 15% of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is also subsidized by the federal government. Then, you have to account for the non-profit foundations and other corporate sponsorships that get federal government funds. Oh, and let's make sure we're not forgetting that the licensing fees paid by local public radio stations are also getting government funds.

It the 1% number were actually true, then NPR could just stop the controversy by refusing those funds. But it isn't true and they won't stop. That should tell you something.

 

[Occam's Banana]

 

[Madison320]

It the 1% number were actually true, then NPR could just stop the controversy by refusing those funds. But it isn't true and they won't stop. That should tell you something.

That's exactly it. This is such a no-brainer. If you accept government funding you're a state sponsored entity. If you don't want to be labeled as state sponsored, don't take the money. Duh.

 

[Anti Globalist]

Now lets see the same thing happen to CNN, Fox, and MSNBC.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Comment from AC's blog:

Elon Musk’s new “Blue Checkmark” program, when considered in the context of his recent “State Affiliated Media” tag program, raises an interesting point.

You used to be able to assume any blue check mark was state-controlled (or as we know it, cabal controlled) because there was a Twitter staff tranny janny that had to approve your account. Now anyone can buy the blue check which creates more ambiguity in who is or is not an enemy actor. Musk tagging obvious government operatives as state-run media creates the false sense of transparency, while the civilian network slides by under the radar.

Musk once again running cover for a new wave of cabal operators being inserted into the revived “based” and “red-pilled” Twitter? I think we already established Musk is of the enemy, but all these data points just make it harder and harder to deny.

 

[GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged]

Comment from AC's blog:

Do you like Elon? Are you glad he purchased Twitter? Was Twitter better before or after his purchase? Did the Twitter Files release do anything to enlighten corruption?

 

[acptulsa]

Comment from AC's blog:

Do you like Elon? Are you glad he purchased Twitter? Was Twitter better before or after his purchase? Did the Twitter Files release do anything to enlighten corruption?

And why do you assume everyone likes AC enough to know who the hell that is?

 

[nobody's_hero]

I'm looking for the Babylon Bee label.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Comment from AC's blog:

Why should one not conclude that "AC" is "of the enemy" and is opportunistically trying to spread divisive FUD?

 

[CaptUSA]

Why should one not conclude that "AC" is "of the enemy" and is opportunistically trying to spread divisive FUD?

Anderson Cooper? Andrew Cuomo??

 

[Origanalist]

Anderson Cooper? Andrew Cuomo??

Exactly, I have no idea who that is.

 

[GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged]

And why do you assume everyone likes AC enough to know who the hell that is?

I guess I was not clear. I was asking those questions to [MENTION=65299]Swordsmyth[/MENTION].