Say goodbye to National Public Radio’s Twitter presence! After being labeled as “state-affiliated media” by the platform, the American taxpayer-funded news outlet has decided to bid farewell to the social media giant. NPR now joins the ranks of Russia’s RT and China’s Global Times in this category. It seems that NPR has had enough of being lumped in with foreign government-backed media outlets and has decided to take its leave from Twitter.
A fascinating story was published by NPR writer David Folkenflik examined the thinking behind a recent choice.
Twitter released a bombshell last week that totally took NPR off guard. Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, was immediately questioned about the choice by NPR tech writer Bobby Allyn. Unexpectedly, Musk asked a question on NPR’s operations and even acknowledged that he could have erred. That was a very abrupt turn of events.
NPR was concerned and confused when Twitter unexpectedly changed the title of its account to “government-funded media,” which is a credible news source. Since then, NPR has criticized the designation, saying it is both false and misleading. Discussions concerning the incident’s possible effects on media credibility, the significance of correct labeling, and the role of social media platforms have also arisen.
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According to a recent article by Folkenflik, NPR’s CEO, John Lansing, is working to repair the network’s reputation after facing criticism for accepting millions of dollars in government money. He is committed to put the organization’s ethical principles above all else, despite the dangers of not using Twitter.
The leadership of NPR has decided to use the power of silence and stay away from Twitter in order to uphold its journalistic standards. In order to safeguard their reputation, the network does not permit “a shadow of negative.”
“The downside, whatever the downside, doesn’t change that fact,” John Lansing, the CEO of NPR, stated in an interview. “I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility.”
As a recent foray into state-funded media swiftly devolved into a social media disaster, NPR abruptly and vehemently left the site. The scandal marks a turbulent period in the organization’s history and is the latest in a string of embarrassing missteps and failings.
NPR stubbornly declined to report on the Hunter Biden laptop issue in the run-up to the 2020 Election, despite being widely embarrassed for their shoddy and careless reporting. NPR famously mocked its fans in a now-famous tweet about their decision not to cover the news, a move that left many members of the public deeply disappointed and irate.
“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,” Terence Samuel, NPR’s then-managing editor, who has amazingly been promoted a number of times since the catastrophic newsletter went live in October 2020, penned the article.
A screenshot of the tweet is shown below:
