On April 12 (local time), billionaire and Twitter CEO Elon Musk shared a screenshot sent by a business reporter at NPR Bobby Allyn where he sought Musk’s remarks on the announcement made by the media house that it would be quitting Twitter. The decision was taken after Twitter labeled NPR as ‘Government-funded Media’. Since the label appeared, NPR has objected to it, claiming it is inaccurate and misleading.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 12, 2023
In the mail to Musk, Allyn wrote, “Because of the label, NPR is quitting Twitter across all of our 50+ accounts. Our executives say the government-funded media label calls into question our editorial independence and undermines our credibility. Some wonder if this will cause a chain reaction among news orgs.” In a follow-up tweet to the screenshot that he shared,
Musk pointed out the funding information available on NPR’s website. It reads, “Federal funding is essential to public radio’s service to the American public and its continuation is critical for both stations and program producers, including NPR.” It further read, “On average, less than 1% of NPR’s annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments.”
Bobby Allyn, who also sent the email to Musk, pointed out in a tweet that only 2 per cent of the traffic at NPR was coming from Twitter. He wrote, “NPR’s analytics show that less than 2% of our traffic comes from Twitter. It’s not a surprise to people who work in media, but even before the labeling saga, there was a pretty strong business case that the game wasn’t worth the candle.”
NPR’s analytics show that less than 2% of our traffic comes from Twitter. It’s not a surprise to people who work in media, but even before the labeling saga, there was a pretty strong business case that the game wasn’t worth the candle
— Bobby Allyn (@BobbyAllyn) April 12, 2023
In a detailed article justifying its decision to quit Twitter, NPR, a public radio network, wrote that it would not posting any fresh content to its 52 official Twitter handles. They claimed to be the first major news organisation to go silent on the social media platform. In November 2022, CBS also suspended its activity on Twitter for a few days over alleged security concerns. NPR has added by going silent on Twitter, the media house is “protecting its credibility and its ability to produce journalism without a shadow of negativity”.
NPR’s CEO John Lansing in a statement said even if Twitter decides to remove the label, the network would not immediately return to the platform. He said, “At this point, I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter. I would need some time to understand whether Twitter can be trusted again.”
NPR has further given its employees a two-week grace period so that they can work on their social media strategies. In an email to the staff, Lansing said, “It would be a disservice to the serious work you all do here to continue to share it on a platform that is associating the federal charter for public media with an abandoning of editorial independence or standards.”
Musk and media houses often lock horns on Twitter
Notably, Musk has raised questions over the credibility of the media houses on several occasions. Recently, after Twitter announced to dump of the legacy verified status completely, many, journalists and media houses in particular, stated they would not be paying for the verified status on the social media platform. The latest information provided by Musk was that all the legacy statuses would go away on April 20. Interestingly, New York Times became the first media house to lose the verified badge mark after it refused to pay for the same.
There are two options that the users can choose from. One is the regular Blue Verified which costs around $7 to $11 depending on the country you live in. The second is the Verified For Businesses in which the companies have to pay USD 1,000 per month and if they want additional affiliates to be added, that would cost USD 50. Both prices are excluding taxes.
NPR and its controversies
It must be mentioned that the media outlet has been at the forefront of peddling Hinduphobia and anti-India propaganda in the United States. In September 2019, the then NPR producer Furkan Khan went on a vitriolic tirade against the Hindu community. “If Indians give up Hinduism, they will also be solving most of their problems with all the piss drinking and dung worshipping.”
The ex-NPR producer had also tried to downplay the ethnic genocide of Kashmiri Pandits at the hands of Islamists as ‘normal conflict collateral damage.’ She also compared Hinduism to both Fascism and Nazism. In January last year, the Indian correspondent of NPR, Lauren Frayer, resorted to insensitivity and racial stereotyping on the micro-blogging platform. She had attributed a random case of train burglary in Los Angeles to India without verifying the facts of the case.
