I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.

The Free Press ^ | April 9, 2024 | Uri Berliner

[Yo-Yo]

Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s I'd listen to NPR's Morning Edition while getting ready for work, then listen to Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy in the afternoons.

NPR was left-leaning back then, and I listened to it to get the Left perspective on the days' news. Then I'd listen to Rush and/or G. Gordon and get a Right-leaning perspective. on those same stories.

I worked in Broadcast and I worked for 16 years at the local University-owned NPR and PBS affiliate stations until 2011. Yes, the staff were mostly Left-leaning, but you'd be surprised how many 'conservatives' like me also worked there, mostly in the technical trades.

But starting around 2009 or so, after the financial crisis of 2008 that was cooked up to get Obama elected, the purging of conservatives began, and I was a victim in 2011, getting laid off due to "budget cuts." As the Obama Administration had misstep after misstep, NPR and PBS became cheerleaders for our nation's first "President of Color" and the reporting reflected that viewpoint, and stifled any others. Not even Bill Clinton got that sort of support from NPR during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Bill's impeachment.

Today I can't even listen to NPR for five minutes without losing my temper. Today's NPR has become hard-Left ideologues who cannot tolerate any other point of view, even in the context of debate. They have long ago abandoned even the illusion of providing both sides of a story. One side is presented, and the other side is vocally dismissed as wrong, racist, sexist, homophobic, and unacceptably intolerant.

The really sad part is that the further Left NPR and PBS leaned, the lower their revenues sank, and they couldn't even take the blinkers off long enough to see the correlation.

So today, I say:

[rlmorel]

They always had those people who seemed to speak with a nasally-twanged faux-British accent.

I grew to hate that. I have always enjoyed jazz, particularly the old masters like Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins, and I got to the point I could reliably identify who it was on hearing one or two notes.

When I developed an ingrained dislike of that snotty voice, I could pick it out immediately in only one or two words and change the station.

LOL, I didn’t listen to William F. Buckley until later in life, and my first thought was “OMG, he sounds like one of them!”

Until I actually listened to what he said, and hypothesized that his accent could only be one of the reasons the Left hated him so much! They probably thought he was co-opting their snotty audience!

[Fury]

My favorite example of NPR going cray cray is 1A, a show produced by WAMU out of Washington, DC and fills an NPR talk time slot for many NPR stations.

When it was first hosted by Joshua Johnson, he made a concerted attempt to get multiple sides of an issue to the table. Commendable.

Then he left to go to MSNBC (big mistake) and eventually Jenn White became the host. Not nearly the number of differing viewpoints. The Friday News Roundup especially the Domestic Hour are just painful to listen to. Sometimes Friday host Todd Zwillich is snarky and Arthur Delaney from Huff Post brings it all back to President Trump for so many news stories.

Like I said painful to listen to. I used to donate but have not in years because of 1A losing their courage have on the show folks with differing viewpoints.

Compare that to The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi which comes up right after 1A on Fridays. Yes, Nnamdi is a liberal. But he and co-host Tom Sherwood ask the tough questions of *everyone* that goes on that show.

[Skywise]

“ But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.”

And then proceeds to provide example after example of who is really “truth-impaired”

“Are we the baddies?”

[JimRed]

“It is one thing to swing and miss on a major story.”

And another thing to outright lie, which is NPR‘s stock in trade.

[Red Badger]

You can’t be sure these days......................

[Rummyfan]

’m Sarah Lawrence–educated, was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother, I drive a Subaru, and Spotify says my listening habits are most similar to people in Berkeley.

Good Lord, that's a quad-fecta. What a stereotypical lib.

[aquila48]

And she doesn’t even mention them pushing the fraud of “CLIMATE EMERGENCY”!

[Jim Noble]

I have had a lot of COVID experience as well as a ringside seat to a lot of the censorship, “nudging”, and policy formation which still goes on today.

One of the most striking things has been how any major figure who publishes a mild dissent (back to school sooner, less masking, six feet meaningless, etc) INVARIABLY mentions within the first three sentences how they always were opposed to Trump, are still opposed to Trump, and (of course) their questioning of some dogma or “guidance” isn’t meant to support Trump in any way, since Trump is antiscience and is wrong about everything.

The role of opposition, and more than opposition, to President Trump by essentially all public figures dealing with COVID has not been fully explored for the essential role it played in policy making.

[Big Red Badger]

Hated Trump
.
Covered for Hunter and The Big Guy
.
Covid Cover-Up....
.
Yuppers
That’s NPR

[Fury]

Sounds like reason number one to not trust NPR.

What's your point? Because his name seems "not American"?

[posterchild]

I listen to my state’s affiliate as i drive my children to school. It is easier to provide rebuttal to nutty ideas and bias if we hear it together. I used to rely on help from Rush but unfortunately that is no longer an option.

[Newtoidaho]

NPR: Nothing but Propaganda Radio.

Whatever they say, the opposite is true.

[Fury]

Berliner is essentially daring NPR to fire or otherwise discipline him. Will be interesting to see what they do.

[Big Red Badger]

Didn’t they have ‘TeleTubbies?’

[Puppage]

American Pravda

[jjotto]

WFB was schooled early on in Mexico, then France and the UK, returning to the US when WW2 broke out. He did indeed go to snooty private schools.

[Vermont Lt]

Playing wordle is considered leftist?

[fwdude]

Did you ever catch the Diane Rehm Show? One of the most irritating leftists ever on that station.

I remember catching an interview she had with Thomas Sowell decades ago. He destroyed her points, but that didn't stop your arrogant attitude.

[rlmorel]

That I knew...I always felt like he used his accent as a bit of a cudgel against his opponents to disarm them, except the ones who knew better tried be on guard for the ideological traps he set for them!