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Twenty years ago, conservative journalist and comedian PJ O’Rourke began an essay in The Atlantic with this anecdote: “Last year, on a long car ride, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh yelling. I usually agree with Rush Limbaugh; so I don’t usually listen to it. I’m listening to NPR: ‘World to end – poor and minorities hit hardest.’ I like to argue with the radio.”
It still makes me laugh.
His dig at NPR is funny because it’s true. And it has only become truer in the decades since O’Rourke wrote those words.
I’m impatient to admit. I have listened to NPR for a long time. There is nothing like waking up to their stories and sounds from around the world. And, as O’Rourke did, I seek perspectives that differ from my own.
In recent years, however, it has gone from something I enjoy to something that more often than not leaves me shaking my head. NPR’s obsession with identity, gender and race is embedded in nearly every story.
I’m far from the only one who has noticed. Criticism also comes from within.
NPR is in the hot seat after senior business editor Uri Berliner last week wrote a thoughtful but damning piece in The Free Press, detailing what has been going on behind the scenes in a place where A long loved and respected Berliner.
Berliner offers several examples of how NPR has moved from objective reporting to activism, and choosing which stories to cover—or ignore—based on which political side might benefit.
(I’ll give you a hint: The Democrats usually win.)
At the heart of Berliner’s criticism is how NPR stopped telling its listeners the news and started telling them “what to think.” And much of that stems from a shocking lack of diversity of opinion among staff.
As Berliner writes: “With the lack of diversity of opinion, I looked into voter registration for our newsroom. In DC, where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found that there are 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and no Republicans. Nothing.”
For a company that boasts about how diversity is a “core value” and central to its “content, hiring, audience and workplace,” this seems like a huge oversight.
It’s also one that Berliner says he couldn’t get any of the highlights at NPR to give a second thought to. Hence, Berliner’s decision to write the essay, which has earned him a five-day suspension without pay (at least that’s all … for now).
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No wonder so many Americans don’t trust the media
Not surprisingly, NPR is disciplining Berliner. After all, he publicly criticized his employer and called out his liberal bias.
What’s more troubling is that NPR seems ready to change nothing. He has gone on the defensive and seems unable or unwilling to address the problems posed by Berliner.
This goes to the heart of why trust in the media has declined so rapidly in recent decades.
A Gallup poll from last year found that only a third (32%) of Americans trust the mass media – including radio, television and newspapers – “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” This is a steep drop from a peak of 72% in 1976.
And Democrats at 58% are much more willing to say they trust the media to be fair and accurate than Republicans (just 11%).
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That should be a wake up call for these news organizations. Although they are becoming more progressive and insulated from other views and experiences, the American public is much more politically diverse.
They notice what’s going on.
Here’s an answer: Defund NPR
NPR – National Public Radio – this is not just another medium. It’s partially funded by taxpayers, which puts it in a different position than say The New York Times, The Washington Post or even my news organization.
Private publications are free to do what they want, although I think more are waking up to the need for more diversity of views. Reaching a wider audience is simply a smart business decision.
While Berliner argues that NPR still deserves public funding, I disagree.
He writes: “As the country becomes more fractured, there is still a need for a public institution where stories are told and views are exchanged in good faith.”
Yet NPR offers no confidence that it will embrace anything close to the diversity of views it now has. Its new CEO, Katherine Maher, is in the spotlight for social media posts she made before she was hired, including calling former President Donald Trump “racist sociopath” and boasted of wearing a Joe Biden campaign hat in public.
That does not bode well.
If NPR wants to double down on its wake-up call mission, fine. But he shouldn’t do that on my dime – or on other taxpayers.
NPR claims that “federal funding essential to public radio service to the American public and its continuation is critical to stations and program producers, including NPR.”
It’s not easy to get a specific figure on how much taxpayer money actually flows into NPR, but it’s a significant amount. While NPR likes to say that only a fraction of its funding comes directly from the federal government, that belies how much it gets indirectly from local stations that pay in part with federal grants for NPR’s flagship content.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides the grants, gets about $500 million a year from Congress.
That should stop.
I hope NPR takes this moment to consider how “public radio” might better reflect a politically diverse country. But its support should no longer come from the American taxpayer.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist for USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.
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