Twitter has removed the “US state-affiliated media” label from National Public Radio’s official account and has instead replaced it with “Government Funded Media.”
The change was made after the social media site was widely criticized for giving NPR the designation.
Defenders of NPR — who were angry over comparisons to other state-run outlets such as Russia Today and China’s Xinhua News Agency — noted last week that while the station does take some funding from the government, it has full editorial independence.
The Post has sought comment from NPR.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted last Wednesday that NPR met the site’s definition of “state-affiliated media” 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.”
John Lansing, NPR’s president and CEO, issued a statement which read: “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,” Lansing said. “NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable.”
David Gura, an NPR correspondent, posted a side-by-side comparison of Twitter’s policy which was apparently edited to remove mention of NPR as a media entity that has “editorial independence.”
“Yesterday, @elonmusk’s Twitter labeled NPR ‘state-affiliated media,’ even though the company’s own policy stated the organization shouldn’t be labeled as such because it has editorial independence,” Gura tweeted.
“Hours later, Twitter removed the reference to NPR in the policy.”
“It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way.”
Twitter has now run afoul of another public major outlet, the British Broadcasting Corporation, which was labeled by Musk’s site as “government funded media.”
In response, the BBC said it had contacted Twitter to resolve the matter “as soon as possible.”
“The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee,” the BBC said in response to Twitter’s designation on Monday.
Musk later tweeted that he viewed the BBC as one of the “least biased” media outlets.
He also suggested that he would seek to attach a label that more accurately describes the news service.
In an email to the BBC, Musk wrote: “We are aiming for maximum transparency and accuracy. Linking to ownership and source of funds probably makes sense.”
“I do think media organizations should be self-aware and not falsely claim the complete absence of bias,” Musk wrote.”
“All organizations have bias, some obviously much more than others. I should note that I follow BBC News on Twitter, because I think it is among the least biased.”
Each British household is required by law to pay a $200 annual licensing fee. These funds are then used to support BBC’s news service as well as its assortment of radio and online programming.
Musk has made combating media bias a key plank of his stewardship of Twitter, whose previous management suppressed the sharing of noti.group’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop in the weeks and months leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
