Opinion NPR Senior Editor Blasts Lack of ‘Viewpoint Diversity’ After Leftward Lurch: ‘Open-Minded Spirit No Longer Exists’

[Cajun]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/npr-senior-editor-blasts-lack-201815591.html

National Public Radio has undergone a recent leftward shift that is “devastating both for its journalism and its business model,” writes Uri Berliner, a 25-year NPR veteran and current senior business editor in a scathing, intimately detailed op-ed published Tuesday on The Free Press.

Berliner, who describes himself as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence-educated “stereotype NPR listener,” gives an intimate account of NPR’s “off the rails” coverage biases – like its continuing refusal to acknowledge the Wuhan lab-leak theory or the Hunter Biden laptop story – to the internal process of meticulously tracking the race, gender and ethnic identities of all interviewees.

“If you are conservative, you will read this and say, ‘Duh, it’s always been this way,'” Berliner writes. “But it hasn’t.”

Berliner notes that as recently as 2011, NPR’s audience self-reported as roughly one-quarter each politically conservative and “middle-of-the-road,” with 37 percent claiming liberal leanings. But by 2023, conservative listeners dwindled to 11 percent, with 21 percent “middle of the road” and 67 percent “very” or “somewhat” liberal.

“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” Berliner writes. “That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.”
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Are we ever getting back to honest reporting and balance of opinions? Its harder and harder to find just the news. It's something I've harped on for a while but when then removed the fairness doctrine and inserted 24hr opinions everything went out the window. There ARE some that look for both sides of a debate and not just feeding me opinions.

 

[Cajun]

This senior analyst will definitely be Jerry Mcguired in a couple of days....

 

[panamaican]

First off, I'm not a regular NPR listener so I can't comment truthfully about any shift in their stories.

But it is an interesting article and I think that a lot of people will agree with it. It reminds me of why I stopped listening to conservative talk radio. The stories being presented are less and less connected with the cross section of America and have become increasingly niche.

I don't know if the problem is that places like NPR have become more slanted or that audiences increasingly only to want to hear their perspectives. And audiences that want echo chambers put pressure on the business of journalism to feed them what they want. Chicken or egg.

 

[AWilder]

First off, I'm not a regular NPR listener so I can't comment truthfully about any shift in their stories.

But it is an interesting article and I think that a lot of people will agree with it. It reminds me of why I stopped listening to conservative talk radio. The stories being presented are less and less connected with the cross section of America and have become increasingly niche.

I don't know if that problem is that places like NPR have become more slanted or that audiences increasingly only to want to hear their perspectives. And audiences that want echo chambers put pressure on the business of journalism to feed them what they want. Chicken or egg.

I think this story is lacking one key detail: where did the conservative consumers go?

 

[Cajun]

First off, I'm not a regular NPR listener so I can't comment truthfully about any shift in their stories.

But it is an interesting article and I think that a lot of people will agree with it. It reminds me of why I stopped listening to conservative talk radio. The stories being presented are less and less connected with the cross section of America and have become increasingly niche.

I don't know if that problem is that places like NPR have become more slanted or that audiences increasingly only to want to hear their perspectives. And audiences that want echo chambers put pressure on the business of journalism to feed them what they want. Chicken or egg.

Yeah I quit listening after a brief stunt of rush Limbaugh in the 90s. Definitely people want to hear their brand of news and no opposing views. Talking to other people with opposing views made me want to not have an opinion fed to me. Funny I do like how some youtube personalities will have better objectivism than mainstream

 

[Cajun]

I think this story is lacking one key detail: where did the conservative consumers go?

Fox likely. If the stories and opinions of a group seem slanted then they will move on to somewhere else but that equates to more seeking out bias.

 

[Fluffernutter]

I think this story is lacking one key detail: where did the conservative consumers go?

The author mentioned that NPR is losing listeners across the board.

Conservatives left, Independents left, and even some Liberals left.

All that is left are a smaller group of Liberals.

 

[Islam Imamate]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/npr-senior-editor-blasts-lack-201815591.html

National Public Radio has undergone a recent leftward shift that is “devastating both for its journalism and its business model,” writes Uri Berliner, a 25-year NPR veteran and current senior business editor in a scathing, intimately detailed op-ed published Tuesday on The Free Press.

Berliner, who describes himself as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence-educated “stereotype NPR listener,” gives an intimate account of NPR’s “off the rails” coverage biases – like its continuing refusal to acknowledge the Wuhan lab-leak theory or the Hunter Biden laptop story – to the internal process of meticulously tracking the race, gender and ethnic identities of all interviewees.

“If you are conservative, you will read this and say, ‘Duh, it’s always been this way,'” Berliner writes. “But it hasn’t.”

Berliner notes that as recently as 2011, NPR’s audience self-reported as roughly one-quarter each politically conservative and “middle-of-the-road,” with 37 percent claiming liberal leanings. But by 2023, conservative listeners dwindled to 11 percent, with 21 percent “middle of the road” and 67 percent “very” or “somewhat” liberal.

“An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America,” Berliner writes. “That wouldn’t be a problem for an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience. But for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it’s devastating both for its journalism and its business model.”
_____________________________________________

Are we ever getting back to honest reporting and balance of opinions? Its harder and harder to find just the news. It's something I've harped on for a while but when then removed the fairness doctrine and inserted 24hr opinions everything went out the window. There ARE some that look for both sides of a debate and not just feeding me opinions.

He says this as if the only reason this could be true is because of NPR bias but idk if that is the case. A big part of the reason for that has to be the monumental shift to online alternative media which in general seems to skew heavily right wing and which can find and expand its audience via the algorithm in a way that I'm sure NPR struggles to.

Fox likely. If the stories and opinions of a group seem slanted then they will move on to somewhere else but that equates to more seeking out bias.

I doubt that the shift is merely to right wing mainstream media, its almost certainly a shift to online sources. Boomers were not online at nearly the same rates in 2011 as they are in 2023 when basically everyone is on the internet.

 

[panamaican]

I think this story is lacking one key detail: where did the conservative consumers go?

They went to NewsMax and other echo chambers.

And that's why I don't completely agree with him on the "why". I'm sure he's 100% correct on the "what".

 

[Scerpi]

NPR... Biden's News PR firm... funded by tax payers

 

[Fox by the Sea]

There was more diversity of opinion in the USSR soviet party than in mainstream media today. just like the article says - starting today, this is how we think.

Awful, just awful. The capitulation of intellect that i've witnessed these last few years is staggering. Midwit fanatics infiltrated and are in charge of informing the public.

 

[Andy Capp]

I don't agree that not wanting to discuss "Hunter's laptop" or the so-called lab leak theory mean they've lurched to the left.

I'm with @Islam Imamate is as much as I doubt it's their content that is costing them listeners, rather it's likely the diversity of similar choices in other media that are now available.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I don't agree that not wanting to discuss "Hunter's laptop" or the so-called lab leak theory mean they've lurched to the left.

I'm with @Islam Imamate is as much as I doubt it's their content that is costing them listeners, rather it's likely the diversity of similar choices in other media that are now available.

What, exactly, would people have wanted done for the laptop thing? Right before the election, the media is supposed to run with dubious claims from a stolen or hacked laptop of a candidate's son? And the writer is totally wrong about the Russia story. And the lab leak started out looking like implausible speculation, and that's where it currently stands. It's possible, but the evidence points pretty strongly against it.

Chait gets into more detail on the Russia thing here:

The Media Did Not Make Up Trump’s Russia Scandal

Liberal bias mostly exists outside politics coverage.

nymag.com

 

[Jack V Savage]

He says this as if the only reason this could be true is because of NPR bias but idk if that is the case. A big part of the reason for that has to be the monumental shift to online alternative media which in general seems to skew heavily right wing and which can find and expand its audience via the algorithm in a way that I'm sure NPR struggles to.

And the changing composition of the audience is almost certainly primarily about educational polarization. The demographics of the current GOP doesn't line up with people who want to listen to serious news coverage with language above a fifth-grade level.

 

[Morning Star]

NPR has been left as long as I can remember. Not off the rails like MSNBC, but noticable.

 

[Rational Poster]

First off, I'm not a regular NPR listener so I can't comment truthfully about any shift in their stories.

But it is an interesting article and I think that a lot of people will agree with it. It reminds me of why I stopped listening to conservative talk radio. The stories being presented are less and less connected with the cross section of America and have become increasingly niche.

I don't know if the problem is that places like NPR have become more slanted or that audiences increasingly only to want to hear their perspectives. And audiences that want echo chambers put pressure on the business of journalism to feed them what they want. Chicken or egg.

I think the issue with NPR, while it is technically public radio, it is funded not entirely with public funding. The majority of their funding comes from private donations and they're naturally going to cater to the preferences of their major donators to continue to secure those donations.

Their donations don't come from the right, but mostly corporate and east/west coast liberals.

 

[Lucas1980]

Wait...people actually still listen or read anything that NPR puts out...give the remaining listeners TRT and they'll move on as well.

 

[Rational Poster]

In fact, NPR is one of the government institutions that conservatives in government have been undermining through gradual defunding for decades.

So if they're upset that NPR has a liberal slant do to relying almost exclusively on funding from liberal donors, it's like, their own fucking fault.

Less than 1% of their funding comes from the government today. Up until 1983, half their funding came from the government.

 

[Jack V Savage]

In fact, NPR is one of the government institutions that conservatives in government have been undermining through gradual defunding for decades.

So if they're upset that NPR has a liberal slant do to relying almost exclusively on funding from liberal donors, it's like, their own fucking fault.

Less than 1% of their funding comes from the government today.

I doubt very much that there's anyone on the staff saying "we should slant our coverage to the left because that's who we're getting donations from."

It's more that the audience is very educated because of the type of programming they put out, and that audience is also pretty affluent.

 

[Rational Poster]

I doubt very much that there's anyone on the staff saying "we should slant our coverage to the left because that's who we're getting donations from."

It's more that the audience is very educated because of the type of programming they put out, and that audience is also pretty affluent.

I don't think it's so direct either, but at the same time they're going to cater to the preferences in content that their donors want to hear.

It's obviously more natural than deliberate.

It's very much a sales pitch of if you like our content please donate to hear more of it (because we literally can't operate without your donations). So the people donating expect to hear more of that type of content.