NPR: NATIONAL PROPAGANDA RADIO

 One of the classic articles from 30 years ago that still gets recalled fondly was Glenn Garvin's "How Do I Hate NPR? Let Me Count the Ways," which I think first appeared in the late Washington DC City Paper.

Of the typical NPR listener, Garvin noted: Most NPR listeners, I'm sure, wouldn't trust an economist who bragged that he accepted only the scholarship of Milton Friedman, or a politician who read only the works of Lenin.

Like survivalists, NPR listeners are not exactly numerous-"There are more people falling off the face of the earth than there are listening to NPR," observes Bill McCleneghan, ABC Radio's vice president for research-but, like survivalists, their very existence is a troubling enigma.

You always have to wonder: Do they know something the rest of us don't? After deciding to listen to NPR for an extended period, Garvin concluded: "My conclusion: I'd rather be a survivalist." And this passage will sound familiar to all conservatives: Laurence Jarvik, a conservative critic of public broadcasting, once asked plaintively: "Why is it that there's room at NPR for a practicing witch, but not a practicing conservative?" This, I suspect, has a good deal to do with the ideological drift of NPR's news.

Here's how NPR's managing editor for news at the time explained the thinking: "We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions." But it wasn't a pure distraction, or a product of Russian disinformation, as dozens of former and current intelligence officials suggested.

During a meeting with colleagues, I listened as one of NPR's best and most fair-minded journalists said it was good we weren't following the laptop story because it could help Trump.

The one exception to my bad experiences on NPR was with Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR's "On Point" show until 2017, when he was dismissed for creating a "Hostile work environment" at NPR. I have no idea what the truth of it may be, but his treatment of me the one time I went on his show was straight-up and unbiased. 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/npr-national-propaganda-radio.php