Elon Musk lists NPR as State-affiliated media

Elon Musk’s Twitter abruptly labeled National Public Radio (NPR) as “U.S. State-affiliated media,” provoking protest and debate.

Published

8 months ago

April 6, 2023

Terry A. Hurlbut

Yesterday Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, changed the labeling on the National Public Radio Twitter account. It now appears as “US State-affiliated Media.”

NPR labeling change

Among the first to note the change was the conservative account ALX. Here is how NPR now appears:

Tweets by NPR

ALX took note of the change:

BREAKING: Twitter has labeled @NPR “US State-affiliated Media” pic.twitter.com/NYSE0x1AiP— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) April 5, 2023

He then noted that this change “went viral” on the rival social medium Reddit. One user there said he was “very close to deleting Twitter.”

Naturally NPR has protested.

NPR's CEO blasted Twitter for labeling the radio giant as "US state-affiliated media," saying it doesn't qualify as state-affiliated media by Twitter's own guidelines.
https://t.co/pxz3Pkbuv5— Axios (@axios) April 5, 2023

So did Derek Thompson, who made much of NPR receiving only 1 percent of its budget from government programs. True or not, others pointed out this is irrelevant:

This is just silly.

If NPR receiving less than 1% of its revenue from federal government programs makes it "state-affiliated media," does Tesla accepting a $465m loan from DOE and benefiting from EV consumer subsidies make it "state-affiliated enterprise"? pic.twitter.com/9FrSFC2AFz— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) April 5, 2023

It's not that @NPR gets its money from the government. It's that the views promoted on NPR are perfectly aligned with the views favored by left-leaning government bureaucrats (the 'deep state'). The overlap is social & cultural more than financial. Thus, NPR is state-affiliated.— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) April 5, 2023

I wasn't talking about the figureheads at the top who can't actually get the federal bureaucracy to change anything significant about how it operates.

I was explicitly talking about the bureaucracy itself, which leans strongly left.

That you can't understand the difference is…— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) April 5, 2023

Donald Trump ran as an outsider to the political system as a whole. It’s not news that he wasn’t receiving much in campaign donations from federal employees— Two Zer00s (@TwoZer00s) April 5, 2023

I would welcome any more recent data on federal employee campaign contributions in the 2020 or 2022 elections, but I can't find any easily.— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) April 5, 2023

That wasn’t the only debate:

yes, but you can play that game forever. NPR wouldn't exist without Congress. Tesla wouldn't exist without a DOE loan program. the iPhone wouldn't exist without DARPA. you can't origin-story your way to "state-affiliation" labels if you want to make sense of the world— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) April 5, 2023

when republicans controlled all three branches of govt do you think it was *remotely* useful for listeners to believe that NPR was “state affiliated” with a Republican led govt?? this is just silliness.— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) April 5, 2023

These and other challengers are pointing out that NPR acts like a government media arm, and in fact always has been a government institution.

In any case, Elon Musk refuses to take down the label.

Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.