NPR deletes Twitter after mistakenly labeling it as state media

NPR has announced they will no longer publish and maintain any of their 52 Twitter feeds after Twitter boss Elon Musk mislabeled them as “state media”.

According to NPR:

NPR will no longer post new content on its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to remain silent on the social media platform. To justify its decision, NPR cited Twitter’s decision to initially label the network “state-affiliated media,” the same term it uses for propaganda channels in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.

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Twitter then changed its label on NPR’s account to “government-funded media.” The news organization says that’s inaccurate and misleading because NPR is a private, not-for-profit company with editorial independence. It receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the
funded corporation for public service broadcasting.

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NPR is not a government or government-funded media outlet. NPR and PBS are frequent targets for Republicans and conservatives alike, and Musk’s move appears to be his latest attempt to woo the far right in hopes they’ll shore up his money-hungry social media venture.

Twitter users are waiting for Musk to apply the standard he used for NPR to Fox News, which has been exposed not as a news organization but as a political operation serving the Republican Party.

NPR does the right thing to protect its integrity and credibility. Twitter is the nation’s largest news aggregator. If news organizations follow NPR and leave Twitter, the platform is well on its way to becoming irrelevant and collapsing.

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House press pool and congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His thesis focused on public policy with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and professional memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association