Mainstream Media Outlet Becomes First Major News Organization to Quit Twitter

This is hilarious!

NPR announces it will no longer post to Twitter after the social media platform labeled it “government funded media.”

The outlet initially received a label titled “state-affiliated media.”

Caught Red-Handed: Twitter Tags NPR as State-Affiliated Media

After outcries, Twitter revised the label to “government funded media.”

However, NPR still complained about the label and has decided to shut down its Twitter.

NPR is stepping away from Twitter, and this includes this NPR Politics feed. Please read the thread to find other ways to find our work, including:

NPR Politics Instagram: https://t.co/UJ2HzXYsR0
NPR Politics newsletter: https://t.co/mrWXwUrXrn https://t.co/5kmu5kGogV

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) April 12, 2023

NPR becomes the first major news organization to step away from Twitter, saying “the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.”

News: NPR becomes first major news org to stop using Twitter, saying that the Elon Musk-owned platform “is taking actions that undermine our credibility.”

“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility…” pic.twitter.com/mtgprKRRfI

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 12, 2023

Will you miss NPR on the social media platform?

We sure won’t!

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1646185040492244992

From NPR:

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

The decision by Twitter last week took the public radio network off guard. When queried by NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn, Twitter owner Elon Musk asked how NPR functioned. Musk allowed that he might have gotten it wrong.

Twitter then revised its label on NPR’s account to “government-funded media.” The news organization says that is inaccurate and misleading, given that NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. It receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

By going silent on Twitter, NPR’s chief executive says the network is protecting its credibility and its ability to produce journalism without “a shadow of negativity.”

“The downside, whatever the downside, doesn’t change that fact,” NPR CEO John Lansing said in an interview. “I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility.”

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Maybe other news organizations will follow NPR’s example and leave Twitter.

NPR isn’t the only network to receive the “government funded media” label since Elon Musk’s takeover of the company.

Twitter Labels Another Mainstream Outlet “Government Funded Media”