NPR & PBS Left Twitter. More Media Organizations Should Follow.
Why it’s an important moment for more major media operations to lock their accounts and leave Twitter
National Public Radio made the very sensible conclusion to leave Twitter this week. In a story prepared by NPR’s David Folkenflik, the organization’s CEO John Lansing explained, “At this point I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter. I would need some time to understand whether Twitter can be trusted again.”
The next day, PBS announced it, too, would be leaving Twitter.
These departures came in the wake of Elon Musk’s decision to label NPR, first, as “state-affiliated media” and then, after complaints from the organization, as “government-funded media.” Critics of this decision point out that Musk’s labels have been applied indiscriminately and seem, clearly, aimed at satisfying critics of the organizations on the right. NPR rightly criticized the decision to be labeled “state-affiliated” as this lumps NPR with media outlets like Russia Today and China’s Xinhua, which truly are influenced by their respective governments. Both organizations would argue, no doubt, that the “government-funded media” label still seeks to accomplish the same thing the previous label did: To cast doubt on the trustworthiness of…
