Sunday, August 11, 2013

Why NPR is not worthy of your support


I've long been annoyed by the biased, superficial and downright incompetent news reporting broadcast by NPR (formerly National Public Radio).  It's the reason I've never contributed to the support of my local NPR stations, despite enjoying their classical music programming.  I'll be damned if my dollars will go to support such slipshod, ideologically blinkered partisanship.

Proof positive of my reservations has just been provided by NPR's own ombudsman.  Powerline quotes the ombudsman's findings on a series of reports as follows:

My finding is that the series was deeply flawed and should not have been aired as it was.

The series committed five sins that violate NPR’s code of standards and ethics. They were:

1. No proof for its main allegations of wrongdoing;

2. Unfair tone in communicating these unproven allegations;

3. Factual errors, shaky anecdotes and misleading use of data by quietly switching what was being measured;

4. Incomplete reporting and lack of critical context;

5. No response from the state on many key points.

There's more at the link.  Go read the whole thing.  It's a perfect example of organizational bias.  To cap it all, NPR is still standing behind its original reports, even when its own ombudsman has pointed out their errors!  Talk about intransigence!

I strongly suggest that no matter how entertaining its classical music or other broadcasts may be, as long as it exhibits and perpetuates blatant bias such as this, NPR isn't worthy of your donation dollars.





Peter

3 comments:

Rich said...

I stopped donating a few years ago, when it was revealed that NPR was giving it's donor info the the Democrat party.

I've seen nothing since that makes me think they've changed their stripes.

wordlet said...

At least they're somewhat accountable. Donations and tax dollars are much more fickle, and more likely to decrease to punish bad behavior, than advertising dollars. Where are the ombudsmans when the various cable news organizations broadcast their own nonsense stories with fudged numbers?

Anonymous said...

My regional station lets us earmark donations, so I give mine for a few select programs (locally produced music and regional gardening and history bits). I gave up on the main shows around 2008.

LittleRed1