NPR's Liberal Bias

I know a lot of conservatives that listen to NPR, apparently unaware of it liberal bias. Make no mistake, they are very liberal, and they even admit as much:

National Public Radio is properly understood, even by the media, as radio by and for liberals, not the general public. As Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz puts it, the media landscape stretches "from those who cheer Fox to those who swear by NPR."

(...)

Last week, NPR’s own official ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin, admitted a liberal bias in NPR’s talk programming. The daily program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" – a 60-minute talk show about the arts, literature, and also politics – airs on 378 public-radio stations across the fruited plain. Gross recently became a hot topic on journalism Web sites for first having a friendly, giggly interview with "satirist" Al Franken, promoting his obnoxious screed against conservatives on September 3, and then on October 8, unloading an accusatory, hostile interview on Bill O’Reilly. She pressed the Fox host to respond to the obnoxious attacks of Franken and other critics. Dvorkin ruled: "Unfortunately, the [O'Reilly] interview only served to confirm the belief, held by some, in NPR's liberal media bias....by coming across as a pro-Franken partisan rather than a neutral and curious journalist, Gross did almost nothing that might have allowed the interview to develop."

The news reports on NPR should be cause for greater public concern. Under the guise of "objective news," reporting, the left is actively advancing its political agenda. On the October 17 "Morning Edition," host Bob Edwards launched into a long "news" report on the flaws of the Bush foreign policy, observing: "Overall, the policies of the United States are still very unpopular around the world. The Bush Doctrine, a preference for unilateral military action and a disdain for multinational diplomacy, is under scrutiny more than ever." The Middle East "road map" was "in tatters," Iraq and Afghanistan were "highly unstable." NPR may as well have suggested it was time for a different president.
Other's in the media admit the bias as well. The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz:

Veteran Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz admitted recently what many conservatives have long argued: taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (NPR) leans heavily to the left politically.

“With the rise of Fox News and conservative talk radio and NPR on the left and certain liberal cable programs, there is, polls have shown, that people like hearing opinions that reinforce their own,” Kurtz said on the September 30 edition of CNN’s “In the Money.”
Even the liberal MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough says:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well I just want to say, I love NPR and I listen to NPR, but I've been listening to reformed, pot-smoking hippies for the past thirty years on NPR with a very substantial left-wing bias - and I don't care that they eat tree bark like Euell Gibbons, and I don't care if they are still smoking pot in their sixties. They put on great radio. But for NPR - for NPR, the leadership at NPR to question the bias of Fox News is a joke. They have been biased - again, I still listen to them, because like "The New York Times" they are the best at what they do. But, please, that is a laugh. NPR -

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It's very soothing listening, too.

SCARBOROUGH: It is soothing, it is very soothing. Just put a mirror to your face, NPR.
Listen to NPR if you want, but don't think it is any different from other major news outlets, it is very much the same liberal sludge.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem the issue of "liberal" and "conservative" labels is that labels are constructs for simple minds. They stigmatize the complex to eliminate critical thought. If one listens to "NPR" or "public radio" they hear what htey want to hear. When I listen, I hear very humorous programs, e.g., Car Talk, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, Whaddya Know, Prairie Home Companion. I also hear Science Friday, a lot of local news, great music of all kinds from classical and jazz to avant garde and good interviews with the performer. I hear programs on pet care, faith and ethics, old time radio shows, historic jazz and folk music, in-depth discussion with authors about their books, and so much more. It doesn't even occur to me to think about these programs as "liberal" or "conservative." Politics and political parties are distractions to the fact that man wants power and to rule others. It doesn't matter whether it is in government or religion or other inventions of man. Hear what you want to hear and draw your conclusions, logical and rationale or not. Truth is relative to the mental condition with which one approaches it.

Anonymous said...

Nice article, except for one thing: You aren't actually citing any examples of liberal bias by NPR. One can argue that Terry Gross did a poor job interviewing O'Reilly, but her program is comparable to O'Reilly's own on FOX: It's a piece centering around her, and she has latitude to express her own opinions. It is not a "hard news" program. In any case, Gross was reprimanded by NPR's ombudsman. Does Fox News have an ombudsman? I don't think so. Yes, NPR sometimes makes mistakes, but unlike the network news or talk radio channels, that have a process to help correct and learn from those mistakes.

Unknown said...

Very simple concept, but then I'm a simple guy: The taxpayer should not be paying for any part of NPR. I've been saying this the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was setup in 1967, the year my wife and got married. Wow, that was a long time ago, but at least I've been consistent.

Anonymous said...

You dishonest blog post is horrible and it's ruining America. How much did Fox News pay you to post this?

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