In a move that is every bit as hilarious as it is accurate, Twitter on April 4 labeled the official NPR account as “US state-affiliated media.” NPR staffers and ideological allies were quick to vent their anger over the apt description. Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk was unfazed. In an April 5 tweet, he highlighted the company’s definition of state-affiliated media as “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”
“Seems accurate,” Musk wrote above the excerpt.
The White House Says We’re Real Journalism
NPR rejected the label as “untrue” in an April 5 article posted on its website, despite acknowledging that it is funded by Washington. “NPR operates independently of the US government,” the report claimed. “And while federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources.”
The “less than 1%” argument is one NPR loves to trot out whenever it is confronted, yet it still shrieks to high Heaven at the mere suggestion that federal funding be taken away. Something doesn’t add up there.
“NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy,” CEO John Lansing is quoted as saying in the article.
Then, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was strengthening the argument of its critics, NPR leaned on the Biden administration to vouch for its journalistic integrity. “When asked about Twitter's decision during the White House's daily briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to address Twitter's content rules specifically. But she also defended NPR's journalism,” the piece continued.
“There is no doubt of the independence of NPR journalists,” Jean-Pierre said. “If you've ever been on the receiving end of their questions, you know this.” What better way to hold the powerful “accountable” than to quote them stating how wonderful you are?
The Biden administration, of course, has good reason to celebrate NPR. This is the “vigorous, vibrant” free press bastion that openly boasted of refusing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop saga in the days before the 2020 presidential election.
“We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not real stories,” NPR Managing Editor for News Terence Samuels infamously declared of the transparent move, “and we don’t want to waste our listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”
NPR and the Credentialed Mindset
Musk has been stoking progressive pique by blurting out what has long been seen as self-evident to Americans who reside outside of the airtight bubble inhabited by NPR and its urbanite fans. He has especially feasted on the fatuousness of The New York Times in recent months. “The real tragedy of [The Times] is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting,” he tweeted on April 2. “It is tragic how far The New York Times has fallen – basically just boring as [expletive] far left brainwashing at this point. The boring part is truly unforgivable!” he zinged the paper last November.
(Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
This is by far the best approach to a dominant elitist media so wholly out of touch that it can’t even comprehend how silly it regularly appears to average Americans. A recent public exchange between two individuals on the subject of “gender identity” provides an example of how the credentialed elite believe they get away with the most absurd claims and then avoid criticism by hiding behind their supposed academic prowess.
Former collegiate swimming star Riley Gaines is a vocal opponent of allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports. When she appeared at the University of Pittsburgh on March 27, she was challenged by a woke professor who was heavy on credentialism and utterly bereft of common sense.
Anthropology Department Professor Gabby Yearwood’s “research interests include the social constructions of race and racism, masculinity, gender, sex, Black Feminist and Black Queer theory, anthropology of sport and Black Diaspora,” his official university bio reads.
“If you were to dig up two humans 100 years from now, both man and woman, could you tell the difference, strictly off of bones?" Gaines asked Yearwood.
"No!" the professor replied. The response from the classroom was refreshing; sheer, spontaneous, open laughter. Yearwood responded to this just as one would expect from a member of the over-certified would-be elite. “Have any of you been to anthropological sites? Have any of you studied biological anthropology? I’m just saying, I’ve got over 150 years of data,” Yearwood exclaimed. “I’m just curious as to why I’m being laughed at.” Then, the professor insisted, “I have a PhD!”
Yearwood would not be out of place in the newsroom of NPR or The New York Times. “But I have a journalism degree!”
These are the people who have been formed from the youngest of ages to believe that they define the narrative, shape public thought, and decide what is even allowed to be discussed in the first place. They cannot understand that their old construct is gone – long ago dynamited by their own hubris.
