NPR temporarily stopped it's twitter accounts in a "state-media" beef with Elon Musk

[Kelly A]

No, he has freedom of speech like everyone else. The issue is not his opinion of NPR. He's welcome to say "defund NPR" or whatever he wants. It's using that opinion and labeling their site in a way that limits the distribution of the tweet because of its funding.

Even you've admitted, that social media sites are the property of the parent, not some free speech right. Says right there in the TOS. If Elon wants to make misleading claims about users or businesses on his social media site, you don't think he should be able to?
Not advocating for Musk, nor saying what he's doing is culturally okay, just trying to understand the change in your particular take on the subject.

He has imposed a label on a user site that can't be changed by that user. So every tweet they put out says at the top that NPR is "government funded media," when 98% of their funding comes from other sources. It's not truthful or factual.

Nope, but technically it's still his site. Don't want to play in Elon's playhouse to Elon's new rules? Go home then.

 

[TheBigA]

Not advocating for Musk, nor saying what he's doing is culturally okay, just trying to understand the change in your particular take on the subject.

Because this is different. He's putting this label on one site and only one site. He changed the rules specifically to single out this one site. We know how he feels about it. As I said, there are hundreds of radio stations that get government funding. None of them have this label. We can see it's personal. In my book, that's dishonest and it's stupid. The previous owners at least did some research on posts before labeling them as misinformation. This guy didn't even do that. Banning them and deleting their site would have been better.

Nope, but technically it's still his site. Don't want to play in Elon's playhouse to Elon's new rules? Go home then.

That's exactly what NPR has done, as evidenced from this subject line.

 

[Kelly A]

Because this is different. He's putting this label on one site and only one site.

NPR shouldn't feel alone for long. Looks like he's ramping up against the New York Times too. From the BBC:

"The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn't even interesting", Mr Musk, who owns Twitter, wrote on the platform.
"Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It's unreadable," he added.

He changed the rules specifically to single out this one site. We know how he feels about it. As I said, there are hundreds of radio stations that get government funding. None of them have this label. We can see it's personal. In my book, that's dishonest and it's stupid.

True, but it's his dishonesty and saying stupid stuff. Besides, that's what's considered news now days. Doesn't have to be accurate, doesn't have to be real, only needs to have celebrities say it, and it becomes true to many. Especially if it "feels" right.

The previous owners at least did some research on posts before labeling them as misinformation. This guy didn't even do that. Banning them and deleting their site would have been better.

That's exactly what NPR has done, as evidenced from this subject line.

And that's ultimately what's going to pick away at Twitter. I'm sure Elon's ego loved bullying NPR off of Twitter. That just means he'll keep doing it to other news and media organizations, many of which likely have advertisers/sponsors in common with Twitter. Want to cut a rich bully down to size? Kick him in the wallet.

 

[TheBigA]

NPR shouldn't feel alone for long. Looks like he's ramping up against the New York Times too.

He's invited people to his house, he makes money off them, and then he calls them fat & ugly. Just the kind of host you want.

Apparently he's that kind of boss. It's why former employees are suing him. There is a lawsuit here for NPR, but why bother? As I said, conservatives sued the previous owners for the same kind of thing and lost. It's a waste of time. I've been shifting my company's social media to Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Lots of alternatives that are less judgmental.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

PBS Follows NPR Off Elon Musk’s Twitter After Being Labeled “Government-Funded Media”

The Elon Musk-owned social media platform added the label recently.

deadline.com

Update PBS is joining NPR in shutting off their Twitter feed. Yes and expect PBS affiliates to join in the boycott of Twitter.

 

[vchimpanzee]

That's an interesting question. Not sure how that would happen. A lot of NPR listeners like Tesla because they support clean energy and electric vehicles. It seems counter-productive for Musk to take a political turn when the people he's alienating are his car customers.

I saw a photo in an actual newspaper today of a charging station for Teslas only.

 

[Kelly A]

I saw a photo in an actual newspaper today of a charging station for Teslas only.

Uh, that's how it works. Tesla supercharging stations only work for Tesla's.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Uh, that's how it works. Tesla supercharging stations only work for Tesla's.

But aren't charging stations supposed to work on any electric car?

 

[radiofan2023]

Only at charging stations that are designed to charge any electric car. Tesla builds the Supercharger stations just to charge Teslas.

 

[Kelly A]

But aren't charging stations supposed to work on any electric car?

Not necessarily. Supercharging stations work only with Tesla cars. They charge at a higher voltage and faster rate. Some people have tried using adapters to fool the Tesla charging station to work with other cars. It will charge, but at a much lower rate.

 

[davideduardo]

Interesting. Perhaps David Eduardo has some insight into any Radio Nacional political controversy, having worked in Argentina.

I was only involved in day-to-day radio operations in Argentina for about 7 years. In that period, the government station had few listeners and no influence. Of course, during various totalitarian governments media was forced to follow strict guidelines.

Similarly, in my near-decade in Ecuador, the influence of Radio Nacional was minimal. Nobody listened.

The real issue there and in other nations of Latin America is the government control or threat of control when there were "incidents". In Ecuador, if there was any kind of protest, the government sent police to sit in each studio to make sure nothing improper was said.

If a new government took over after a coup d'etat, usually all stations were required... for hours or days... to rebroadcast Radio Nacional or a feed from the HQ of the new government.

Of course you see this sort of “defund” argument in other countries. There are voices out there that would do away with the BBC, CBC, and Australia’s ABC.

In the free countries of Latin America, government radio has little impact. Mexico does not even have a national radio voice, although a number of the states have networks that would be a bit like the wide coverage of the NPR affiliate in Minnesota with lots of local news coverage. Several government departments or bureaus in Mexico have stations, such as one that specializes in serving the roughly 120 different native language and dialect radio services. Many state universities have "autonomous" radio voices that carry the spirit of university campus areas being "sovereign".

The more totalitarian the government, the more it controls radio. In Cuba, all radio... over a dozen national and regional networks... is run by the government. In Nicaragua and Venezuela, nearly all truly independent news voices have been closed or taken over by the government. When "Pineapple Face" ran Panamá, in one case with a group of stations that opposed his government, he ordered all the staff out of the building and set it on fire, wiping it out entirely.

 

[Daryl Lynn L.A.]

The real issue there and in other nations of Latin America is the government control or threat of control when there were "incidents". In Ecuador, if there was any kind of protest, the government sent police to sit in each studio to make sure nothing improper was said.

If a new government took over after a coup d'etat, usually all stations were required... for hours or days... to rebroadcast Radio Nacional or a feed from the HQ of the new government.

Oh my gosh.
Can you imagine being on the air, and the police show up to monitor your broadcast. We are so fortunate in the USA to have more freedom over the public airwaves.
☹️

 

[Negin]

Musk reminds me of a spoiled little kid...

 

[DarrenVision]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1646540823176028163

https://twitter.com/x/status/1646645881352114176

Fallout of the State Media twitter spat now extends to OPB and NHPB

 

[Theater of My Mind]

If Musk's plan is to bully credible news organizations into leaving twitter in order to transform it into a one-sided rightwing propaganda site then it seems that he is well on his way to accomplishing that goal.

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

Musk reminds me of a spoiled little kid...

He's certainly throwing a tantrum.

 

[TheBigA]

On NPR this afternoon they reported that when NPR suspended their Twitter accounts, it resulted in their pulling about 50 accounts in total. They didn't explain how they arrived at 50 or if that number possibly included at least some individual stations.

I just looked at the other NPR sites that I listed in post 24, the show sites, the host sites, and the topic sites, and none of them have the government funded label on them. Just the main company site. But all of those sites have the company tweet referring visitors to other places.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

PBS Follows NPR Off Elon Musk’s Twitter After Being Labeled “Government-Funded Media”

The Elon Musk-owned social media platform added the label recently.

deadline.com

Update PBS is joining NPR in shutting off their Twitter feed. Yes and expect PBS affiliates to join in the boycott of Twitter.

And they too will lose a major source of publicity which they sorely need, especially in a world now where most people are now streaming the program content they want and not relying on the terrestrial alphabet networks.

Just as local broadcast stations are now slowly losing audiences as program distribution entities as more people stream content, PBS stations are likely to be hit the hardest, which, in turn, is going to negatively impact local fundraising. Very possibly the only demographic which might still hold on to the terrestrial networks are senior citizens and low income who don't have the wherewithal to have internet access or know how to harness it.

 

[Kelly A]

Just as local broadcast stations are now slowly losing audiences as program distribution entities as more people stream content, PBS stations are likely to be hit the hardest, which, in turn, is going to negatively impact local fundraising. Very possibly the only demographic which might still hold on to the terrestrial networks are senior citizens and low income who don't have the wherewithal to have internet access or know how to harness it.

I can think of several Radiodiscussions.com participants who likely fit that description...

Seems to me this is a game of social media chicken. Time will tell who, if either, gets negatively impacted by public broadcasters leaving Elon's playhouse. Musk is under the impression that some abundance of Millennial's and GenZ only rely on Twitter for their news. That may be true in some cases, but doubtful it constitutes what could be considered as an abundance.

 

[Mark Roberts]

There was getting to be so much one-way self-promotion on Twitter that it became just more noise.
In my days as a mainframe systems programmer (tell me how old I am without my telling you how old I am) we used to joke about "write-only" memory (not really a thing, just to be clear) as being the cheapest and most abundant kind of memory available. That reminded me of Twitter, which now comes across to me as a version of Business Wire without the formatting.