"Facebook is an NPR sponsor"

[orangecrush]

Last edited Mon Oct 4, 2021, 05:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Heard on my morning drive, in the middle of a report on the whistleblower who turned over Facebook internal documents to law enforcement.

Followed immediately by a nurse who was seeking "religious exemption" from a hospital's vaccination requirement.

When this idiot started talking and it became apparent they were going to let her keep going, I shut it off.

I love you, NPR, but sheesh....

[rownesheck]

1. Doesn't NPR receive a lot of grants

from Koch? I thought I read that somewhere.

[orangecrush]

2. I heard the same thing

But can't seem to find any info.

I assume they took FB and Koch money under the condition the sponsors would have no control over content.

Overtly, anyway.

[quaint]

3. "Overtly"

Damned truth.

[brooklynite]

6. And do you have evidence that contributions bias their programming?

[orangecrush]

7. No

And I'm 1,000% certain that Facebook and the Kochs donate to NPR out of a genuine love for truthful journalism.

[brooklynite]

8. So you're saying NPRs journalism isn't truthful?

BTW: Some years back, David Koch contributed substantial amounts to the New York City Ballet. What message do you think they were imbedding in their pirouettes?

[bluewater]

9. Nice Logical Fallacy you have here

Some years back, David Koch contributed substantial amounts to the New York City Ballet. What message do you think they were imbedding in their pirouettes?

False Equivalence

Description: An argument or claim in which two completely opposing arguments appear to be logically equivalent when in fact they are not. The confusion is often due to one shared characteristic between two or more items of comparison in the argument that is way off in the order of magnitude, oversimplified, or just that important additional factors have been ignored.

Logical Form:

Thing 1 and thing 2 both share characteristic A.

Therefore, things 1 and 2 are equal.

1. The Koch Family made financial contributions to the NYC Ballet and to NPR.

2. Since Ballet clearly has no "message" to be influenced, the Koch family can't influence the "message", aka content, on NPR.

[brooklynite]

10. Still waiting for the actual evidence that NPR is biasing its reporting....

...much less doing so on the basis on conservative contributions.

[bluewater]

11. First, Thank you for conceding your Logical Fallacy. Now on to "Citizen Koch"

Second, I am sure that financial contributions never ever influence anyone to do anything.

And it's not like sub-conscious or implicit bias are actually things either, right?



But being completely serious, it's an unsettling and complicated issue, because not only do we have to analyze the content that gets reported by a news source, we also have to consider what does not get investigated or reported, and also the depth of coverage given to an issue when it is reported or under-reported.

Personally, I feel that when money -- either in form of ownership, donations, or funding -- inevitably gets involved in journalism that influence inevitable creeps in.

Consider the case of PBS, where David Koch served on the boards of flagship public broadcasters WNET and WGBH, and the documentary "Citizen Koch"

Citizen Koch is a 2013 film produced and directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, concerning the political influence of American plutocrats on the political process following the US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC which granted corporations the ability to anonymously spend unlimited money to influence public policy and elections. The film focuses on the eponymous Koch brothers, in particular,[1] and their political and financial support for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who represents the Citizen Koch in the title. The film chronicles the rise of the Tea Party movement in response to the election of the first African-American President in 2008, and the strategic attacks on organized labor by Gov. Walker and Koch political operatives in other states as a strategy to eliminate liberal opposition.

Citizen Koch was completed using funds from a successful Kickstarter campaign,[2] after public television's Independent Television Service (ITVS) pulled funding it had initially committed. The filmmakers were told by ITVS staff that the title, which referenced conservative billionaire David Koch, would be "extremely problematic" as Koch served on the boards of flagship public broadcasters WNET and WGBH.[3][4] The filmmakers were also told directly by ITVS staff that the financial support would be restored after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, if they removed references to David Koch from the film.

Regarding the allegations of censorship and The New Yorker article which helped bring the case to public attention, the PBS ombudsman (without ever speaking to the filmmakers) has stated:[5]

Although some of [Jane] Mayer's reporting about "Citizen Koch" is based on unnamed sources, the strength of the article does reflect the internal concerns that can or did, as the thrust of her article suggests, lead to intense internal pressures that come to equal self-censorship. The reporting and quotes throughout appear convincing. One unnamed public television official, referring to the "Citizen Koch" proposal, is quoted as saying that, "because of the Koch brothers, ITVS knew WNET would never air it. Never."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Koch

So.... pardon me if I entertain the possibility that NPR could also be/have been/will-be influenced in a similar manner as the equally high minded and public spirited PBS was.

[orangecrush]

12. Why are you putting words in my mouth?

Ballet is not journalism.

Apples/oranges.

[JohnQFunk]

4. NPR. Nice Polite Republicans. That is all.

[2naSalit]

5. HAs been for years,

Long before 2016. But they have also had russian stockholders for longer.