Musk v. NPR

In one of many bizarre moves since taking control of Twitter, Elon Musk labeled NPR as a state-controlled mediaorganization — a designation previously reserved for the propaganda organs of authoritarian regimes.

Although he now appears to be backtracking on that decision, NPR has suspended using Twitter as a social media platform in response.

Musk appears to be poorly informed and generally ignorant about how media organizations operate, especially those he perceives as not aligned with his personal right-wing ideology.

But to focus on the facts here, barely one percent of NPR’s revenue comes from the U.S. government, rendering it incidental. The vast majority of the network’s income comes from individual and corporate donations, foundation grants and licensing fees from member stations.

Part of the confusion here comes from the phrase “public media” often used to describe NPR, PBS, CPB and the various other community-supported media companies. The primary difference between these companies and private sector entities like ABC, NBC, CBS and the New York Times is they are non-profit organizations.

Having worked in both the private and public media sectors, I can attest that government officials and agencies are not able to exert much influence over media coverage in either one through any funding mechanism I’m aware of.

Government advertising — like that of the U.S. Army — can be a source of revenue for the private sector companies. And I suppose the occasional grant by a government agency like NIH may indirectly help promote coverage of health issues, say, in the non-profit sector.

But that doesn’t mean that any of the recipient outlets will necessarily skew the slant of their news coverage to align with the funders’ preferences. The editorial process of determining the framing and perspective of individual stories is a far more complicated matter than a simple A-to-Z.

So, rather than slandering the hard-working journalists at NPR, a substantial number of whom have been aid off during the current recession, perhaps Elon Musk should take a basic course in media literacy.

Or at least glance at NPR’s tax forms.

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