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Blind trust in institutions almost always leads to disaster. Growing up, I can remember feeling like it was less patriotic to question certain groups.
Don't question military brass. They would never lie to the American people. Believe what the evening news and morning papers tell you. It is the responsibility of journalists to report facts and expose wrongdoing.
There have always been individuals smart enough to know that asking questions and verifying information with institutions is a civic right and in many ways a responsibility, but this trend has only begun in the past few years. Fortunately, there are a few veteran journalists who want to tell the truth.
Take NPR veteran Uri Berliner, for example. He went rogue to expose what American left-wing newsrooms are really like.
Overthrow Trump!
I'm not a typical NPR listener, but I've listened to NPR quite a bit for most of my adult life. I enjoyed their unique stories and cultural interpretations.
But like other moderates, as veteran NPR journalist Uri Berliner wrote this week, I stopped listening because I was tired of being told what to think. Uri Berliner wrote the following essay for The Free Press: I've been at NPR for 25 years. Here's how we lost America's trust..
In his essay, he explains that although NPR has always been left-leaning, it once still had a diverse audience. But like many news organizations, the rise of President Donald Trump was the beginning of the end for that diversity.
Mr. Berlin wrote:
“…What began as tough, honest reporting about a belligerent and truth-damaged president has veered into an effort to damage or destroy Trump’s presidency.”
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It's clear from his tone that Mr. Berliner is not a MAGA Trump supporter. But even he was uncomfortable with the coverage of his own organization.
His righteous disdain for the way NPR approaches everything Donald Trump-related is a great example of how a good journalist should operate. While it is natural for journalists to have political viewpoints, it is unethical for journalists to use those viewpoints to guide their reporting.
It's about politics, not facts.
Mr. Berliner gives an example of how NPR transformed from a newsroom into a Democratic mouthpiece. In NPR's tribute to the Russiagate crisis, he wrote:
“It’s one thing to miss an important story and miss it. … What's worse is to pretend nothing happened and move on without doing anything wrong or reflecting. … “That erodes trust and creates cynicism toward the media.”
It's important to remember that NPR wasn't the only newsroom that didn't apologize for the Russiagate hoax.
Mr. Berliner goes on to give the following example regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story:
He writes:
“In a meeting with colleagues, I heard one of NPR's best and fairest journalists say that it was better for us not to follow the Notebook story because it could help Trump.”
It didn't matter to NPR or people like them that the story was newsworthy. What mattered was how it would affect Donald Trump and, perhaps most notably, Joe Biden. Berliner drives home the point with an observation about NPR's COVID-19 coverage:
“Again, politics was killing the curiosity and independence that should have driven our work.”
And there is truth in that. Mainstream journalism is about politics and thought control, not facts or telling the truth.
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It's in everything
Not surprisingly, NPR has become the mouthpiece of the progressive left. According to Mr. Berliner, NPR's DC headquarters has 87 registered Democrats and zero registered Republicans as editors-in-chief.
When Mr. Berliner attempted to raise what he called the “lack of viewpoint diversity,” he was told by a top NPR News executive:
“…when she arrived at NPR, she was ‘skewered’ for bringing up different ideas.”
Like many other institutions in science, higher education, medicine, and government, the world of journalism jumped on the diversity, equity, and inclusion train following the death of George Floyd. As Mr. Berliner explained, the NPR union has achieved the following:
“…ensured advocacy groups were involved in determining the terminology and vocabulary of our news reporting.”
What does Mr. Berliner mean by this? He gives the following example:
“In a document distributed by news management called the NPR Transgender Coverage Guidelines, we were asked not to use this term. biological sex.”
Transgender is a scientific term that eliminates dissent when removed from the conversation. Finally, Mr. Berliner speaks clearly about NPR today:
“Our news readers barely reflect America. “It’s overwhelmingly white, it’s liberal, and it’s clustered around coastal cities and college towns.”
This exclusive audience directly reflects NPR and other mainstream newsrooms' allegiance to the DEI cult. Separating audiences based on basic characteristics and viewing reporting through a left-wing political lens will, ironically, always attract the attention of white elites.
We'll see how long it takes NPR to let go of Uri. After all, we don’t want diversity of thought in the news space.
Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
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