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Twitter, Tesla, and Space X CEO Elon Musk called for NPR to be defunded in a tweet on Wednesday, after the publicly-funded broadcaster revealed that it would be "stepping away" from Twitter.
The public feuding between Musk and NPR came after the outlet was labeled "state-affiliated media," on its account although Twitter since tweaked the classification to "government-funded media."
Musk's call to defund NPR came after he received an email from Bobby Allyn, a business reporter at the outlet. "Because of the label, NPR is quitting Twitter across all of our 50+ accounts. Our executives say the government-funded media label calls into question our editorial independence and undermines our credibility. Some wonder if this will cause a chain reaction among news orgs."
John Lansing, the CEO of NPR, said that he decided the outlet should stop posting on Twitter because he believed it would be unfair to NPR employees to share their reporting on a platform that he says associates federal charter for public media with an abandonment of editorial independence and standards.
He said that he would never want their content to be posted anywhere "on a platform that is associating the federal charter for public media with an abandoning of editorial independence or standards ... I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility."
Lansing also expressed his loss of faith in Twitter's decision-making and stated that he needed time to understand whether Twitter could be trusted again. However, he did note that individual journalists can still post personally on the platform.
NPR has described itself as a "private, nonprofit company with editorial independence," stating that it "receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting."
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
The public feuding between Musk and NPR came after the outlet was labeled "state-affiliated media," on its account although Twitter since tweaked the classification to "government-funded media."
Musk's call to defund NPR came after he received an email from Bobby Allyn, a business reporter at the outlet. "Because of the label, NPR is quitting Twitter across all of our 50+ accounts. Our executives say the government-funded media label calls into question our editorial independence and undermines our credibility. Some wonder if this will cause a chain reaction among news orgs."
John Lansing, the CEO of NPR, said that he decided the outlet should stop posting on Twitter because he believed it would be unfair to NPR employees to share their reporting on a platform that he says associates federal charter for public media with an abandonment of editorial independence and standards.
He said that he would never want their content to be posted anywhere "on a platform that is associating the federal charter for public media with an abandoning of editorial independence or standards ... I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility."
Lansing also expressed his loss of faith in Twitter's decision-making and stated that he needed time to understand whether Twitter could be trusted again. However, he did note that individual journalists can still post personally on the platform.
NPR has described itself as a "private, nonprofit company with editorial independence," stating that it "receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting."
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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