• Optional@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Look, I left NPR when they refused to call “enhanced interrogation” torture, and dog-paddled along with every other corporate news outlet in the run-up to Iraq II: He Tried To Kill Mah Daddy.

    Juan Williams, the Fox News host, was a main contributor then. Unsurprisingly, he also participated in the propaganda snowjob.

    NPR is the best some people who have to commute and only have the radio can do, but it’s several planets away from “progressive” - and this guy saying “no collusion” is fucking outrageous. Fuck that guy.

    • taiyang@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s certainly a lot more center than folks like Berliner think. I’m one of those commuter folks and I think my local NPR station talks more about pie than politics lately. That said, their news hour is about straight to the point as it gets here; this happened, that guy said this, and these people died and/or were arrested.

      And the commentary…? I think I hear more Trump voter sound clips than Biden voter ones, too. And neither are criticized or lauded, even if I behind the wheel am shouting to myself “how are these people this stupid.” It’s all just in the context of “these voters in this purple state have said…” which is fine.

      I wasn’t as tuned in during Iraq though, as I was a teen at the time. I can certainly see them trying to be fairly moderate though. It’s only “left leaning” now because the right has become too detached from reality. They frequently talk about scientific studies (e.g. climate change has killed X) and in today’s climate, that’s “liberal”. Lol

      • El Barto@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        That’s exactly what I was trying to tell to some other commenter saying that NPR has a more left slant. Eh no, not really. It’s the same position. But the far right made those positions sound lefty.

        • taiyang@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I conflate it a bit with my local affiliate, KCRW, but my ride just now was 80% about propagating plants. Not everything is political, lol

    • hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Totally with you. I lost a lot of faith I had in NPR in their reporting during the run up to and early years of the Iraq war. Their coverage of the Sanders Democratic Primary runs of 2016 and 2020 was also pathetic. I managed to get a lot of my former Republican friends to listen to it instead of talk radio now but I personally have such a hard time with it.

      • hasnt_seen_goonies@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It’s making a lot of references to the war on terror. Here’s my bad translation:

        Op thought npr wasn’t progressive enough for OP when NPR didn’t call the waterboarding, that happened at Gitmo, torture. OP does concede that NPR is a better news source than others, especially when they are commuting and want to hear news on the radio.

        • El Barto@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          But then it says “it’s several planets far from progressieve” which is, well, not true.

          Edit: and by progressive, I don’t mean to label them as lefty loons. Just balanced.

          • Optional@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I mean, agree to disagree. I could pull any number of text examples but as to radio broadcasts I gave up even on Marketplace when it was just me yelling at Kai Ryssdal to shut up shut up shut up!

            It’s not even center, but center-right. Sometimes just plain right. This is in part due to GOP infiltration of Public Broadcasting in the Gee Dubz era. See Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases from 2005 for some flava.

            There, they just straight-up said “make the head of CFPB the chair of the RNC”. That was almost 20 years ago.