NPR’s Apology
Media Monitor | By Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid | April 1, 2003
It took NPR more than a year to admit that the charge was unfounded and a smear.
The New York Times has broken the story of how some wealthy liberals are starting a new national liberal radio network to support the Democratic Party. We've got news for them – a liberal network already exists. Taxpayer-funded National Public Radio claims to "serve" nearly 20 million listeners weekly via more than 680 NPR member stations. Liberal Diane Rehm, based on WAMU in Washington, claims 77 affiliates around the country for her two-hour a day talk show.
NPR's liberal bias can be seen in a correction that was aired on the network's Morning Edition program on February 6. It corrected a charge made more than a year previously.
The correction said: "In a story broadcast on Morning Edition on Jan. 22, 2002, National Public Radio said it had called the Traditional Values Coalition to ask if that group had been contacted by the FBI, investigating the mailing of anthrax to Senate offices. This report violated NPR editorial principles. No one had told our reporter that the Traditional Values Coalition was a suspect in the anthrax mailing. No facts were available then or since then to suggest that the group had any role in the anthrax mailing. NPR deeply regrets this mistake and apologizes for any false impression that the coalition was involved in this investigation.
Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director Andrea Lafferty had described the NPR broadcast as a smear that, by implication, linked all Christians to domestic terrorist activities. Several members of Congress urged NPR to apologize. The NPR reporter who broadcast the smear suggested the Traditional Values Coalition may have been behind the anthrax attacks because it had been critical of Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, who had received anthrax letters. It took NPR more than a year to admit that the charge was unfounded and a smear.
Compare the handling of that with how liberal Diane Rehm operates. During a discussion with journalist Martin Walker and others about the Democratic presidential candidates, Walker referred to them as the "seven dwarfs." After a caller complained, Rehm said she wanted to take the discussion to "a high plane and not denigrate the people who are going to put themselves forward. They're going to have enough trouble dealing with each other. " When Walker said the phrase had been used by others and had entered the political lexicon, Rehm shot back, "Why don't we get rid of it in the process?" Like her caller, Rehm didn't want Walker belittling the Democratic candidates, and she made sure that the comment was nipped in the bud almost immediately. In addition to her 77 domestic affiliates, Rehm's show is broadcast internationally on a service called "National Public Radio Worldwide" and American Forces Network.
CNSNews.com is reporting that a NPR station in Colorado has refused to run an ad for a dental practice that wanted to use the dentist's motto, "Gently Restoring the Health God Created," in the ad. The NPR affiliate told the dentist he couldn't mention God in his radio ad.
Reed Irvine is the former Chairman of Accuracy In Media and Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report.
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If you go to the NPR archives for that date http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1136731 you will see that NPR apologized first on January 30, 2002, eight days after the original story aired. The first apology did not come one year after the original broadcast as mentioned in this article.
They did not make a big deal out of it, just expressed their sincere apologies. Thanks, NPR for always being the foremost source of well-reasoned, thoroughly researched, quality stories.
Actually, I find small bits of information daily that shows me that NPR has a liberal bias. If you consider the BBC’s grasp on world events that aren’t even discussed on NPR then it seems to moot the main goal of NPR. The BBC still has a bias as well, but at least they achieve NPR’s goal. I find that the topics covered, commentary, and phrases of the anchors tend to be of a persuasive tone rather then the hard, straight facts. A recent study has shown that the percentage of positive news reports on Obama are considerable higher then his opponent. NPR is following suit with all the other news organizations rather then being fair.
May 22 at 5:48 am | #1 | Link
Good news
Thank you for the informations.
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