NPR goes dark on Twitter over ‘government-funded media’ label

National Public Radio will no longer use Twitter after it was labeled as “government-funded media” by the social media platform.

NPR President John Lansing said in a staff memo Wednesday that Twitter “is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.”

“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” Mr. Lansing wrote.

NPR’s top executive also said Twitter’s actions are harmful and “set a dangerous precedent.”

Twitter originally slapped NPR with a “U.S. state-affiliated media” label last week, putting the news outlet in the same category as media organizations in Russia and China that act as mouthpieces for their authoritarian governments.

Twitter’s outspoken owner Elon Musk approved the new designation in a tweet of his own on April 5.

Seems accurate pic.twitter.com/nx5TmJY7GX</ a>

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2023

The social media platform watered down the label to “government-funded media” on Monday.

While NPR receives less than 1% of its funding directly from the federal government, nonprofit watchdog Influence Watch says that almost 10% of its budget comes indirectly from federal, state and local governments.

The news outlet, founded to represent the entire American public, has a largely liberal audience.

A 2021 study from the Knight Foundation study said NPR represents “the views of a particular group – those of the politically correct elite left – whose assumptions frame public affairs programming on public broadcasting.”