NPR’s San Antonio affiliate is becoming a member of its different associates in going darkish on Twitter in a marketing campaign by Twitter CEO Elon Musk to “take down NPR” after the social media web site labeled the station as a “authorities related media”. Texas Public Radio, higher recognized within the Alamo Metropolis as TPR, confirmed on Thursday, April 13 that it’s discontinuing using Twitter by its primary station-branded accounts.
Accounts silenced on Twitter embody @TPRnews, @TPRclassical and @TPRcommunity, a TPR spokesperson mentioned in an announcement. The transfer is a present of solidarity with different NPR stations, corresponding to KCRW-Santa Monica, WEKU-Lexington and KUVO-Denver, which have additionally stopped utilizing Twitter.
TPR posted a “Here’s where you can find us,” in a tweet On Wednesday night, April twelfth, it was similar to NPR’s tweet when he introduced that he would cease posting hyperlinks and updates on his primary Twitter accounts.
NPR claims that Twitter has falsely labeled itself as a “state-affiliated media outlet,” “the identical time period it makes use of for propaganda in Russia, China and different autocratic international locations,” NPR wrote.
TPR mentioned in an announcement that it may have initially argued that the “mistake” label stemmed from a lack of awareness of funding for public NPR stations.
“Nevertheless, it’s now clear that Elon Musk is deliberately harming NPR and, by extension, native public radio stations. At his personal expense, he has doubled down on the marketing campaign to “reimburse NPR,” in keeping with TPR. assertion.
Aggressive federal grants make up 1% of NPR’s funding, the assertion mentioned, however that doesn’t have an effect on the general public radio station’s “editorial independence.” Native stations obtain funding from the Company for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which this 12 months accounted for about 5% of TPR’s annual funds.
CPB is a nonprofit group that acts because the administrator of federal funding created by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, in keeping with CPB’s web site. TPR says the push to defund public radio is harmful for rural stations, which rely upon rural CPB funding for 20% of their budgets.
Relating to the accounts of TPR employees and journalists, their use of Twitter is at their discretion. TPR can nonetheless be adopted on Fb, Instagram and TikTok.
