I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.

I regularly listened to NPR on my way to work during the 70-80s,  but soon noticed every day featured reports on the "Palestinians" struggle against Israel, poverty, and prejudice and I gave up on hoping for journalism about the hatred toward Israelis. It became like listening to MSNBC for "journalism" of any sort. TD

"The [Adam] Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports. But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming. 

 Uri Berliner; The Free Press (thefp.com)  "You know the stereotype of the NPR listener: an EV-driving, Wordle-playing, tote bag–carrying coastal elite. It doesn’t precisely describe me, but it’s not far off. I’m Sarah Lawrence–educated, was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother, I drive a Subaru, and Spotify says my listening habits are most similar to people in Berkeley. 

"I fit the NPR mold. I’ll cop to that.

"So when I got a job here 25 years ago, I never looked back. As a senior editor on the business desk where news is always breaking, we’ve covered upheavals in the workplace, supermarket prices, social media, and AI. 

"It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding. 

In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population. 

"If you are conservative, you will read this and say, duh, it’s always been this way.

"But it hasn’t.

"For decades, since its founding in 1970, a wide swath of America tuned in to NPR for reliable journalism and gorgeous audio pieces with birds singing in the Amazon. Millions came to us for conversations that exposed us to voices around the country and the world radically different from our own—engaging precisely because they were unguarded and unpredictable. "No image generated more pride within NPR than the farmer listening to Morning Edition from his or her tractor at sunrise. 

"Back in 2011, although NPR’s audience tilted a bit to the left, it still bore a resemblance to America at large. Twenty-six percent of listeners described themselves as conservative, 23 percent as middle of the road, and 37 percent as liberal." . . .