User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
Heresy Press's avatar

This article rally resonates with me. Until ca. 2020, I was a passionate NPR listener and frequent donor. But then, I noticed a shift--the programming became so one-sided, so woke, so fixated on left progressive ideological positions, I couldn't tolerate it any more. When they had a long segment on post-partum depression that referred to mothers throughout as "pregnant people" and when they shifted the discourse around homelessness to talk about "unhoused people," I sensed an Orwellian Newspeak conformism that turned me off. NPR is a lost cause when it comes to enlightening journalism.

Expand full comment
Caroline's avatar

I had almost the exact same experience, I was an avid listener, dropped off a bit and decided to listen to radiolab series on the body, this episode was about pregnancy, specifically the placenta.. They started the episode apologizing that some of the interviewed may have used “offensive & non-inclusive” language… for calling themselves mothers. Mothers is considered noninclusive and at worse offensive? I turned it off and have never listened to NPR since. It’s such a shame because they truly had awesome thought provoking podcasts, and I’m not sure they’ll ever come return to fair journalism, nor to anything that might make you question your own beliefs.

Expand full comment
Mark H.'s avatar

Same here. I agree with everything Uri wrote, including the specific examples of stories where NPR fell short. I also identified with Bari's father's reaction as described on the podcast. Like him, I used to roll my eyes at the bias, which was amusing, but could be filtered. Like him, I think it became rampant and intolerable. I used to contribute regularly. It's unlikely they will ever restore my confidence enough for me to resume. Belated thanks to him for stepping forward. I'm sorry that it's resulted in losing his job. The "pushback" on the article from NPR staffers was feeble and unpersuasive.

Expand full comment
Savi_heretic33's avatar

Exactly. If I hear "pregnant people" I'm out.

Expand full comment
Edoardo's avatar

You’ve got to be kidding ?

Israel/Gaza (Hamas) war was looked at through the lens of intersectionality?

Wrong. it was looked at through the lens of Zionism, both Jewish Zionist and Christian Zionist that includes our president genocide Joe Biden. Since before 1948 Palestinians have suffered many October 7s

The occupied western media, including NPR made nary a mention of this fact.

people were led to believe that the Palestinians were the aggressors when in actuality the Palestinians were fighting for their freedom, which has been denied them since the time of the Jewish holocaust.

It took leveling of most of Gaza and the murder of over 33,000 Palestinians lets not forget , of course the 6 non Arab humanitarian workers before anybody took notice of the brutality of the Israeli regime.

The lies that were coming out of Israel and amplified and disseminated by western media was nothing short of another branch of Israeli Hasbara

The crocodile tears and empty “angry words“ by various western world leaders was given prominence ( whilst at the same breath time were sending billions of dollars and billions of dollars worth of ordnance and armaments)while the suffering of Palestinians went by and large unnoticed compared to the the rhythmic cadence of what happened on October 7 to the innocent Israelis that beat into our brains along with the fallacious and subsequently debunked lies about burned babies and systematic rape.

One would never know that Palestine and the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza are occupied by the racist, apartheid nation of Israel . One was brainwashed to think that the whole Palestine/Israel problems started in October 7.

Shame on you Uri and shame on Bari Weiss and shame on all those that have never condemned Israel for all the atrocities they’ve committed since before 1948.

Infuriatingly you and Bari expected and demanded -that people who have been imprisoned , tortured ,tormented had their land stolen and continue to have it stolen while daily pogroms are committed against them -to condemn an action of freeing themselves from the yoke of oppression.

PUHLEEZ!

Expand full comment
Jack Hagel's avatar

I have no problem with the influx of Newspeak, when it distinguishes accuracy over ambiguity, and enhances style and tone. It can be confusing for plain talkers, or much of the older generations, and conformity should never be coerced. Grammar and language evolve (or devolve) and change from the ground up.

Expand full comment
Sharon Daly's avatar

The new term is “people experiencing homelessness,” meant as an identifier of being au courant, not as added information about people or their housing problems. The first times I heard “pregnant people” & “assigned sex at birth” I knew NPR had embraced Orwellian perspectives.

Expand full comment
Nancy Robertson's avatar

NPR encapsulates everything that's wrong with America.

Expand full comment
Spartacus's avatar

And, here it is. Uri's spanking. "he did not secure approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required"

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4596809-npr-editor-who-alleged-bias-suspended/

Expand full comment
Rosann Simeroth's avatar

I'm not a fan of NPR, but, for the sake of argument, name one conservative intellectual--someone who actually reads and analyzes policy and can discuss it as objectively as possible--that NPR could put on in the "both sides" quest.

Expand full comment
Philip Inwood's avatar

My experience too... exactly captured! I keep having to turn off the obviously one-sided, ideologically slanted, dogmatic nonsense. They never include any opposing viewpoints. I don't send them any $ these days. Thank you

Expand full comment
Sarah A C's avatar

Yes, exactly this. Your comment resonates with me.

Expand full comment
Kelly Green's avatar

You were only 4-5 years late to the party. I remember in 2018 that my local NPR was fundraising by calling the MSM biased... literally saying they were less biased than the liberal news media during their pledge drive. Which was true, but that was like they were 60% of the way there on a scale of one to MSNBC.

Expand full comment
Lee Morris's avatar

Bernard, you’re right of course. But NPR has only sunk to the same bubble universe as Fox, only a different bubble. Sad for both. Bias has consumed them.

Expand full comment
Princess Leia's avatar

Like many here, this article resonates deeply. I grew up middle class and a child of immigrants in the Midwest - I had no idea NPR even existed until after college; my boss at the time listened to it and I thought, what is this amazing radio station with these in-depth, international and hyperlocal stories?!? (At the time I was what was once liberal and is now considered conservative.) I was hooked - had it preset in my car, and on all day at my job, listened to Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Teri Gross/Fresh Air, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me (went to the live shows too). The local coverage was the most in-depth of all available sources. I became a monthly donor for many years until I sensed my beloved station veering to the left. After 2016, it became increasingly farcical and almost Onion-esque in its coverage. I couldn't stomach it anymore and had to stop supporting and listening to my local station and NPR. I sent a message explaining why and heard nothing back. This all confirms what I long suspected. It is now a joke.

Expand full comment
Dx's avatar

He’ll be doxxed, threatened, vandalized, then sent to HR for some manufactured BS micro aggressions very soon. The totalitarian bloodthirst of the left is the most predictable force in America.

Expand full comment