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We’ve seen some of the nation’s largest liberal newspapers boil over in internal turmoil over race, so it’s only natural it would happen at National Public Radio. Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner cited a manifesto for an “antiracist future” and the “transformation of public media” published at Current, a website for public broadcasting employees and insiders.
Organizer Celeste Headlee boasted on Twitter on Friday that she has over 450 signatories to this “vision” statement, which declares, “White supremacist culture and anti-blackness shape the policies, norms, and standards of public radio.”
It added, “They determine whose opinions are valued, whose voices are heard, whose stories are told and taken seriously, who is promoted, and whose resume never gets a second glance. Historically, black on-air talent are told their dialect and speaking voices do not fit the public radio prototype. There is a strong bias against journalists who have a distinct ethnic or regional tone in their vocal delivery.”
NPR’s All Things Considered had black co-anchor Michelle Morris and then black co-anchor Audie Cornish. Weekend All Things Considered stars black anchor Michel Martin. NPR added a “Code Switch” project in 2013 to pacify the desire to talk endlessly about race, and that included a promotional interview in August with the author of the book In Defense of Looting. But go ahead, suggest NPR is hopelessly “white supremacist.”
“It’s time for a new kind of journalism: anti-racist journalism. We hope to tear down public radio in order to build it back up,” it said. The media coverage should “center the most marginalized” and serve those who “have been traditionally underserved by corporate media.”
As usual, the Left never considers the idea that public radio is funded by the public, and half of that public is Republican. They expect that taxpayers will pay for their “revolution.” One can expect that NPR will respond by trying to meet these demands, because leftist media listens to leftist demands, and ignores conservative complaints.
Naturally, the notion of “objectivity” must be struck down. Bedard noted:
“It’s time for a new kind of journalism: anti-racist journalism. We hope to tear down public radio in order to build it back up,” it said….
“Public radio newsrooms must transform their coverage by insisting on diverse newsrooms, ending the pursuit of objectivity, rigorously pursuing racial diversity in sourcing and audiences, and developing ethics codes that embrace anti-racism and harm reduction,” it said.
In fact, it said objectivity does not exist in journalism because it comes from the perspective of whites. “The pursuit of objectivity denies this reality and leads to the silencing of journalists whose subjective reality — being black, or trans, or working class, for example — leads to them being labeled as incapable of being objective,” said the call to action.
In a section titled “Accountability,” the statement demands public radio be an enormous coast-to-coast leftist lobbying group for dismantling racism:
Vision and Demand: We envision public media in the 21st century that does not abandon “racial reckoning” in the murky swamps of 2020, but takes racial reckoning to its most transformative outcomes: Organizations led by and accountable to Black and Indigenous people and people of color; organizations engaged in deep and ongoing work to dismantle racism and resist white supremacy; organizations that are part of a media movement for reparations and media justice.
Of course, the demand for reparations is included: “In addition to apologies to individuals and communities, public media leaders should offer specific, concrete forms of reparations and accountability to the people harmed. These reparations could include offers of financial compensation, support for mental health costs for individuals, or in some cases opportunities to return to positions they have left or lost.”
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