I’m not a TV person, so I get most of my non-internet-based news from a couple of good local NPR stations. And I have to say, I’ve been increasingly disappointed over the past few years.
Coverage of the GOP tax scam currently being foisted upon our country is a case in point. Time after time, day after day, I hear interviews on the NPR news programs with rightist politicians and activists, and little if any voices from the left.
It has gotten so bad that I had begun to doubt myself. Maybe I was imagining it? Maybe I react so negatively to right-wing voices that I miss the “balance” of progressive voices? After all, isn’t NPR all about “balance” and “objectivity”?
So I dived into the NPR archives for the past week and counted. And it turns out: Nope. I was right.
NPR’s political and economics coverage is biased.
Here’s the list I compiled of every tax bill-related interview that has aired on all NPR news programs between November 24 and this morning, December 3 (descriptions copied and pasted from the NPR web site):
Dec. 3, Weekend Sunday (morning news): “Lulu Garcia-Navarro asks Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler how he feels about the deficit”
Dec. 3, Weekend Sunday: “Lulu Garcia-Navarro asks Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., why his party stayed away from the legislation“
Dec. 1, Morning Edition (ME): “Steve Inskeep questions House Speaker Paul Ryan about the GOP tax plans“
Nov. 30, All Things Considered (ATC, evening news): “Robert Siegel speaks with Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, about the proposed Republican tax plans“
Nov. 29, ATC: “Robert Siegel speaks with Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill about the proposed Republican tax plans and how she would like to work on a bipartisan bill“
Nov. 29, ME: “Steve Inskeep talks with Chris Buskirk of the conservative website American Greatness about what Trump voters think of the GOP tax plan“
Nov. 29, ME, “Steve Inskeep talks to Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona about the GOP tax overhaul bill“
Nov. 28, ATC: “Robert Siegel talks with Joe Rosenberg, senior research associate at Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Institute, about pass-through businesses and how they might be affected by the tax plans presented by Senate and House Republicans“
Nov. 28, ME: “David Greene talks to GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, a member of the Senate finance and budget committees, about the tax overhaul“
Nov. 26, Weekend Saturday (morning news): “Scott Simon talks to Scott Greenberg, senior analyst at the right-learning Tax Foundation, about the GOP tax plans“
To sum up, over the past week NPR has interviewed:
- GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan
- GOP Sen. Charles Grassley
- GOP Sen. Jeff Flake
- GOP Sen. Pat Toomey
- DEM Sen. Jon Tester
- DEM Sen. Claire McCaskill
- Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler
- Chris Buskirk of the conservative website American Greatness (a pro-Trump blog)
- Joe Rosenberg, senior research associate at Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Institute
- Scott Greenberg, senior analyst at the right-learning Tax Foundation
That’s four very conservative Republican politicians, two centrist Democratic politicians (both from “red” states, which is no doubt the only reason NPR chose them), two hard-right political activists, one hard-right “tax analyst” who is in reality more of a political activist than an analyst, and one centrist tax researcher.
Another way to look at it: that’s 9 men and 1 woman. It’s 10 white, middle-to-upper class people, and zero black, zero Latino, zero Asian, zero Native American, zero poor or working-class people.
I would complain to NPR, but they conveniently removed the comment system for their stories a couple of years ago.
Maybe if we all bombarded NPR reporters with twitter messages we’d get somewhere — I doubt it! But it might be worth a try, anyway. Here are links to some of the key twitter accounts:
If anyone has a better suggestion, please share it in the comments!