Friday, May 08, 2020

NPR late to Tara’s story

What coverage of Joe Biden's past reveals about America's media ...
Once in a while, you read something very interesting.   This is from Kelly McBride, NPR Public Editor, and her post on why it took the network so long to get around to the Biden story:
NPR’s silence on the story feeds at least three critical narratives, or perhaps suspicions: 
1) NPR preferred Biden over Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination (the story broke before Sanders had dropped out, but barely); 
2) NPR is reluctant to tell stories that may help President Donald J. Trump’s re-election effort; 
3) NPR is hypocritical, covering claims of sexual assault leveled against Republicans, but burying similar accusations against Democrats.
This story, no matter how it came out, wouldn’t likely change the minds of those who subscribe to those theories. 
But it’s particularly futile, when the NPR story came in so late in the process.   
Of course, she is right about the delay in reporting the story.   Also, we do have a pandemic causing major health and economic problems.
McBride did not touch on the key issue.  In other words, would NPR have been this late if a woman had been accusing President Trump of sexual misconduct?  Or just name any other Republican.
NPR’s problem here, and much of the media, is that they had no trouble jumping on the anti-Kavanaugh horse and reporting every accusation as fact.
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