Love Ya, NPR, But You're Wrong - Jeff Jarvis/HuffPo

[WillyT]

Love Ya, NPR, But You're Wrong
Jeff Jarvis - Author, 'What Would Google Do?', blogger at Buzzmachine.com, teaches at CUNY's J-school
Posted: October 14, 2010 01:03 PM

<snip>

NPR has told its staff they may not attend the Stewart/Colbert rallies in Washington at the end of the month. I think they're terribly wrong here, following the journalistic worldview Jay Rosen calls the view-from-nowhere to its extreme and forbidding employees to be curious.

Or as I tweeted: So I guess NPR reporters aren't allowed to be *citizen* journalists.

Oh, I understand the argument: NPR reporters are supposed to be objective and express no political opinion and do nothing political. I went to J-school, too. And we could argue the point as if in a freshman seminar. I say this is merely a lie of omission, telling reporters to *conceal* their viewpoints and making listeners guess where they're coming from (the audience knows that can't be nowhere). Objectivity is just a secret.

Of course, it's amusing that NPR had to backpedal and explain why a similar memo didn't go out about Glenn Beck's rally. That, the network explained, is because Beck's was overtly political. Oh, come on, we're not that dumb. It's because NPR people are not Beck people. NPR people are Stewart people. They have a sense of humor. Oh, and they're liberal. No guessing needed.

And that's OK. It's time for reporters to be open and honest.

But my real problem here is, again, that NPR is forbidding its employees to be curious. There's a big event going on in Washington. It could -- just could -- be the beginning of a movement mobilizing the middle. But NPR people are not allowed to even witness it, to go and try to figure it out, to understand what's being said and why people are there. No, they can do that only if they are *assigned* to do that. Otherwise, it might seem as if by merely showing up they might have a forbidden opinion.

Gasp.

In its effort to be hyperjournalistic NPR is being unjournalistic. Journalists, properly empowered, are curious. They want to know things. NPR is telling them not to ask questions.

And there's something more...

<snip>

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-jarvis/love-ya-npr-but-youre-wro_b_762877.html

:shrug:

[baldguy]

1. "....a similar memo didn't go out about Glenn Beck's rally."

"...because NPR people are not Beck people." But the brass apparently is.

[Count Olaf]

2. this is a self created/perpetuated story to get NPR attention- bad or good it got lots of attention

perhaps got them more republican donors.


EVERYONE who listens to NPR KNOWS there is NOT ONE 'reporter' that would bother to attend. They don't give a rat's ass about Democracy or protests, they are all corporate shills. What a joke!

[Coventina]

3. I recently read an article by a former NPR reporter who said that

while she worked for them she was not allowed to donate to ANY form of charity because that would indicate "bias".

She indicated that being laid off was almost liberating, because now she could openly support animal rights (among other things, but it was an animal rights magazine).

on edit: fixed typo

[TreasonousBastard]

4. If you went to J-school, you know that reporters are never to...

give money to a campaign, attend political reallies as attendees, or otherwise show partisanship.

The NPR memo was to warn the staff off of attending and SUPPORTING the rally.

(At least they assumed the staff would never support a Beck rally.)

[bullwinkle428]

5. Yes, I'd much rather hear their 48th variation on the same

Tea Party meme they've been running over and over. You know the one - that the TP is a totally organic and grass-root organization!

For those who think I'm kidding, here's variation #47, which ran this morning!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130535771&ps=cprs