I am a professor at a major research university. You will be surprised to know that I am also a Liberal Democrat.
And here is another surprise: I listen to national public radio.
Everyone knows that NPR mainly fulfills liberals, such as our elite university. We usually do not call it loud. This is because we are afraid that we can confirm President Trump, who have repeatedly distorted what we do. But the only way to fight your lies is to be honest by itself.
Back in May, Trump signed aexecutive OrderInstructions to the corporation for public broadcast – whichCongress was formed in 1967 – NPR and public broadcasting service to stop funding. according to aWhite House Social Media PostWith this order, NPR and PBS “stretched the fundamentalist, promoted promoted as ‘news’.”
This is a publicity statement in itself. There is no evidence – no – that NPR spreads “radical” lies in its news coverage. But it has a generous bias.
In fact, it fulfills people like me. according to a2019 pue survey87 percent of people who name NPR as the main source of their news are Democrats. Only 12 percent are Republicans. It is not a slant – it is a chess.
And yes, the audience affects the news coverage of Capture NPR. One inBlockbuster pieceLast year, Business Editor Uri Berliner showed how the network’s political blinds influenced how the Trump campaign of Russia and 2016, the origin of Kovid -19 and the allegations of collusion between the Hunter Biden laptop controversy.
Berliner was placed on leave and resigned shortly after that.
NPR controlled the loss. Instead of accepting the problems of identity of the Berliner – and promising to correct them – their owners accused them of assisting and hating the enemy.
“Next time one of our people called a Republican Congressman … They can say well,” Oh, I read these stories, you guys are not fair, so I am not going to talk to you, “SaidNPR Managing Director Tony Cavin.
Unfortunately, Cavin was correct. A month after his executive order, Trump asked CongressTo withdraw $ 1.1 billionIt kept separate for public broadcasters for the next two years. The Senate will probably take a proposal next week, which will beFinish if it is not approved till 18 JulyBut this is likely to be passed, as Republicans have majority.
But if the NPR was cleared last year instead of circling the wagons, then things can now be different. It is not a radical promotional outlet, but it definitely does lean democratic. If we just accept this, perhaps we can buy more reliability among skepticists.
Ditto for our elite universities, who continue to pretend that they are politically neutral. But everyone knows that this is not true, either.
In Harvard, who has faced the most brutal attacks from the Trump administration, 77 percent of faculty members have been identified as “generous” or “very generous”2023 surveyOnly 2.5 percent called himself a conservative. In Yale, similarly,Liberal professors defeated conservatives from 28 to 1,
And if you feel that our way of teaching does not affect, then you are not listening yet. In a recent study of a college course collected by The Open Syllabus Project-which exceeds 27 million courses from all over the world-Clairemont McKenna College scholars showed that professors who assulge the left-sight texts are rarely important for those interpretations that are rarely important for those interpretations.
Between the world and meThe best-selling memoirs by African-American journalist Ta-Nehis Quotes have been assigned to more than 2,500 courses in the OSP database. But almost any of the courses do not require readings from John McWater, Thomas Countton Williams, or other major black writers who have raised the issue with claims of quotes about races, criminal justice and more.
It does not mean that there are universities“Marxist frenzy and dominance of lunatics,”As Trump has falsely accused. Enter more than half of undergraduates in my universityCareer in Finance or Management ConsultationIf we are trying to make them in Marxists, then we are doing a very bad job.
But we are promoting a version of political liberalism. If we want to remove Trump’s lies – and, especially hisVindictive cuts for our research grant – We need to tell the truth ourselves.
I know that some of my companions Democrats will pay attention to the idea of giving any concession in this fight. Accepting political imbalance in NPR and our universities, only our maga can feed enemies, or therefore argument.
But this leads to things backwards. The job of journalists and academics is to criticize the world, openly and honestly. And this involves criticizing our own institutions.
If we stop doing so, to save our skins, we will provide the final concession to Trump. He wants to prevent interrogation, debate and free exchange of ideas. It will be a tragedy that we did so, everyone under the guise of opposing it.
Jonathan ZimarmanTeaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He works on the advisory boardAlbert Lapage Center for History in Public Interest.
