The firing of National Public Radio's CEO Vivian Schiller is an interesting event, about which I will have more to say in my next posting. It feeds directly into the current debate as to whether any "news" outlet should be the recipient of public moneys and, more particularly, whether NPR should be "defunded". We in Canada have had similar discussions about the funding of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, although I do not believe there is any serious move or appetite in Canada for "defunding" to happen to the CBC.
As an observer of American cable news outlets, I have frequently commented on how polarized the American media is, reflecting the deep divisions that exist in the public itself. MSNBC plays out in left field, FOX in right, and CNN floats around the center. It was therefore interesting to me to note the recent "polling" which MSNBC and FOX are conducting on their respective web sites as to whether NPR should be defunded. If you look at the MSNBC poll, you will discover that at the time of this posting, 55% feel that NPR should be defunded, as opposed to 42% who feel it should not be. The same question asked on the FOX website produces a vote of 93% who are in favour of defunding while only about 5% support continued funding. Not only does this demonstrate the vastly different audiences which support these networks, but it more importantly shows that despite NPR's pronouncements that it is an objective and professional news outlet, it does not appear that way to the public. Liberals love NPR because they obviously think that NPR promotes their political views. Conservatives hate NPR because they perceive the opposite. Thus whatever NPR thinks it is doing, i.e. representing different viewpoints and the diversity of public opinion, it certainly is not coming across that way to the American public.
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I expect that some people don’t support NPR based on its perceived political leanings. However, without a case being made based on an analysis of NPR’s actual programming, I’m not sure whether such perceptions are a reflection on NPR or on the polarization of those viewers. Put another way, if America is polarized politically, then news that actually did trend to the political middle might be perceived by many on both the left and the right as being on the other side of the divide. In this regard, it is interesting to see that a majority of both MSNBC and FOX viewers don’t support subsidization of NPR.
ReplyDeleteThere may other reasons for the support or lack thereof for government subsidized media.
Most people in the U.S. don’t listen to NPR, nor do they watch its independently operated television counter-part, PBS. This is true for news programs, informational or educational programs and artistic or entertainment programs. As noted above, while there are substantial differences in the results of the polls you refer to, if they are any measure then a majority of people on both the so-called left and right in the U.S. don’t want to subsidize NPR with their taxes. I suspect that a poll on subsidizing PBS might yield a similar result. It may be that these majorities, regardless of political stripe, simply don’t want to subsidize media because they don’t patronize it. Conversely, it may be that many of the supporters, even if they don’t or rarely listen to NPR (or watch PBS) still see a valid public purpose in tax-payer support of programs (whether news, entertainment or educational/informational) that present alternatives to programming governed by the pursuit of advertising dollars. As for the big difference between the Fox and MSNBC majorities, it may be that liberal viewers value alternative programming more than conservatives – not because of a political leaning in the programming itself, but because they are more willing to be taxed for a public good that might not otherwise exist.
The poll results might be close to those obtained if NPR programming was completely innocent of any left or right leanings.
As a not infrequent listener to NPR when I am in the USA, I certainly see a left leaning tilt on many political stories. While conservative views are given some air time, the views tend to be heavily slanted to the liberal side. The abrupt firing of Juan Williams certainly had to be in some part due to his association with FOX. Williams himself clearly identified a strong bias in NPR, and as an insider, and in my view a very smart and fair one, I give his statements high credibility. The Ron Schiller incident leaves no doubt where a very high ranked executive stands. Is he alone? I strongly doubt it. As my latest post states this is fine, as long as NPR does not expect public funding from a diverse America.
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